In trying times, such as those we live in now, it is important both to stay alert and engaged and to take care of ourselves by hanging onto hope. 
Despite all the challenges we are facing, there are definite signs of hope for those of us who are afraid for our very survival as a democratic republic. There are also things that we can – and must – do in the next few months to assure that survival.
Hopeful signs
Hopeful signs are in the air, some better known than others by the general public.
- On Saturday, March 28, over eight million people attended mainly peaceful No Kings rallies across the country. Demonstrations were held in almost every major city – and many other communities – to protest Trump’s policies and actions. We should take hope and comfort in this strong showing: we are not alone in our concern and angst.
- Trump keeps losing in courts. Skirting or breaking the law is part of the totalitarian playbook. It is likely that the Administration does not always care if their actions are ultimately overruled or struck down: among the main goals are to harass their perceived enemies, test the law’s boundaries, make their adversaries pay dearly to bring suits and, if they win their case, take one more step toward complete domination.
- Many former visible Trump supporters have recently expressed their consternation about a number of Trump’s moves. They are beginning to see what many of us have seen (and warned about) for years: Trump never truly cared about anyone but himself; Trump is a warmonger, not someone in any way worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize; the real reason behind his extreme immigration actions are not to eliminate crime but rather to suppress and demean people of color; and he and his cronies are probably involved in a cover-up around the Jeffrey Epstein files.
- Trump and Netanyahu’s attacks on Iran have drawn some level of bipartisan condemnation, even to the extent of calling for the invocation of the 25th Amendment (more on this below). Democrats and others in the Democracy Coalition have said from the first day that the war is illegal, and slowly several Republicans have joined that chorus.
Democrats have flipped 30 seats in special and off-year elections since late 2025, including 12 state legislative seats. The count for Republicans? Zero.- In some red states, voter turnout in Democratic primaries has broken records.
- State Attorneys General continue to sue the Trump Administration as soon as he makes a move that appears to be illegal or unconstitutional.
- Many members of the Democracy Coalition running for office are young. Even those who have lost their contests will remain engaged and have the commitment, energy and ideas to serve their communities in significant ways for decades to come. The 2025-27 Platform of the Young Democrats of America is very impressive.
- Across the ocean, in the European Union, a major election has taken place, with hopeful results. Longtime Hungarian autocrat, Viktor Orbán, has been defeated by Peter Magyar and the center-right Tisza Party. Orbán was supported by both Putin and Trump, while Magyar’s goals include restoring Hungary’s standing in Europe and with the United Nations and supporting Ukraine.
Work we still have to do
We all know that there is a very important election coming up. The actual date (when many of us will be staying up through the night to watch election results) is Tuesday, November 3. However, many of us will be able to vote in advance (unless Trump et al find ways to stop these methods – one of the major tasks on our collective “to do” list). 
Each of us must take the responsibility to know how and where to vote – then do it.
In previous posts, we have offered a number of ways that we citizens can take productive action. Here we will focus on what both citizens and especially our elected officials can do in the fairly likely event that Democrats take back the House (and might take back the Senate) in the midterm elections. We can, should and must start now to develop workable plans and strategies for righting the ship that Trump and his cronies have overturned. Several of the following suggestions should be as amenable to Republicans as they might be to those on the left.
First, let us consider the role of the Democratic National Committee. Its stated primary mission is to elect “Democrats everywhere – from the school board to the Oval Office.” It does this in a number of ways. However, the DNC platform from 2024 goes further than just elections: the 92-page document laid out the many ways in which the Biden-Harris Administration made progress in making life better for most Americans. How many average Americans – especially those who normally do not support Democrats – knew about this document, or even the progressive projects and initiatives it described? Unfortunately, the US could not continue the successes of the Biden-Harris Administration because of Trump’s victory.
In some ways, the DNC platform is a potential corrective to the right’s authoritarian blueprint, Project 2025. Project 2025, which took years to put into place, was created so that a right-leaning Administration could hit the ground running to implement its very dangerous initiatives. 
