What to Do When the New Year Doesn’t Feel Happy

Cynthia Silva Parker

Senior Associate

This year, I’m having an especially hard time saying “Happy New Year” given all that has transpired in just the past three weeks. The list would take up an entire post of its own, but I’ll name the bombing in Nigeria, the military-interevention-called-law-enforcement-action to capture of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores and threats against Columbia and Mexico in a jingoistic revival of the Monroe Doctrine, threats to take Greenland, the murder of Renee Nicole Good and subsequent lies about it, and symbolic actions like renaming the Kennedy Center and the proposal to put the president’s face on US currency. Are you exhausted yet?! 

What I can say is that I hope 2025 closed on a good note for you personally and that you’re entering 2026 rested and resolved. I appreciate the affirmation from my favorite irreverent truth-teller, Vu Li, who started the year with this:  “You are awesome, and other reminders as you get to back to work this week and feel like crap.”

History teaches us that it takes as little as 18 months to consolidate an authoritarian regime. So, I’m returning from winter break with an increasing and appropriate sense of urgency to amplify the resistance and support the building of a just, equitable, sustainable, multiracial democracy. In a recent episode of the Assembly Required podcast, Stacey Abrams offers straightforward, though not easy, guidance about “How to Defeat Authoritarianism in 2026.”

1. “Recognize that we are already living under an authoritarian regime.” This is not just toxic, polarized politics as usual, and the solutions will have to go well beyond winning seats in Congress in 2026 or the White House in 2028. Among other things, there are institutions and norms to build and rebuild, and hearts and minds to shift and inspire. She reminds us that authoritarianism is not coming; it’s already here. The murder of Renee Nicole Good and the brazen lies about the situation by the president and his minions give more evidence to that fact, on top of all the other mess of the past two weeks alone. 

If you’re not convinced, just reflect on all the Trump regime has done to consolidate presidential power and use government institutions to enact retribution and silence dissent, dismantle institutions and norms, upend alliances, exit international institutions, vilify public and civil society efforts to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion, accelerate gerrymandering in an attempt to further consolidate power, strong-arm, threaten, and use military power against leaders around the world, and use symbolic actions to deepen a cult of personality. 

2. “Be louder.” “Articulate the harm that is being done.” Communicate effectively so that people believe that “democracy can deliver.” Be authentic and trustworthy. She reminds us that the authoritarians are intentional about repeating lies so often that they become accepted as truth. We’ve got to keep telling the truth, in clear and compelling ways, even if we don’t see an immediate response. And, she reminds us that more voters sat out the 2024 presidential election (almost 90 million) than voted for the winner (a little over 77 million). There are so many people who need to hear a compelling message about a vision of a better world and the power they have to help create it!  

Part of this is being loud about the wins. In a communications landscape that features bad news so prominently, we need to develop the discipline to tell the stories of progress. Here are just a few other reflections on recent progress.

• Ordinary people are coming out in larger and larger numbers to protect democracy and to bear witness to aggressive immigration enforcement actions and support their immigrant neighbors.
• Several foundation CEOs created United in Advance with the theme that what happens to one of us happens to all of us.
• More Black women are being elected to office at all levels of government, reminding us “that representation isn’t symbolic. It’s structural. It’s policy-shaping. It’s democracy-strengthening. And it requires all of us, from the halls of Congress to local organizing meetings to keep building together.” 
• “2025 Elections: Voters Came Out in Record Numbers to Defend Key Civil Liberties Issues Across the Country,” Emily Passini

3. Find your lane and get busy. “Remember, we don’t have to do everything. You know Everything, Everywhere, All at once. Fantastic name for a movie. Terrible mission statement, but we can all do Something Somewhere Soon.” I love that turn of phrase as an antidote to furious, exhausting effort. Increasingly, we are coming to understand that exhausting ourselves isn’t good for us or for our movements.   

I’m on many email and action alert lists and receive requests almost daily to take action on a wide range of issues. Sometimes it’s exhausting, but the good news is that there are a LOT of people doing a LOT of things to block and build. If you’re not sure where to put your precious time and energy, check out networks like MoveOn, 50501, No Kings, Healthcare Not Warfare, Democracy Docket, 18 Million Rising, Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund, Indivisible, Working Families Party, to name just a few. And, these readings could help with some specific action steps to get you started.

• “Blocking Authoritarianism: Steps Nonprofits and Foundations Must Take,” Saqiub Bhatti in NPQ. 
• “Toward a Third Reconstruction,” a series of articles co-produced by NPQ and Demos.
• From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, and “198 Methods of Nonviolent Action,” Gene Sharp. He points out how, across time and around the world, “[d]ictators are never as strong as they tell you they are. The people are never as weak as they think they are… Something screwy is happening. The people without guns are winning.”

And, no matter what lane you’re in, check out Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century for lessons that can help us move forward. You’ve probably heard some of the lessons – like “don’t obey in advance” – even if you haven’t seen this book.

I’d add a few final bits of encouragement from IISC. 

4. Collaborate and strengthen networks. In addition to finding your lane, find ways to connect with folks in other lanes. This could be connecting across issue areas, demographic or geographic communities, or action strategies. This is a moment to deepen and strengthen the collaborative ties that bind and build both the skills and infrastructure to move forward together, even when we don’t agree on everything. 

•  “‘A trickle to a tidal wave’: behind the Trump protest movement that launched on Reddit,” Rachel Leingang in The Guardian
• “How Today’s Nonprofits are Rewriting the Rules: Smart Collaboration, Strategic Partnerships, and Thoughtful Innovation are Helping Many Mission-driven Organizations Expand their Reach and Deepen their Impact,” multiple authors from The Monitor Institute by Deloitte, in The Atlantic.

5. Keep love at the center of it all. Love is the strongest force we have for positive social change. This love isn’t a sentimental feeling. It’s a deep commitment to building a society and institutions that embody shared values. Check out PolicyLink’s A Revolution of the Soul: To realize the unfulfilled promise of our democracy as one where we can all thrive, we must commit to developing an individual and collective soul that can love all. And remember the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., written from a Birmingham jail.  “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. ” Let’s commit and recommit to caring for our own spirits and for one another as if our lives depended on it, because they do. 

In the year to come, may we each do our part to effectively guide people to clearer understanding, deeper resolve, more strategic action, compelling visions of a just, equitable, and sustainable future, and meaningful relationships that sustain our individual collective souls. And may we remain open, grounded, and welcoming to fellow travelers, new and old.