This is a good response for taking care of things on the personal level, but there are a lot of other levels to helping out. White straight cis people are the majority, if you get more politically active on the whole, your numbers can help push things, and that action starts with each individual. A lot of people support people individually or sign e-petitions and call it a day, but the former only does so much and the latter usually often does nothing. Even when e-petitions are given to the party the petition is meant for, they often ignore them and throw them in the trash. Only a few e-petitions translate to action.
Here are a few things that work better.
Write letters to your congresspeople. Those actually have staff reading them and the people of congress take them a little more seriously. Not because they actually care about these issues per se, but they assume if you’ve taken time to write an actual letter that you care enough about an issue that they might lose your vote if they take the wrong actions. An individual letter might not influence them to act but the more letters they get, the more they fear losing votes. These letters can influence the actions of the Congresspeople that actually care about their constituents, and for those that don’t, they sometimes follow popular opinion of their constituents to keep their office.
This seems like a no-brainer but part of the issue is people only vote in presidential elections. Remember to vote during primaries to pick candidates, elections of congress-people (which happen more often than the presidency), and even in local elections that might directly affect people where you live. Even with Trump being elected, his supporters may be more complacent (and his detractors may feel more pissed) in two years when the next Congressional elections happen. Trump’s more dangerous agendas will be significantly hampered if he’s working against a democratic majority in Congress. We have the power to possibly affect the legislative branch every two years, so people need to remember to take it by voting every time they can.
Become Politically Active
You can also take part in political parties to support certain candidates (sometimes you can help them get elected by volunteering). Nominating the right candidate can mean the difference between success and defeat, and between certain issues being helped or being hurt or ignored. No one can really say for sure that things would’ve been different if Bernie Sanders had been nominated but he definitely inspired a lot more hope and galvanized more young people to action. A lot of moderates (and even some Republicans) respected him for his consistency and principles and disliked Trump, enough that some might have voted for Bernie as the scandals about Trump had come to light.
A lot of people didn’t vote at all in this election or voted third-party because they disliked both candidates, something that might have been different with the right Democratic nominee. Personally speaking, I know at least ten people that voted third-party or didn’t vote that said they would’ve voted for Bernie. Helping good candidates by helping their campaigns can lead to a better shot at ousting Trump in four years.
Help The Charities That Do Work On the Ground
If you’re worried about immigration, donate to organizations that offer pro bono legal services to people trying to obtain US citizenship or keep their VISAs. This can help people the country is trying to deport. There are tons of orgs out there! You can just google for them and research a bit to see if one is good at what they’re doing. If one near you takes volunteers of some kind and you have the skill set to help, volunteer. If you don’t have much money, donating even a tiny bit here or there counts. These organizations are usually underfunded and barely keeping above water, so even something as small as 10 dollars every so often can make a difference.
If you’re worried about how Trump’s policies will hurt the poor, or hurt people based on race, sexuality, gender orientation, etc., there are similar pro bono legal and/or charity organizations that help people with the same issues. Again, you can donate when you can, or if they have positions you can volunteer in, you can volunteer.
Protest Or Support Protesters
If protests are arranged against some of the policies that hurt people, attend, don’t speak over the people protesting if it’s not your place, and make sure you comport yourselves with appropriate behavior (ie if the whole group is trying to be nonviolent so the press can’t claim they’re violent, be nonviolent too). Come prepared with what you need to survive being pepper sprayed or tear gassed, and have a plan for escaping to safety if you need to. If you don’t think you can handle getting pepper sprayed or have health issues that could be fucked with (for instance, I have asthma so inhaling that shit could kill me) you can be one of the people that brings food, water, and supplies for the protesters (like milk, water, and dawn soap to counter and wash away the pepper spray).
Sometimes when these protests go down, churches and other local groups need money to provide these supplies to protesters so if you live too far away to protest or help physically, you can sometimes donate money to them that they can use to buy supplies. During many of the Black Lives Matter protests, local churches and organizations provided food, pepper spray first aid supplies, and water to protesters and took donations to help cover the costs.
Protests can make politicians fear they won’t be re-elected. Even if they don’t scare Trump and Pence, they sometimes scare congressmen who have to go for re-election more frequently and fear losing their supporters. The fear can translate into action on their part.
Being people’s friends and standing up for people is good on the personal level, but does next to nothing on the systemic level, and can only happen if the prejudice is done openly in front of you (which doesn’t always happen). If you really want to help, it will take actual action, money (if you can spare it), and/or your time. Which a lot of people don’t want to give, but if you really want to change things systemically instead of just on a personal basis, it’s the only way.
