REX pop-up Zoom call: What should we do?
Channel: Jerry Michalski
Date: 2018-07-06

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy's recent decision to retire has fanned the flames of concern about what the Trump Administration will break that might last a long time. Acts of Congress and Executive Orders are reversible within a decade, but Justices and their decisions last for generations. 

A little earlier, Trump's election sparked many forms of resistance, which catalyzed a very interesting question: what's the best way to respond? 

REXers Dave Witzel and Micah Sifry are particularly exercised about this moment. Dave draws some inspiration from this post by Peter Levine; Micah is more directly angry. 

I lean meta, so end up with these questions:
Resist? Protest? Block? Fix? Reach Out? 
How much do we need to understand what is happening in order to respond?
Is anger productive in this moment? Manifest in what ways? 
How has protesting changed? 
How has discourse changed? How is that affecting response strategies?
What is the role of media, formal and social, in all this?
Dave brought up more immediate concerns:
Given the few months before the November Midterm election, what should i do?
How can I maximize my impact? Where's the intersection of what matters with what i am capable of?
Should i move to Texas and work for Beto? 
Spend all my time on remote text apps?  
Canvass in Oakland? 
Is there something the group could do that is higher leverage?
Then he goes meta, too: "Is the November election the right focal point?" He can imagine a compelling and appealing prescription around "move to Costa Rica and invest in ocean sustainability."

We won't solve (or likely even touch) all these questions in one call, but let's see how far we do get together.