This might feel a little silly, but it’s essential to fighting fascism
9 minutes A couple weeks ago, I did something I’ve never done before: I attended a town hall meeting for the constituents of a U.S. representative. As it turned out, the rep was too chicken to show up and face his voters, but regardless, I did a new thing. 🎉
I bet you can relate.
Every week, I hear from Molly’s Army members who are also doing something they’ve never done before:
- Installing the 5 Calls app and making their first-ever phone calls to their reps
- Showing up for their first rally
- Joining a fascist-fighting book club
- Getting deputized so they can register new voters
After a friend and I worked together to troubleshoot a tech issue with a community group’s website (another new thing!), I said:
I feel like we should be earning Girl Scout-style badges for all this new stuff we’re having to learn 🏆
Because let’s be real.
This isn’t your day job. We’re fitting “fight the fascist power grab” in between all our regular daily responsibilities, like getting our paid work done, being a parent, going to school, making meals, keeping up with dishes and laundry, and on and on.
We were already tired and overwhelmed before any of this started.
It’s not like you were sitting around twiddling your thumbs and thought to yourself, “Golly gee whiz, I have so much extra time on my hands! Maybe I’ll embark on an epic quest against billionaire bullies, just for funsies.” 🤷♀️
This is hard.
And if I’m being totally honest, I don’t want to spend my podcast time learning about how democracies backslide into authoritarianism.
I don’t want to fill up my library hold queue with books about fascism.
And I really don’t want to hear Ted Cruz’s smarmy voice in my ear right before bedtime because that’s the only time my house is quiet enough to leave a voicemail. 🤢
You are not alone.
Just this week, I heard from:
- A single mom who’s short on time and energy.
- A grandparent who would rather be enjoying retirement and their grandkids.
- A business owner who’s trying to carve out time in the midst of all their other daily obligations.
And yet, we’re doing it anyway.
Even though it’s hard. Even though we’re tired. Even though we’d rather be binge watching Parks & Rec again.
Because we believe in a true democracy that works for all of us, and we’re willing to pitch in to make that happen. 🇺🇸
Think about this…
The next time you find yourself considering doing something you’ve never done before—whether that’s inviting a friend to join you at a rally or leaving a coup-fighting flyer on the car next to yours in the grocery store parking lot—think of the hundreds of Molly’s Army members who are in the same boat as you, doing something new.
Sometimes we might feel unsure of ourselves. We might feel anxious. Heck, we might even be a little grumpy about spending our time that way.
But we’re doing it anyway. 💪
And we need to celebrate that.
After you do something new or something hard (or something you don’t necessarily want to be doing), drop a comment below (or email me) so I can give you a shout-out in our next weekly update—or tell a friend what you did.
Full disclosure: It might feel a little silly to toot your own horn, especially if it seems like a teensy tiny step in the grand scheme.
Do it anyway.
Because we need joy in this fight, and celebrating is a big part of that.
Not only will celebrating your own tiny steps motivate you to keep going, but you’ll inspire others to keep fighting for our democracy, too. 💞
And every day you earn your Democracy Defender badge and wear it proudly, our power grows.
Get this in your inbox: When you join Molly’s Army here, every week, you’ll get simple, doable steps we can take to save our democracy even when we’re busy and overwhelmed by the firehose of bad news.
What’s inside
Inside our latest update, you’ll find these sections:
- Do this + feel better: 3 things you can do right now. Taking any action (even if it’s tiny!) will help dispel feelings of hopelessness and overwhelm.
- Keep growing: 3 ways you can keep learning and growing as a citizen—something to listen to, something to watch, and something to read.
- Get a shot of motivation: A quote that resonated this week.
- Hey, look! We did this: A quick run-down of what folks in our little group of rabble-rousers have been doing to help.
- Your turn: What small actions have you taken lately? Let me know so we can celebrate with you!
Do this + feel better
Here are 3 things you can do right now. As a bonus, taking any action (even if it’s tiny!) will help dispel feelings of hopelessness and overwhelm…
1. Make a truth sandwich
Disinformation is a threat to our democracy, and it’s one of the top moves in the fascists’ playbook. But unfortunately, research shows that responding to disinformation with facts doesn’t work. Womp, womp.
So what does work? A truth sandwich.
After just one truth sandwich, 14 percent of misinformation spreaders shifted their thinking. 💃🏼 Just one!
👉 Get the scoop on how to use the truth sandwich technique in your online and offline conversations so that you’re doing your part to fight dangerous disinformation:
- What: Truth Brigade with Indivisible
- Date: Wednesday, May 14
- Time: 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm Central (click to see in your time zone)
- RSVP: Go here
If you’re intrigued but want to learn more before you RSVP, the Truth Brigade hub is chock full of gold nuggets.
2. Stick a post-it
Scientists and historians who’ve studied democracies that backslide into authoritarianism say that to pull out of this nose-dive, we need more people in the fight. Because when you get large and diverse numbers of people participating in the resistance, you start to break down the pillars of support for authoritarianism. 💥
So here’s a fun way to pull more people into our ever-growing tent.
👉 Leave a post-it note for someone to find. Here’s how:
- Grab a stack of colorful post-it notes and a marker or pen that’ll show up well. (Sharpies work great!)
- Write a short, clear message, like this:
- Save NPR and PBS
- Everyone deserves due process
- Protect our National Parks
- Below that, write “Call your reps at 5calls.org” or “Call your reps at 202-224-3121.” Or if you’re more motivated to get folks plugged into a community group, you can write “Join me at xyz.com” where xyz is the org’s website.
