What Happens Now?

So Trump won. And the GOP took both the House and the Senate. What does that mean, realistically?

Are you a minority, a woman, queer, an immigrant, a drug user, a person with a criminal record, outspoken about your political beliefs, or a member of a religion other than some denomination of Christianity? You are in danger. Live in a blue state? Just passed a ballot initiative? Doesn’t matter.

Before I bum you out more, it is important to point out that being in danger does not mean you should freeze, hide, or give up. It is scary, but it is worth reminding you all that you have already been in danger from these same people for many years. Safety is a spectrum of risk tolerance, that is altered constantly by the choices you make. Some people manage that by not acknowledging the risks they face, but I find that if you are deliberate about your safety choices, you will feel more empowered, and less afraid.

So what are some of the viable threats on the table? (This is the part where I’m really going to bum you out)

1. National abortion ban.
   1. Yes, national. This could happen within the year by any combination of deciding to enforce the Comstock Act, banning mifepristone, and enshrining fetal personhood at the national level. Then your blue state abortion amendment is useless, doctors will continue being afraid to treat miscarriages, and people aiding and abetting abortion could be imprisoned.
2. National trans healthcare ban.
   1. Comstock applies here, too! But this is in many ways a scarier scenario, because it is paired with a much more aggressive mob mentality, and has spilled over into targeting schools, libraries, and parental custody under the facade of “protecting” (read: terrorizing) children and the people trying to protect them.
3. Mass deportation.
   1. Before deportation can happen, they’ll need to round people up and hold them. And the main strategy being floated is to just grab people based on name and vibes, which is guaranteed to be a wide enough net that it will also ensnare actual citizens.
   2. In addition to what should be a very obvious argument that we should never ever round up people and put them in camps, this will also have an added effect of collapsing entire industries that are very dependent on immigrant labor – like farming, causing a national food crisis.
4. Targeting of political dissidents
   1. This is always in play, but some especially terrifying things have been in the works to target people speaking out on behalf of Palestine – like The Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther – which currently has bipartisan support, and was recently floated to be pushed through during the lame duck session.
   2. Add to that the fact that two of Trump’s supporters - the richest man in the world owning one of the largest social media platforms, and another of the richest men who owns the largest shopping platform, a major newspaper, most of the web hosting and a large portion of the home recording devices, will likely turn any information they have over to the authorities.
   3. People’s need to be terminally online has utterly compromised their privacy and personal security, not to mention opened them up to extremely biased and siloed media intake.
5. Intentional collapse of the US economy
   1. They have come out and said this. They want to tank the economy in order to rebuild it on crypto, which will only benefit rich people, and deeply harm everybody else.

This list could go on to include so many other things. We could talk about the steady deconstruction of journalism outlets, the effects this will have on foreign wars, how healthcare, environmental, and labor protections are about to be thoroughly gutted. And all of these things are connected. But I think the five points above are what will affect individuals on the ground most immediately.

So what can we do?

1. Schedule regularly recurring local gatherings
   1. Meet with your friends, neighbors, allies in person. Make it happen regularly so people know they can drop in and out as needed. Building community locally and talking about what you are seeing is going to be key to literally everything else. Because if the power or phones or internet goes out, or there is a natural disaster, or another pandemic, or a mass casualty event, those are the people that will be your team.
2. Reduce your digital footprint
   1. Make social media accounts private
   2. EFF has a great guide on Surveillance Self Defense
   3. Clear out old/unknown/dubious contacts
   4. Delete old posts – particularly anything that could tell people your location, details about your family, anything that could be incriminating
      1. Tools like Redact can be helpful
   5. Know how to delete all of your social media accounts if necessary.
3. Renew (or establish) critical paperwork
   1. Passport
   2. Driver’s License
   3. Proof of residency
   4. Work visas
4. Source backup medication
   1. If your day to day wellbeing is dependent on medication, make sure you have identified alternate sources of obtaining that medication, whether in or outside the country.
5. Build your list of local allies
   1. Community Organizers
   2. Civil Rights Attorneys
   3. Journalists
   4. Librarians
   5. School & School Board employees
   6. Mutual Aid Hubs
   7. Wireless Mesh Networks
   8. De-Escalation and Security Support
   9. Medical professionals
      1. Midwives, Doulas, Abortion Care
      2. Gender Affirming Care
      3. Street Medic, Stop the Bleed, and/or Narcan trainings
6. Don't give up hope
   1. It's literally the most powerful thing we have. It brings and keeps us together, it prompts innovation. People have been and are currently in more dire situations than this, and they persevere. We can fucking do this.