Ever since Donald Trump took office on January 20, the news has been full of headlines chronicling our rapid decline into fascism. Watching the world change before our eyes, it feels like there is nothing we can do to prevent it, and the democrats have been little help. For the past three weeks, Chris Murphy has been screaming in my YouTube ads that we are in a “constitutional crisis”, and yet the only thing he offers for us to do is donate money. These calls for donations are not new and have done little to prevent us from arriving in the treacherous political climate we find ourselves in today and it’s hard to imagine what they’ll do now. In a time of increasing fear and isolation, we need more than just a donation page. We need a community.
The lack of politically motivating community structures is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. In his book “Bowling Alone,” sociologist Robert Putnam describes how the role of the party shifted from a community-oriented space to the detached conglomerates they are today.
Coming out of the war years, Americans had very strong interpersonal relations that sparked political and civic engagement. These were their religious organizations, their social clubs and unions. Your union wasn’t just an organization you became a member of paid dues to; it was your friends and the people you would get a drink with after work and complain about your boss. Churches were places where local communities got to know each other during Sunday mass or socials. Even parties like the democrats acted as community spaces. These served to form strong bonds between people, which political movements used to create a well-connected mobilized base.
Beginning in the mid 1960s, however, American civic engagement began a steep decline (which was partially disguised by the success of the civil rights movement repealing Jim Crow laws and making voting accessible to many more black people). Putnam ascribes several causes for this; increasing suburbanization, keeping people physically separated, increased workloads tiring people out and a changing technological landscape, which transformed what we choose to do with our free time. As people’s behaviors changed, so did the party’s. Slowly it transformed from a place where people gathered and built relationships to a well-oiled machine of ad campaigns and call centers that require little engagement but the dollar.
This is what we’re seeing today with modern campaign ads. Almost every ad will not include a place where you can get engaged, meet people or volunteer, but where you can put your money. During her campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris ran an ad that was exemplary of this ideal, saying “Today is the day I hope you will donate to support our movement.” The ad contains nothing other than the call to act, or more accurately, the call to donate.
What we’ve seen in this past election is that this doesn’t work. Former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump considerably, despite having collected far more than him in campaign donations. Without a supporting community of people, an ad campaign is going to do little to sway a person’s vote or get them to the polls.
At the same time as these campaigns are alienating and distancing voters, the right has maintained the community infrastructure that motivates and keeps people committed. The NRA doesn’t just fight firearm regulations, it offers women’s wilderness escapes and large country concerts. When they tell people how to vote, it’s not an estranged voice who’s only asked for their money, it’s the person who arranged the retreat where they met their best friend. The right has never lost the importance of interpersonal relationships, but the Democrats have, and if they do care to combat the Trump administration, they need to find it quickly.
In a way it starts with us, it starts with you. Communities are built by people, after all. If you’re struggling with feelings of helplessness and isolation there are things you can do. Consider switching off X (a site owned by an actual nazi), go outside and join one of the many community groups on campus that are doing wonderful organizing work. ECOHUSKY, for example, regularly does community events outside its environmental activism. Importantly, don’t compartmentalize the people you do activism with to the realm of politics. Let them become your friends and have your activism be your activity. Build your community.