Despair and Resignation Are Not a Strategy: How To Fight Back in a Second Trump Term

Even more so than the first, the second resistance will be one of the people, not just lawyers. We will activate our 6.5 million supporters and our 54 affiliates in every state and territory. In partnership with grassroots organizations, labor unions, religious congregations and community leaders, we will exercise our First Amendment rights to mobilize the people in the streets, lobby in their statehouses and advocate for local leaders to resist. General strikes, economic boycotts and worker walkouts will be critical tools to demonstrate that Americans will not sit idly by while a constitutional crisis is perpetrated.

Fighting Back in Congress, in State Legislatures and on the Ballot

In a second Trump administration, the public must force Congress to serve as a co-equal branch of government, not the lap dog of the executive branch. We have to hold Congress accountable to do its job -- keeping the pressure on through calls, lobbying and grassroots visits, reminding them they work for us.

But fixing a broken Congress can't just come from the Democratic Party. With the future of our democracy at stake, we need a bipartisan commitment to govern. We've seen glimmers of it. If a group of bipartisan Senators can find common ground to reform the antiquated Electoral Count Act -- which would now prevent Donald Trump, or any president, from pressuring their vice president to refuse certifying election results -- surely, they can agree to update the two centuries old Insurrection Act and ensure it's not abused by President Trump to shut down legitimate forms of dissent and debate.

As we ramp up the pressure on our representatives, the ballot box is where the people will get the final say. The Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade -- all thanks to a new Trump majority on the bench -- illustrated the extent to which states are our last line of defense to bring forth the will of the people on issues such as abortion. And wherever reproductive freedom has been on the ballot since, we've won. Since Dobbs, we spent more than $23 million in key elections to protect abortion rights. This year, that playing field has significantly expanded: There are abortion ballot measures under consideration in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Maryland, New York, Montana, Nebraska and Nevada.

Admittedly, ballot initiatives won't be enough if Trump enacts a nationwide ban that restricts abortion services everywhere. But direct democracy efforts, through state constitutional amendments and local elections, will send strong signals that a power grab by the federal government will not be tolerated, and they will help make a case on states' rights and federalism that might convince even conservative judges to limit these power grabs.

Trump and his allies have spent the last four years plotting his return and revenge. They will be more organized, deliberate and aggressive. But if Trump does return to the Oval Office, the first "resistance" will look tame by comparison. Trump's anti-liberty and fundamentally anti-American policies will assuredly be met with the full firepower of the ACLU, the might of our allies and the commitment of the American people.

Anthony D. Romero is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the nation's premier defender of civil liberties. For more than 100 years, the ACLU has worked in courts, legislatures and communities to protect the constitutional rights of all people. With a nationwide network of offices and millions of members and supporters, the ACLU takes on the toughest civil liberties fights in pursuit of liberty and justice for all. To find out more about the ACLU and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.