TRUMP LIES TO BE REPEATED, AND TWO OTHER ELECTION TRUTHS WE CAN’T IGNORE

This midterm election, now just 50 days away, isn’t a fire drill or a controlled burn.

It’s the actual crew hitting an uncontained blaze to see how bad the firestorm really is. The firestorm, of course, is authoritarianism—something new to a majority of Americans, but way too familiar to the nation’s minorities.

Every election after what experts call an “autocratic event,” a sudden leap toward dictatorship, isn’t about a single day. It’s about the future of free and fair elections. And we may never have another election that’s as free and fair as this one, and this one is already less free and fair than the last.

That’s why I believe it’s incumbent upon us to win as much power as possible, protect those wins, and insist that power be exercised in line with the Constitution. That’s an easy stance for someone generally sorted into the majority, a tall, white-appearing Jewish man. But privilege is leverage to spend, and nearly all of us have some.

So if you want to say no kings in America, not ever, no slimy sycophants who choose domination over deliberation, no corporate cronies aiming to monetize the destruction of the American experiment, there is so much we can do every day.

And here are three basic ways you can share with everyone you love to make sure we enter 2027 with as few regrets as possible.

Create proof.
Be as visible as you can possibly be before, on, and after October 17.

The movement that brought us the largest protests in American history is now working to win and protect our elections. And they have a very simple formula for how to make this election season ring with two simple words: NO KINGS.

This is a genius effort to create visibility, social proof, and momentum to make sure everyone who believes in a free America knows how to make their voice count. Join an event or create one. Let everyone in your community know that their early vote is crucial. And that will create the mad dash to make sure every vote is in by November 3 and counted.

We live in an information void that’s filled either by authoritarian machinery or by collective resistance and community action. People make decisions by what they think others are thinking. So create the world where rejecting Republicans is the only move left to make.

2. Remember the Golden Rule.
   Trump doesn’t lie to be believed. He lies to be repeated.

If you’re talking about what Donald Trump is talking about, you’re helping him. We’re well over a decade into this, and even the savviest among us, including myself, often forget this basic point. The problem with underestimating Trump—or thinking his brain is mush or any more mush than it has been for 15 years—is that there’s a reason he’s on the closer to being the man who single-handedly ends American freedom than anyone in US history: he’s a con man who uses “The Secret,” or “positive thinking” as taught by Norman Vincent Peale, to recreate reality. This leads to his enemies doing as much to spread his messages as his fans,

A perfect example is the debate over the bribe he offered during the GOP convention. I don’t even have to get into the details of this because it’s been all over everywhere since, with people on the left doing much of the work by debunking it or reminding people how often he lies about checks, which are probably the reason he stayed competitive in 2020 and was thought of somewhat fondly after the coup and the worst of COVID died down. Believe me, anyone reading that debunking doesn’t need it. BREAKING NEWS: DONALD TRUMP LIES! Wow. Who knew? And all that’s happening is that we are spreading the lie he’s betting this election on and triggering the feeling of getting a check for people who pay far less attention than we do.

Stop helping Trump lie. Talk about the truth. The corruption. The cruelty. The callous capitulation of everything good America once aimed to do. Talk about anything but what Trump is talking about.

As political scientist Brian Klaas reminds us, we control nothing, but we influence almost everything. There is a strange, quiet freedom in that reality. You aren’t personally responsible for steering the entire chaotic machinery of history and losing everything that America’s greatest founders, our civil rights activists, forged.

But with that freedom comes an unavoidable sting of responsibility.

Trump knows that words create reality, weaponizing repetition to bend reality while counting on his opposition to spread his garbage for him. It is past time we recognize our role in that loop and officially get out of the helping-Donald-Trump business.

3. Aim down.
   Your vote, money, and time matter most where the local power is won.

As Charles Gaba, whose Blue26.org is raising millions for Democratic candidates, notes: you get more bang for your buck investing in state legislative races than sinking resources into expensive, top-of-the-ticket national dollar sinks. Same with volunteering, door knocking, or phonebanking.

When you focus your time locally, every dollar and hour goes directly toward moving the needle where margins are scant and real power is contested. State legislatures are where we can still protect reproductive rights, safeguard voting access, and block autocratic overreach right in your own backyard. So dig into Blue26.org, the volunteer opportunities at Rogan’s List, or help fund community activism that will improve lives beyond November through the incredible Movement Voter Project, which is kicking off an 8-part plan to reform the entire Democratic Party that begins now.

It’s not all on you. Thank the universe. But there’s so much we can do, and we may never have a better chance to do it.