Get Your Ducks in a Row Right Now
We all know the next few years promise to be really hard in these fifty United States and several outlying territories. Some of you are thinking about fleeing to Canada, or Portugal, or New Zealand, or perhaps some land of your ancestors. But some of us don't have the resources to flee, or have roots too deep in a particular location, or are determined to stay and fight for ourselves and others.
If you're staying, this post is for you. There are a lot of things you can do now to get yourself ready for what's to come. This is a list of things you can start doing right now to get yourself and your family ready for whatever the heck is going to come.
Many of these steps carry the caveat of "if you can afford it." I know a lot of people can't — but if you can and you're hesitating, please remember this is very much a "better safe than sorry" situation.
Reproductive rights will be under assault.
This means that abortion access will probably be curtailed, and access to birth control at all is under threat as well.
Invest in long-term birth control. If you've got a uterus and you don't want to have a baby in the immediate future, now is a great time to put an IUD in it. (Or… have someone else do it, FINE.) If you're pretty sure you'll never want a baby, now is a good time to get that vasectomy operation on the schedule or try to get your tubes tied. There are lists of childfree-friendly doctors if you'll need to find one.
Stockpile Plan B if you can afford it. Even if you're not at risk of unwanted pregnancy yourself, you might get the opportunity to save someone else's life. The shelf life for Plan B is, coincidentally, about 4 years.
Stockpile birth control pills if you use them (and maybe if you don't). Again, even if you don't need them, you can't be sure when someone in your community just might. We know from history that if these drugs do become illegal, there will be distribution networks to get them to people who need them.
If you use some sort of online or cloud-based menstruation tracker, look into what it says about keeping your data secure, and make sure you're comfortable with that, or stop using it entirely. Clue has vowed to keep your data safe, and Apple has a good history for data privacy as well. This link is a couple of years old and might not be up to date.
LGBTQ+ rights will be under assault.
This could take a lot of different forms; one of them is removing Federal protections for employment and housing. But the bigger concern is if same-sex marriage at the Federal level is rolled back. This would create a logistical nightmare in many, many ways for many, many people and organizations, but the people we're dealing with are not concerned with chaos and bureaucratic efficiency, so that won't stop them.
If you are in a same-sex marriage right now, it's time to consult with a lawyer to get some paperwork in order. In the old bad days, same-sex couples could replicate some (but not all) of the benefits of marriage with medical and financial Powers of Attorney. If you have children, biological or adopted, look into guardianship and/or adoption paperwork for all non-biological parents. Reach out to elder gays if you can, they've been through this before. (And this is a time for communities to come together for mutual support.)
If you are in a long-term serious same-sex relationship with the intent to get married, this is a good time to hop over to the courthouse and put a ring on it. You can always throw a party later. There's a possibility that the chips will fall in such a way that existing marriages are honored, but new ones won't be permitted.
Trans people are in for a very rough time. I've heard the suggestion that you can get hormone replacement therapy pills if you're a plausibly menopausal woman, with the intent of quietly diverting pills to trans women who may lose access to estrogen treatment. Consider reaching out to a local trans advocacy group to see what else you can do to help. Definitely reach out to trans people you know to let the know you're in their corner, and ask what would be most useful for you to do.
Citizenship status will be under assault.
This one doesn't need a lot of explanation. Get your papers in order — even if you think you don't need to. One of the ideas the Trump regime have been kicking around is eliminating birthright citizenship. (Which is explicitly against the Constitution, but institutions won't save us, more on that later.) Ending birthright citizenship would mean a whole lot of people who are citizens right now won't be anymore. It's happened before.
Renew your passport, even if it isn't expiring soon. (Or apply for one right away.) I'd suggest renewing if it expires in the next four years for sure. An adult passport is good for ten years. Good news: you can take a digital picture and renew online now!
Get valid stamped or notarized copies of your birth certificate and social security card, plus any other important supporting documents you may need: that includes marriage certificates, name change papers, green cards and naturalization papers, school diplomas and transcripts, everything you can come up to support the idea that this is your home. Keep copies in a safe and easily physical accessible place, and also make sure you have clear, legible photos of every single page (front and back) of every single document on your phone's camera roll.
The ACA will be under assault, and many of us may not have health insurance much longer.
If you're on an ACA plan and you're in a window where you can renew it for another year, do so immediately. If you're not on an ACA plan and don't have health insurance at all, look into getting a plan while you still can.
