Telling Stories, Showing Up, and Taking Care of Each Other

After the passage of Trump’s Big Stinking Pile of Ugly Bill, our side has to do three big things

The big ugly bill the Republicans just passed was quite literally the worst piece of legislation ever passed: the biggest tax cut for billionaires ever, the biggest Medicaid cut ever, the biggest cut in food for hungry children ever, and so much more terrible stuff on top of all that.

It’s so bad that many of the Republicans voting for it said it was awful, while all the other Republicans immediately started lying about what was in it because God forbid they claim what they just did with pride.

So what does our side – that loose affiliation of progressive movement and Democratic Party people and the few random Republicans who make up the anti-Trump coalition – need to do now?

We have three big things that have to be done to survive the coming onslaught of shittiness for the next 16 months.

From the April 5th “Hands Off” rally, Wikicommons

Tell the story of how wretched this legislation is and will be

The most urgent and central political battle between now and Election Day 2026 will be over who better defines the Big Ugly Bill that just passed.

Right now this is a very unpopular bill, and the more you tell people about, the more unpopular it becomes.

But Republicans will just flat out lie their asses off about everything in it, because they understand very well how unpopular this bill will be if people actually understand what is in it. They will spin it as stopping a big tax hike, as making sure only people who work are eligible for benefits, as cutting waste and fraud in order to “save Medicaid”. They will vehemently lie over and over in claiming no cuts were made to Medicaid, even though this was by far the deepest Medicaid cut in history, and even though they hid the Medicaid cuts by waiting until after the election to have most of them kick in. And they will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to spread these lies, especially in the right wing social media disinformation sludge-scape.

Democrats and progressives all too often get done with an issue fight and immediately move on to the next issue fight that Trump is making hot in the media. If we make that mistake on this bill, it will be fatal. We have to be focused on defining this legislation as trillions of tax cuts for the rich and trillions in benefit cuts for everyone else act.

And we have to tell the story about this bill, not just recite facts. Voters need to understand the kinds of good people who are being fucked over by this legislation, and thet need to hear those stories, from credible people, over and over again.

We need to pay special attention to social media, which is where most people are living these days, and where most of the stories that get traction live and spread.

Whether Democrats win or lose the 2026 election is mainly going to be about one thing: did we succeed in the definitional fight over how this bill is seen by the voting public.

Show up in the streets

Obviously, Democrats and progressive folks are discouraged right now, but now is not the time to stay home and stew: I guarantee you that you will feel so much better if you get out in the streets and make some noise. Between Trump having won all those Supreme Court decisions and this bill, he is going to be feeling like nothing can stop him.

More than 5,000,000 showed up in the streets for No King’s Day demonstrations. People are going to have to keep coming out again and again for these kinds of national mobilizations. Turning out in big numbers will make the Republicans sweat and keep them looking over their shoulders.

The next big day of resistance is a day honoring the spirit of John Lewis. Please join us that day, and keep showing up every time there are these kinds of events in your community.

Build community and take care of each other

With all these benefits cuts hurting people, and with the ICE raids out of control and abducting people all over the country, a lot of people are going to be hurting badly. Progressive and Democratic Party activists need to be on the frontlines of helping those who are scared and hungry and hurting. By helping each other and taking care of each other, we build what Martin Luther King called the beloved community. People are desperate for that sense of community right now, of trusted relationships where people are showing they care about each other.

I love the writing of Christy Hardin Smith on this topic. This is where her writing lives in general, but this piece in particular hits home for me.

Christy is from West Virginia, and knows how tough Democratic politics is right now in that state. She is working to change things one act of kindness at a time.

The best strategy of all in this movement may be the simple act of being a decent person. If you show up for people when they are in need, you start to change people’s minds and get credibility on all kinds of topics.

Winning the most monumental fight of our lives

I suspect that few progressives fail to understand that we are in the most monumental fight of our lives. But we can keep hope alive by defining the terms of the debate, showing our course and solidarity in the streets, and taking care of each other in communities, both the ones we live in every day and the ones we build online and in our organizing and service delivery work.

There is always hope. Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass had no legal rights but abolition happened because they kept the faith and kept organizing. Same with the suffragettes and the Civil Right movement of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Showing up in the streets is great fun and fortifies us all for the fight ahead. Telling stories is what makes us human, but it also connects with people far more than spitting one fact after another. Human decency is its own reward, but it is also a hell of an organizing strategy.

Now is when we show ourselves, each other, and history what we are made of.