The United States is a mess. In his first two months in office, President Trump and his associates have been busy about the work of disembowelling our democracy, dismantling key parts of the federal government, and handing over power to oligarchs like Elon Musk. Trump has been conducting what amounts to an undeclared war on the American people, pushing for a federal budget that will slash Medicaid and give tax breaks that primarily benefit the top 0.1%.
Wars in Palestine and Ukraine continue to rage without a clear end in sight, while pressing issues like like the regulation of AI and the combatting of climate change (we’ve already breached the 1.5°C warming threshold) sit festering in the background. All the while, most of our elected officials have proven themselves to be either useless or complicit – many Republicans are too scared of their constituents to show up at their own town halls.
Clearly something must be done. The question is who is going to do it. As history has shown, it takes a popular movement to resist tyranny – if 3.5% or more of a population is mobilized, they can topple a dictator. Power really does come from the people.
If you are looking for a list of ways to resist Trump, there are plenty of resources to be found online. The important thing is to start on the local level, to become involved in organizing and local politics because that is where we are most useful. One small step you can take is to help kick the ass of our opposition party – since the Democratic leadership are proving to be such stubborn mules, it will take a hurricane of voices to wake them from their slumber.
Every American in one of the 50 states has two senators, and one representative; all of whom have a publicly contactable phone number, public address for their DC office, and, for many, an email address too. You can find your senator and representatives here, and this is a map to find your representative — just click on your state, then the region in which you live.
Email
Include your ZIP and subject in the subject line; for example: “111111- Elon Musk and DOGE”. Interns or staff members that go through a representative's emails are explicitly told to ignore anything from non-constituents, so identification is necessary.
If you don’t have the time to write out an email, samples are provided at the end of this article, and sites like Resist.bot offer prewritten templates.
Phone
Phone calls are the most effective method for contacting representatives. Though staff members are still instructed to take only constituents’ messages into concern, phone calls are less easily dismissed, forcing direct communication between a caller and the representative’s office. Start your call with identifying information that classifies you as a constituent, and make sure to be confident and direct
Others
Mail, postcards, and social media are less effective on their own. Mail and postcards are easily cached or discarded, meaning they’re too easy to ignore. Social media is a bad way to reach a representative due to the low likelihood that your representative will see your post, but that's not what's important about social media. What is important is connecting and organiseing with others to make your voice bigger.
Town Halls
All representatives have town halls in which they take questions from members of the community. These often require RSVPs, and the information for these should be on your representative’s website. They are the best way to reach your representative in person.
Below, we’ve attached some examples of emails which you could send to a representative as a quicker option compared to handcrafting an email. Because these may be sent en masse, expect no response, but know that your representative is listening.
Examples
(Subject line) DOGE- Address
Dear (...), from (your name) of (Address)
I’m enraged by the inaction many Democratic representatives and senators have had regarding Trump and Musk’s actions hurting the American people. Elon and the DOGE team’s actions violate federal employment statutes, circumnavigate Congress various ways, and disrupt the system of checks and balances America has maintained for over two-hundred fifty years. By reframing the government as a business, Musk and DOGE are setting up the foundation for oligarchy and dismantling our democratic institutions.
Quite frankly, these actions sum up to being a coup. I urge you and your colleagues to take swift action against our new oligarchs, whether that be through legislation, investigations, The GOP is running circles around the left, and it’s Americans who are paying the price. Eliminate the Department of Government Efficiency, introduce efforts to punish Trump for his disregard for the Constitution, and bring back the services which Americans know, love, and need to survive.