This is a good time to get your tetanus booster and any other vaccines you might need: covid shots, flu shots, shingles. I've seen recommendations to get vaccines for illnesses like cholera and typhoid in the event of disasters that cause a long-term collapse of urban infrastructure; that's a lot harder to find and insurance may not cover it, but if that's an option for you, hey, why now?
Make use of what medical coverage you have while you have it. Schedule any colonoscopies, mammograms, etc. that you may be due for, or close to due for. It's already close to the end of the year, so if you have flex spending money to use up, absolutely get new glasses and stock up on
Freedom of speech will be under assault.
Trump has vowed to go after opponents and critics, and has gone after journalists and activists in the past. If you don't like the man and you don't like what he wants to do, lock down your online presence.
Some of this may feel like overkill to you. Even if you personally don't think you're in danger, please take some or all of these steps anyway — normalizing secure behaviors for your online presence helps to protect the people who may be targeted by government.
And… not to put too fine a point on it, but you never know when you might become a target. (And anyway these steps also help to protect against ordinary hacking!)
This is a pretty complicated topic and I don't think I can do it justice in simple bullet points, so I'd like to point you to this guide from Wired on how to do it, as a start.
Tariffs will cause prices on lots of goods to go up.
…Because that's how tariffs work. This could have a lot of different implications, ranging from the cost of electronics and durable goods skyrocketing, to not being able to buy January strawberries anymore. Unfortunately goods that are made in America are going to get more expensive too, because many of them are made with materials that are imported from elsewhere. Scaling up American manufacturing to cover this will require building infrastructure that takes several years.
If you have electronics or a car or a refrigerator etc. that are reaching the end of their usable lifetime, and of course if you can swing the cost, replacing sooner rather than later is a good idea.
Enjoy your non-seasonal produce while you still can, and maybe start saving recipes and advice for seasonal eating. This one is a little ironic, because eating locally and seasonally has been a suggestion for living sustainably for a long time.
In an emergency, blue states may not receive help from FEMA.
If you live in a blue state, you should probably begin more serious disaster prep than usual because FEMA will not be there for you. Which disasters you need to prep for are going to be very geographically specific, and a lot of the key advice is similar to other parts of this post — making sure your papers are in order nearby and also online, for example. Following are a few of the typical basics.
Lay in a supply of shelf-stable foods and water, enough to last you for a couple of weeks. Encourage others in your community to do so as well. In a real emergency, you'll all be sharing.
Stockpile any medications you need, if you can. This one isn't easy, particularly in the case of medications that require refrigeration or have a shorter shelf life, or if your key medications are controlled substances. You can sometimes get refills earlier by asking your pharmacist and/or insurance for a "vacation override."
Keep a stock of fresh batteries and charged-up phone chargers.
Stock up on pet food and medications, too!
Make an address book with addresses, emails, phone numbers, and other contact information for your friends and family. Print out a copy in case something happens to your phone and/or you don't have access to electricity for a while.
Find out if there are mutual aid groups already working in your area; if not, find out which organizations do work like meals on wheels and similar programs. This could be Rotary clubs, churches and other religious groups, local chapters of advocacy groups, maybe even your local library. When push comes to shove, these people will be best positioned to organize and help — and it would be great if you're already a part of it
Please don't buy a gun.
This will have the net effect of making everyone less safe, not more so.
Having a gun in your home doesn't make it likely that you'll be able to get to that gun in time if brownshirts kick in in your door, especially if you keep your firearm secure enough to be safe. It also doesn't mean you'll be a good enough shot to hit the right people, or that when push comes to shove, you'll find that you're capable of shooting another human being.
It does present an immediate risk to any children or people with suicidal ideation in your home.
Build local community
This is the number one most important thing you can be doing right now. There are a million ways to do it, and none of them are wrong. Check in with the people you love and even just like. Strengthen your social ties. Note who's vulnerable or lonely in your community and might need extra help and support in ways you can provide. Talk to your neighbors. Join local religious groups, find when and where activist groups you support are meeting and go, or even join a book club or a running club, make friends at the dog park, organize dinner parties or picnics. Email or text old friends you haven't talked to in ages and catch up with how they're doing.
This is really, really hard for a lot of us. It definitely is for me. It feels awkward and intrusive and you don't wanna, it's so much easier to just stay inside and not have to talk to people. But fascism thrives in that environment. It wants us isolated. It wants us to turn away from public life.
Coming together is how you fight fascism. Fight a culture of violence and domination by caring about other people, and caring for other people. Our best asset in the days to come is us. All of us.
