Intro
Transcript:
The worst piece of political fiction --probably ever in U.S. history -- is something Donald Trump said years ago: that the 2020 election was stolen.
It wasn’t, of course. The U.S., thankfully, has free and fair elections based on multiple investigations, audits, and recounts. No one should doubt our election system, even if those who lost elections cry that the game must be rigged. (Parenthetically, I will return to this after the fall elections.)
The second worst piece of fiction is everyday Americans thinking their political involvement doesn’t make any difference. They sit on the sidelines as passive spectators or outraged shit posters.
A pall set in on the left for a long stretch of 2025, reflected by aimless members of Congress and stunned, disoriented rank-and-file Democrats. Paralysis set in.
“Trump wants you to feel powerless,” authoritarian expert Ann Applebaum said. “He depends on your passivity in the face of his takeover of American democracy.”
Self-government and liberty only work if people participate in it. Unlike social media, democracy isn’t an instant gratification sport.
And self-government only works if people see that it works-- sort of a civic ROI.
To hit the point home, here are nine examples, out of dozens, of public participation working. I'm going over board on the stories of success by design, so stay with me.
Look at large movements. Everyday people powered the historic public policy victories in the 1960s civil rights movement, the disability community’s fight for rights in the 1980s, marriage equality in the 2010s, and the fight for a $15 minimum wage in some states in the 2020s. Reproductive health supporters, following their stinging loss at the Supreme Court with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, came roaring back to win on the ballot… even in conservative states.
Look at corporate boycotts. In 2025, Black leaders waged a sustained and high-profile campaign against Target for scaling back its diversity initiatives. The company’s CEO Brian Cornell was forced to step down. Target’s stock price dropped about 30 percent in 2025. The national consumer boycott made a significant dent.
Also last year, the Trump administration and Disney reversed course over their flagrant censorship of Jimmy Kimmel’s First Amendment right to free speech. The reversal was in part of result of three million canceled streaming subscriptions, with former subscribers posting receipts on social media, along with a note of shame for Disney.
And then there's entire local communities that have said no way, not on our watch is this happening.
Minneapolis residents, for instance, won a significant fight against ice policies and brutal tactics in their city. Two innocent citizens were murdered and plenty of others experienced violence at the hands of immigration enforcement agents. The administration backed off its most extreme tactics under sustained public pressure.
On AI data centers, small towns and counties are fighting Big Tech and the local public officials going along with new construction. Hundreds of these data centers have been or are being built, which decrease property values and raise utility costs. But in some communities, the protests against the data centers is too widespread for local officials to ignore it. Projects have been put on hold or canceled.
All of these civic actors have not just made their voices heard but made them effective in changing public policy and/or public opinion. They were relentless.
Bottom line: Powerlessness is a myth. Each of us as individuals but more so together in groups has enormous civic agency.
We have to remember that power is a good thing. Despite evil depictions of it in movies like Hunger Games, acquiring and using power in the right way is healthy.
In his book You’re More Powerful Than You Think, Eric Liu compares power to fire, which is, he says, “inherently neither good nor evil, but deployable for both and thus a phenomenon to understand and master."
How will you use this flame, he asks.
A shared sense of morality certainly drives any of us to get involved in politics. But the actual practice of power isn’t about moral victories or how ideologically pure a politician or policy proposal is.
It’s about winning and losing. Did a candidate or a piece of legislation get the most votes, or not? Did public opinion shift?
Victory is an outcome, not a vibe, not a virtue signal.
If you don’t win or make tangible progress, none of your values or policies will see the light of day. You’re left with tons of opinions. And no power.
Power is active participation. Action items include voting, calling (not emailing) your Members of Congress; being your own strategic media machine; getting on a healthy information diet; volunteering on a campaign; and going to work in politics or in politics-adjacent professions.
While you’re doom scrolling at home or drinking a $150 bottle of wine at a Michelin-star restaurant complaining with friends, the other side is out-working you.
The absence of your participation--- due to exhaustion, disillusionment, perception of powerlessness, or thinking you're "too busy" --is a gift to those opposed to your interests.
If you ignore politics, you're allowing others to screw you and your family over. They participated and got what they wanted. You didn't.
So be active players on the political field. Stand up for your values, morals, and policy positions. No one else will.