• Donate. Donate to Planned Parenthood. Donate to the Trevor Project. Donate to the ACLU. Set up monthly donations, if you can. Waves of donations are good, but if you forget about them except for every four years, they’re still not going to have enough money.
• Support newspapers. Subscribe to a reliable newspaper like the New York Times or the Washington Post, if you can. They need the money. Read BBC. Seriously, get some of your American news from BBC. Check the Guardian and Al Jazeera.
• Check your facts. Make sure you’re not reading fake news stories. Especially if you want to argue with people, make sure you know what you’re talking about. I know there’s this whole thing about, oh, you shouldn’t need to cite things, but few things will lose you arguments faster than citing false information you read on the internet somewhere. And beyond that, you’re better off knowing the truth.
• Watch Fox News. Don’t watch it to get your news. Watch it to see what the rhetoric is of the other side.
• Try to understand the other side. This isn’t saying to empathize them. This isn’t saying to rationalize or forgive what they’re saying. But if you want to be able to fight, you need to understand what you’re fighting against.
• Don’t dismiss different people as irrational. Most of these debates—other than, to some degree, economics—are moral. Morality isn’t about rationality. Racism isn’t irrational. It’s terrible, but there is a logic to it. It’s a logic we disagree with, but if you dismiss all of as irrational then you doom yourself to failure from the beginning.
• Check the Southern Poverty Law Center hate map. Know where the hate groups are. Know what the hate groups are. Be aware.
• Vote every year. Vote in midterm elections. Vote in down-ballot races. Don’t wait for presidential elections to vote.
• Follow which reporters Trump bans. Follow what restrictions he puts on the press. Don’t let him silently chip away at the First Amendment.
• Follow what his family is doing. Protest conflicts of interest.
• Follow politics in Europe. Watch for the rise in right-wing nationalism. Keep track of who he’s friendly with. Keep track of the rhetoric over there. Be aware.
• Don’t make Trump supporters into martyrs. Don’t start violence against individuals. This isn’t saying don’t fight fire with fire, but if you make them into martyrs then you validate them.