Jain

This week I have...
--called my congressman and asked him to cosponsor the Presidential Accountability Act.
--called one of my senators and asked him to vote against Jeff Sessions's appointment to the position of Attorney General, on the grounds that Sessions can't be trusted to protect people's civil and political rights. (I tried to call my other senator, but he's not taking calls this week. So disappointed that we didn't manage to vote him out this year.)
--called the Department of Justice and asked them to investigate the human rights abuses by the Morton County Sheriff's Department against the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters.
--subscribed to Mother Jones and The Guardian.

Well, that was unspeakably devastating. Thank you to everyone who's posted their reactions and helpful links and general expressions of support in the aftermath of the election; I'm one of the many who really needed to see those. I've also seen an outpouring of donations from my DW/LJ friends to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and various local charities, which has been heartening. (I've donated to the National Resources Defense Council myself, because climate change was terrifying even before Trump was elected.)

In addition to those very worthy organizations, though, if you can spare the cash--and if you're a U.S. citizen or green card holder--please consider donating to Foster Campbell, the Democratic candidate for Louisiana senator who'll be advancing to that state's runoff election on December 10th.

The Republicans will maintain their Senate majority regardless of whether Campbell wins or loses; the only question is whether that majority will be 52-48 or 51-49. The latter is preferable to the former, even in the short term. But to truly understand the significance of this race, look at the map of Senate seats up for election in 2018. That's 33 contested Senate seats, only eight of them currently held by Republicans, and most of those Republican seats are in deep red states.

The chances of Democrats winning back the Senate during the midterm elections are painfully low. But conversely, the importance of preventing Republicans from becoming a supermajority in the Senate two years from now is very high. A Campbell victory would be step one towards preventing that outcome.

So donate to Campbell if you can, VOTE in the runoff election if you're a Louisianan, and just keep being the awesome people you are in general.