However, it took only a few months for the Trump Administration to carry out many of its egregious, unconstitutional, anti-democratic, cruel and illegal goals.
Presumably the DNC will update this platform and add the many tasks that lovers of democracy will now have to undertake to undo the setbacks that Trump et al have put in place. When this update happens, the DNC is well-advised to make sure that the highlights are broadcast – widely, through many media, in every possible community – to offset the lies and disinformation that will inevitably be promulgated by the right. And we must not forget that much of that disinformation is disseminated by adversaries in other countries as they deftly hack into our information streams.
Second, let us consider some possible initiatives that legislators can start working on now, if they are not already. Before Trump, we would not have ever imagined needing many of these, but we now know what it is like to watch the emergence of a dictator in our country…
- Explore ways to weaken (or eliminate) the Electoral College. All of our sister nations elect their Head of State by majority vote. If we did that in 2016, we would have had President Hillary Clinton, not Trump.
- Explore ways to tighten norms and turn them into enforceable rules and regulations. Trump has obliterated decades-old norms during both of his terms in office; note that many of his egregious actions (often illegal) have been on conservatives’ “wish list” for decades.
- Members of Congress are well aware that Trump, his lawyers, GOP elected officials, Cabinet members, and others have broken many laws. Our elected representatives should choose some of the most serious offenses and prosecute those who committed them.
- Find ways to empower law enforcement, the courts, the Secret Service and other officials to enforce the law when it is broken by the president or others in power. If we believe that no one is above the law, then officials must be allowed to arrest and imprison anyone who breaks the law if there is reasonable cause. Other countries do this; so can we.
- Develop methods of combatting rampant disinformation. The European Union has already taken steps that we could emulate.
- Propose legislation to compel the Speaker of the House to keep the House in session at least a certain number of weeks (except in rare emergencies). House members should be doing their jobs of legislating. Speaker Mike Johnson has kept Representatives out of DC for more weeks than ever before in US history – which is unconscionable.
- Propose legislation – like other advanced democracies have – to bar convicted felons from running for any federal office, and build in reasonable ways to enforce it. This would strengthen Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
- Firm up the 22nd Amendment to ensure that a president does not serve more than two terms “via the back door” (such as being on the ballot as Vice President). Trump has mused about serving a third term, so we know that keeping power in GOP hands forever is one of their major goals.
- Amend the 25th Amendment to include mental health and emergency considerations. There is currently an assumption in the Amendment that the president is acting lawfully and in accord with the Constitution; however, when it is determined that s/he is acting unlawfully and in a way that endangers human lives, property, whole populations, and/or the environment, there must be a way to remove that president quickly before more damage is done. (See above about enforcement.)
- P
ropose legislation to deal with the situation in which the president is convicted of a crime, is sentenced to prison, and also needs lifelong Secret Service protection. - Keep up the pressure on healthcare issues in various ways (and make sure the public knows the Democracy Coalition is doing this; Republicans have a tendency to take credit for progressive and popular measures that they did not vote for). It is disgraceful that the US is the only advanced nation in the world that does not guarantee adequate health care to all its citizens. As we have noted earlier, fixing health care would go a long way toward fixing many of our nation’s ills – and Democrats must continue to impress upon the American public that it is Republicans who are holding us back.
The Democracy Coalition – Democrats, liberals, progressives, left-leaning allies – has a great deal to offer our country. We must, then, build on the best ideas available to combat the dangerous trends with which we’ve been living under Trump. It is an unfortunate fact of life that people with evil intentions will never stop pushing their agendas; hopefully we have learned a very painful lesson over the past 10-15 years: democracy is always fragile and takes constant care and tending.
The fact that the Democracy Coalition is doing most of the care and tending is not always obvious. One thing we can learn from Trump: become adept spinmasters to broadcast what we are doing on behalf of the American people. Do not be shy! Brag, advertise, use social media robustly – do not hide our light under a bushel!