Find Your People, Build Your Power: A Letter to Those Ready to Fight
The Far Right Built Power From the Ground Up — Now It’s Our Turn
Things feel dark.
Trump is back in office, wielding power like a weapon. Here at home, Tennessee’s supermajority just steamrolled another attack on public education. Across the country, the right isn’t just winning — they’re punishing. Democracy feels brittle, like it could snap at any moment.
This is what they want. They want exhaustion. They want despair. They want silence. Because if people believe nothing can change, they stop trying. And that’s how they win.
But history tells a different story.
Power always overreaches. And when it does, communities rise up.
That’s how every major victory in this country has happened — not because people waited for change, but because they organized for it. Because they found each other, got clear on their goals, and built something together.
It started with conversations. It started with real relationships. It started in rooms where people looked each other in the eye and said, We are going to do something about this.
That’s where the work is. That’s where hope is.
The Anderson County Democratic Party’s Events Committee
Get Off Social Media, Get Into Community
Doomscrolling is not organizing.
Raging in the comments section is not building power.
The right isn’t winning because they have better arguments. They’re winning because they understand that real power isn’t built online — it’s built in school boards, county commissions, and neighborhood meetings. It’s built through years of showing up, forming relationships, and taking control of the levers of local government while everyone else is distracted.
That’s where we have to go.
So log off. Find the people who care about the same things. Meet in person. Build real connections. Get to know your neighbors, your coworkers, the parents at your kid’s school, the people in your church or union or community center. Talk to them. Listen to them. Start from where they are, not where you wish they were.
Organizing isn’t about getting people to agree with you on every issue. It’s about finding where interests align and moving together toward power.
The Nashville protests in response to the expulsion of the Tennessee Three.
Pick an Issue, Get to Work
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
Pick a lane. Public education, labor rights, abortion access, voting rights — whatever keeps you up at night, start there.
Then go local. There is a school board meeting happening this month where decisions are being made about your district. There is a city council seat up for grabs in your town. There is a neighborhood organizing group that needs more hands. Show up. Listen. Learn the process.
Most of these seats are won by a few hundred votes. Some don’t even have a challenger. These aren’t glamorous races. They don’t get national attention. But they determine whether your town funds its public schools, whether your library bans books, whether your local police budget keeps growing while public services shrink.
This is how the right built their power. And it’s how we take ours back.
Deep Organizing is the Only Way Forward
There are no shortcuts.
Winning campaigns require a clear plan:
Define the goal. What specific change needs to happen? Fully fund public schools? Block book bans? Expand workers’ rights?
Identify the power holders. Who has the authority to make the decision? The school board? City council? Local business leaders?
Map out the leverage. What tools will force action? Protests, petitions, voter turnout, coalition pressure?
This is the work. Not hoping someone else steps up. Showing up. Listening. Bringing more people into the fight. Teaching each other how power actually works and how to use it.
The Harris/Walz rally in Knoxville.
The Work is the Hope
This moment is brutal, but it isn’t the end.
The far right is loud, but they are not the majority. The vast majority of people want fully funded schools, affordable housing, reproductive rights, healthcare, democracy. The fight isn’t about changing minds — it’s about activating the people who already agree.
Find them. Organize with them. Knock doors. Build relationships. Win.
That’s how this turns around.
That’s how a backbench gets built.
That’s how power gets taken back.
