Don’t Just March. Run!

Since the ascension of a batty, obnoxious and brain-addled Fox “News” watcher to the Presidency of the United States, Americans have hit the streets to protest his dangerous, corrupt policies in record numbers. Take the Women’s March on January 21, 2017, which had a far bigger turnout in Washington, D.C., than Donald Trump’s inauguration the day before.

The protest movement in this country has experienced an awakening since Trump took office. The outraged masses have helped to curb some of the worst excesses of his administration, most notably by loudly discouraging the long-promised repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

With lawmakers, the courts and even the electoral system itself now seemingly undermining the promise of representative American democracy, and the so-called American Dream along with it, it’s easy to get discouraged. The system seems impossibly stacked against the will of We the People. It favors a plutocratic corporatocracy that has perverted our institutions and the rule of law to ensure that the rich get even richer and that the middle class and poor continue to get screwed.

Protesting the President—who promised to “drain the swamp” and remember the forgotten middle class, only to muddy our government with even more swamp dwellers, vultures and corporate bloodsuckers—is swell. Voting Trump and his facilitators out of office is better. But having a candidate who shares your concerns is the best of all. That person may well be you. In other words, don’t just march. Run!