My Plan—Please Join Me

In my last post, I wrote about my journey through grief about the election to an affirmation that I'd do something about it. Here, I'm going to begin to outline my plan. This isn't a finished product, but it's where I'm at now. I'd like to invite you on my journey in the hopes that you'll come along with me and begin to act. 

First, some caveats: 

• I do not work in politics or policy. I read a lot about this stuff and I try to be as informed as I can, but I am far from an expert. 
• I am not a politician. I have no interest beyond my own with my actions and I will be honest with my stance on issues and probably only talk about those. 
• I do not have a ton of time. I work long hours and I'm a full-time student. I am particularly inspired right now, but life may get in the way and updates may be infrequent. That said. I will do my best here. 
• This blog isn't the best forum for the final product. If time and inspiration permit, this may move to its own website. 

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, it's time to get down to business. 

What is this plan? 

My plan is to help people like me (young, urban progressive-minded) make a real political change in the wake of the last election. Why does this matter? Because there are millions of us, but we're all concentrated in safely democratic areas. If we really want to engender political change, we're going to have to move beyond our safe bubbles and start looking at the rest of the country. Me, and the people I know, are passionate, but probably only care about national elections and like to hear themselves talk on twitter, facebook, and insert-social-media-channel-of-your-choice. It's time to take a page from the republican playbook and start thinking local and start caring about every election. 

My plan is still evolving, but it's quite simple: I want to look America in the eyes and Take It Back. Conservative republicans own state houses, governors' mansions, congressional seats, and senate seats all across this country. This happened because we let it happen. We were lulled into a sense of security with Obama in office and the talking heads on TV laughing with us at the backward, silly republican conservatives. All the while, elections were happening and we let them win. Now, the things we care about are in jeopardy. My plan is a plan (not the best plan, not even a good plan necessarily) aimed at taking our country back and stopping the unfettered attack on rights that has been undertaken. 

Join me as I try to do what I can to Take It Back. 

Take it back how? 

As I said, my plan is still evolving. But I will be doing research, producing resources and posting them here. To most easily access these posts, look for the category "Take it back" and the tag "Tag it back."

Expect more updates, but here's what I plan to write about and produce resources for in the coming weeks. 

• A piece on why we should stop blaming Hillary Clinton 
• A resource to identify the causes you care about and a way to donate to keep the nonprofits addressing those issues while the fights begin (Yes, things like Planned Parenthood, the NAACP legal defense fund, the ACLU and the like)
• A resource to identify upcoming elections that will shape the future of this country and links to donate and/or volunteer for the progressive side
  • Senatorial races
  • Congressional races
  • Gubernatorial races
  • State legislature races
• Most importantly: resources for you to familiarize yourself with proposed national legislation and its potential impact (and once you're familiar with them, you can share them with your friends/families)
  • I'm going to take the privilege of an aside here. This is more than just legislation from congress, but Trumps actions. We have to keep him in check. We can't allow his racist, xenophobic promises to come to fruition. 
• A resource of email and mailing addresses for lawmakers who may be persuaded to be on your side of the issues you care about
• Letter templates to send to these lawmakers

The plan to Take It Back is actually pretty simple. Stop sitting idly by while conservatives take us back to the 1950's—minus the booming manufacturing economy. Donate money, donate time, talk about the issues to create awareness, let our lawmakers know what is important to us. Just be engaged. I, personally, want to be more engaged in politics and I want to make it easier for everyone else to do it too.