- The next time you head somewhere, bring your post-it notes and leave one behind for someone to find. A few examples:
- The inside door of a public bathroom stall (or on the mirror)—at a library, grocery store, coffee shop, restaurant, doctor’s office, gym, or anywhere
- On the windshield of the car next to you in a parking lot
- Inside an elevator
- On a vending machine
- On a washer or dryer at a laundromat
This is a tiny, positive step you can take to reach a hand out to someone who may not be plugged in yet. People need social proof that our country is in trouble and that now is the time for all of us to speak up. ❤️
3. Protect voters
Georgia’s Secretary of State plans to purge 455,000 voters from the state’s voter rolls this summer. 😬
Before that happens, volunteers in Georgia need our help reaching out to the affected voters. We need to help folks update their registration so they can stay registered to vote in the next election.
This is important not only because we need to defend our freedom to vote but because in the current political climate, even a very small number of voters can swing the whole game.
👉 Sign up for this high-priority virtual phone bank to help protect these voters’ rights:
- What: Help GA Voters Update Their Voter Registration
- Date: Monday, May 12; Tuesday, May 13; or Thursday, May 15
- Time: 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm Central (click to see in your time zone)
- RSVP: Go here
If you haven’t phone banked before, this is a good way to dip your toes in the water because you’re not trying to convince folks to vote for anyone specific! You’re starting from a place of wanting to be helpful, and people tend to appreciate that. 💜
Keep growing
Learning about what’s happening and how we dig ourselves out of this hole is an ongoing process. Here are 3 ways you can keep learning and growing as a citizen who wants to protect this democracy:
- 🎧 Listen (58 minutes at 1x): In this podcast episode, news anchor and commentator Chris Hayes interviews Erica Chenoweth, the political scientist at Harvard who co-authored the study behind the 3.5 percent rule. They answer questions like what do protests actually accomplish, what exactly triggers mass mobilization of everyday folks, and why it’s so important we pull more people into this fight.
- 📺 Watch (1 hour 33 minutes): Join or Die on Netflix is a movie about America’s decades-long decline in community connections and how that phenomenon sparked current threats to our democracy. Watch this movie to explore the answers to three urgent questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And what can we do to fix it?
- 📖 Read (10 minutes): This essay in the New York Times (gift link) is worth your time. The authors are political scientists who study how democracies come to an end, and they share a powerful vision for successfully reversing our backslide into authoritarianism. Reading this, you’ll see why it’s absolutely essential that we continue demanding our civil institutions not only refuse to give into authoritarian demands but that they actively fight back—including universities and colleges, labor unions, nonprofits, private foundations, churches, law firms, and media.
Get a shot of motivation
A quote that resonated this week:
“When I try to understand what caused fascism, the reasons we were overtaken by it…, it seems to me that the rich, in their selfishness, feared a Bolshevik revolution. They let that fear control them. Yet all we need, now as then, is an active minority to stand up: that will be enough. We will be the yeast that makes the bread rise.”
— Writer, concentration camp survivor, and member of the French Resistance during World War II Stéphane Hessel, in his bestselling pamphlet Time for Outrage
And here’s a comment on last week’s update, Here’s what history tells us about how to defeat fascists:
I love this idea of not doing socials before making your calls to reps! I need to try that. Anybody else think they’re going to just “check one thing” and before you know it, you’ve spent 25 mins scrolling?
Maybe we should all make our potty time 💩 rep calling time instead of scrolling time 😂
— Dana, Molly’s Army member, reply to Dana here
Hey, look! We did this
Here’s a quick run-down of what folks in our group have been doing to help lately:
- Gena is working with a friend to create a training for everyday folks attending rallies and protests to help keep the events peaceful. She also forwarded Molly’s Army to a couple friends and became a sustaining member. 🙏
- Kay attended a people’s town hall for an MIA representative and felt so inspired that she shared videos with her friends, and now they all want to attend a town hall event, too. 🤩
- Lisa is organizing a rally at the Texas governor’s mansion and invited folks to her house for a brainstorming session for a different kind of protest vibe—positive, fun, and powerful. 🤸(If you’re in the Austin area and would like to participate in this event, hit “reply” to let me know, and I’ll put you in contact with Lisa!)
- Charlsa, Christy, Jamie, and Jill showed up for the May Day March in Austin last week, complete with marching bands. 🥁 Jill said: “Another peaceful protest in the books! Lots of traffic cheering and honking in support!”
- Andrew got plugged into the Resist Austin and Resist Trump groups, showing up for trainings on Zoom and joining their Discord server. And he says: “I’ve come out of a 4 week Nextdoor suspension and am back to more subtle subversion of the platform.” 💪
- Jessica joined Molly’s Army and shared this piece she wrote the morning after the election: I Lied To My Daughter. 💕
- Barbara applied and became the Democratic Precinct Chair for her precinct. 🏅
- Rebecca joined a group of women in Boulder who are gathering to make a difference together. 🙌
- Not only is Susan making daily calls with the 5 Calls app, she also attended the May Day March in Austin, thanked the president of her alma mater for signing onto the public letter protesting government attacks on higher education, and asked friends to check their alma maters and reach out as well. (Find instructions for contacting your alma mater under #1 here.) Plus, she spread the word about Molly’s Army to several friends (welcome to Harriet, Judy, Maria, Patricia, Ruth, and Sandy!) and became a sustaining member so we can reach more folks. ❤️🔥
Your turn
What small actions have you taken lately? Please drop a comment below (or email me) and let me know what you’ve been up to so we can celebrate with you. 🥳
