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.
When this fascist power grab leaves you hopeless, here's how to find hope
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:: Only got 5 minutes? Even if all you do is #1 under "Do this + feel better" below, you should feel good about that. Anything extra deserves a celebration in the form of a cookie. 🍪 :: "Deeply disturbing." "Chilling." "[This] is sending us into a very dark and malignant time." These are just a few of the messages I received this week from folks in our group who are concerned about the abductions carried out by this regime of bullies and billionaires. Abductions like that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The Maryland father of three was disappeared to a brutal prison in El Salvador and remains there, even after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered his return to the U.S. And that's just one abduction, one family ripped apart. 💔 Stories like this have left many of us reeling. It's hard to focus on much of anything. It's hard to know what we can do to help. It's hard to have hope. I wish I knew the magic words of wisdom to help every one of us tap into our hidden stores of hope. But I've never lived through a fascist power grab. I haven't devoted my life to community organizing. Heck, I didn't even pay all that much attention in high school history class when we covered fascism. I'm just some rando self-employed mom of four kids who's struggling to fit "save democracy" into the nooks and crannies of my day. And—if you don't mind me being brutally honest here—I can't even manage to fit in a shower every day. 🫣 And that was before the pillars of our democracy started crumbling to the ground. 👉 So let's take a step back and start with what we do know. (We'll get back to the problem of hope in a minute, so stick with me.) Because you're a member of Molly's Army, here are three things I know about you:
We all have these three things in common. ✅ But nobody's gonna hand us that better future just because we can picture it in our minds. We have to take it. To get from point A (the hostile takeover of our government) to point B (a true democracy that works for all of us), we need power. And since you and I aren't in the Billionaires Club, we need to keep building our collective power. The good news? We're already building our collective power. 💪 When Rob wrote the scripts for voicemails he left for his reps so I could share them with fellow Molly's Army members, that gave a handful of folks the courage to make phone calls they'd been putting off and turned one voice into a chorus. When Austin and Gena invited several friends along to the April 5 Hands Off rally, they amplified our presence during a pivotal moment. When Sally signed up to register voters at a local high school, she grew our ranks for the future. We build power when we work together, one tiny action at a time. But in the last couple months, I've discovered that when we work together to grow our collective power, we get a bonus side effect. ✨ By taking action together from a sense of shared purpose of working towards a better future, we also build our mutual trust in one another. Now, I know who can help when I want to spread the word about an event. I know who's all in for brainstorming clever rally signs. I even know a go-to expert on how to order a cardboard cutout of a Congressperson for when they're too chicken to show up to their own town hall event. 🐓 And as it turns out, mutual trust is an essential pathway for finding hope during dark times. To be clear, that's not just some fortune-cookie fiddle-faddle. The research on how to cultivate hope has shown this to be the case in many different types of communities, from those dealing with substance abuse to young people growing up in poverty. If Yoda were fighting alongside us right now, he might put it this way: Tiny action is the path to democracy. Tiny action leads to community; community leads to trust; trust leads to hope. I sense much tiny action in you. You can see this in everyone who spoke out against drastic cuts to Social Security phone services—and got DOGE to abandon the plan. You can see it in the 20,000 people who showed up in ruby red Utah (!) to hear AOC and Bernie Sanders on the Fight Oligarchy Tour. You can see this in the folks who showed up at a county jail to demand the release of a U.S. citizen who was arrested in Florida as an "unauthorized alien"—and then was released hours later. 🙏 When we work together, we build our collective power—and hope. So in those dark moments when you're feeling hopeless, try this: Picture a packed lecture hall or a movie theater, every seat filled with someone who believes in that shared vision of a better future. That's everyone in Molly's Army. Every one of us can relate to what you're feeling. We know how hard it is to get through every day, let alone to stand up and fight back. ❤️ But one by one, we are standing up. Every time one of us takes any action, no matter how small, we're standing up and stepping into our power. At this point, more folks are standing than not. As a group, we can carry this fight until every one of us is standing. Those who haven't found their moment yet can trust us to keep going until they're ready to join in. But in the end, we will need every single one of us to stand up and help carry us forward. We need you. 🎯 I can't wave a magic wand and *poof* fill you with hope during these dark times. But I can tell you one thing that I know works because I've seen it again and again in the last few weeks: Choose connection. Take one small step to join in community with others who are saying, Nope, not on our watch. Ask a friend to buddy read a short book like On Tyranny with you. Add a local community event to your calendar and make a plan to show up. Forward this message to a friend. Because in our darkest moments when every news alert feels like another ton of bricks dropped on our shoulders, moving forward together will not only give us hope—it will propel us toward that better future we know is possible. What's insideInside our latest update, you'll find these sections:
Do this + feel betterHere 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. Join us in a day of action on SaturdayOn April 5, millions of us stood up against the hostile takeover of our government and said: Hands Off. Let's keep the momentum going and build our collective power by participating in the national day of action this Saturday, April 19. For this day of action, some communities are organizing rallies, others are hosting community picnics, and some will do banner drops on highway overpasses. 👉 Find out what's happening nearby, and make a plan to show up, even if it's just to honk in support as you drive by:
In Austin, we'll have a Hands Off picnic on the Texas State Capitol lawn, complete with live music, a sign-making station, and booths where you can hear about different community organizations that are engaged in this fight to protect our people and our freedoms. 🤩
Pack a picnic lunch and come join us! I'd love to see you. 🥰 My husband is an excellent baker and will be bringing cookies to share, so show up early if you want one before they run out. 🍪 2. Learn the Truth Bomb strategyYou've seen the disinformation on social media. The MAGA memes that get passed around, catching like wildfire. Disinformation is corrosive to our democracy, and we need to fight it. 👉 In this virtual event hosted by the group Civic Sundays, you'll learn about the strategy of Truth Bombs—a simple, non-confrontational social media weapon to add to our arsenal:
You'll discover what Truth Bombs are, who creates them, where and how to deploy them, who they're aimed at, and how they can help us fight disinformation. 💥 3. Help a federal worker in needOur federal workers power essential programs like Medicare and Social Security, run our national parks, inspect our food and medicine, and keep us safe from accidents and disasters. But this regime has violated the basic rights of hundreds of thousands of our federal workers—including tens of thousands who've been fired illegally. Because of this, federal workers have an urgent need for legal support. 💙 The good news: A coalition of lawyers and community organizations has come together to form the Federal Workers Legal Defense Network. The bad news: The vast majority of federal workers aren't yet aware that this resource exists. 👉 Can you help get the word out to the people who need to know? Here's how:
If you don't personally know a federal worker or lawyer, ask around with your friends until you find someone who does. Our federal workers deserve justice, and it's up to us to demand it. 🇺🇸 Keep growingLearning 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:
Get a shot of motivationA quote that resonated this week, emphasis mine: "The way we get through this is together. That means coalitions, means sticking together with what we have in common, which is opposition to this regime and its attack on human rights, on justice, on truth, on science, on education, on libraries and books, on national parks and nature and forests, on climate and human health, on research, on freedom of thought and expression.
It means finding common ground with people who share our commitment to restoring human rights, environmental protections, a functioning federal government, the rule of law. Some of those people may not agree with us on everything. We are going to need to value what we have in common when it comes to these important things and love or at least tolerate what makes us different. After all, we're fighting an attack on diversity.
If one of us stands up, they can pick that person off. If ten or a hundred or a thousand, they can pick those people off. And they're picking off people—immigrants, dissidents—to make an example of them. But if ten million people stand up, they cannot stop us all. And today we are millions. We stand up with each other, for each other, and for those who cannot stand up because they are in ICE detention or a nursing home losing its funding or gulags in Guantanamo and El Salvador; we stand up for the people who just lost their AIDS treatment in Africa and those who just lost their jobs in the federal government here; for the trans girl who just wants to play softball and the educators who just want to teach history. We speak up with them to tell the real history, the true history, as histories are being erased and corrupted...
Nobody knows where we go from here. Today is just one day. It's a glorious day, an amazing day. But we need every one of you to go home and figure out what you do next. Be part of something larger. Find your people, find your place, find your skills. Some of us can be loud out in the streets. Some of us will quietly walk children to school whose immigrant parents are afraid to leave the house. Some of us will write letters and call representatives. Some who can afford to will donate, and believe me, money talks. And protest works—thank you Tesla Takedown, whose global day of action against Elon Musk was only a week ago. We are tanking the value of a huge corporation, because people have the power."
— Author, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit, in Millions Stood Up: April 5 Hands Off Day of Action
Hey, look! We did thisHere's a quick run-down of what folks in our group have been doing to help lately:
Your turnWhat small actions have you taken lately? Please hit "reply" and let me know what you've been up to so we can celebrate with you. 🥳 Onward, Kelly p.s. If this message resonated with you, please consider becoming a sustaining member for $5 a month. You'll help cover the costs of our website and email list, plus you'll help us reach more people and spur them into taking meaningful action. 💞 |
Molly's Army
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.