“Big, Beautiful” Dystopia: On the Republican Bill, Democratic Passivity, and the Hard, Patient Work of Resistance
At the end of this post there are links to great organizations doing serious grassroots organizing.
The "Big Beautiful Bill. Such a name! What marketing! What gilded nonsense! It has passed the Senate, and this morning, the House. The men in suits stood and clapped as if they had brokered peace, when in truth they had only sharpened the blade. The legislation, thick as a Bible and just as self-righteous, is a catalog of cruelties: sweeping deregulation, state-level crackdowns on dissent disguised as "civility measures," corporate tax breaks served like communion wafers. A law made not in the image of the people, but in the image of those who’ve spent decades buying governments like vacation homes.
And where were the Democrats? The opposition party, that eternal echo. They came, they wrung their hands, they released statements that read like sighs. A few gave speeches about “concerns.” Some said they would “monitor the situation.” Hakeem Jeffries gave a marathon speech, which was the textbook example of “too little, too late.”
The truth is, the Democrats have no will to fight because they have long ago made peace with power. They have traded the language of resistance for the language of consultancy, swapped the barricades for brunch fundraisers. Their politics is a politics of choreography, not conviction. They do not oppose the Republican agenda; they resent only its rudeness.
We are told to demonstrate. March. Shout. Chant clever rhymes. And yes, there is value in public anger, in the spectacle of resistance. But here’s the hard truth: demonstrations are punctuation marks, not sentences. They are not a strategy. They are moments, not movements.
What we need now is something slower, less photogenic, but far more dangerous to the status quo: organizing. Real organizing. The kind that builds from block to block, living room to union hall. Not the TikTok activism of slogans and signal boosts, but the muddy, granular work of building power from the bottom. Talking to people we don’t agree with. Showing up, again and again. Standing with the evicted, the incarcerated, the undocumented, the unfashionably poor. Rebuilding a world in miniature within the shell of this one.
It’s boring. It’s beautiful. It’s how revolutions actually begin.
They will not stop with this bill. They never do. The right does not rest. It regroups, it reloads, it returns. Every victory emboldens it further. And unless we unlearn the performance politics that masquerade as resistance, unless we take seriously the slow, stubborn, radical art of organizing, they will keep winning.
A “Big Beautiful Bill” today. A bigger, uglier world tomorrow.
But maybe, if we remember how to fight and not just shout, another kind of beauty is still possible. Not in Washington. Not yet. But in our neighborhoods. In our unions. In our kitchens. In the ways we learn to take care of each other, and refuse to disappear.
Let’s build something they can’t defund. Let’s organize like our lives depend on it. Because they do.
Here are some great organizations doing the hard work of organizing for real social change:
New Hampshire Peace Action
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/signup-to-receive-emails
I’m listing my own organization first even though most of my readers don’t live in NH. If you’re in the Granite State, join our movement that envisions a future where international relations are based on cooperation instead of competition and conflict, and where mutual benefit and shared security lead to a more peaceful and just global community. NH Peace Action educates, mobilizes, and organizes, to build a more peaceful and just future for all.State by state and community by community, WFP is building a political home for all of us who see bigotry, bailouts, and business as usual in our political system and ask, “Is that the best we can do?”
is a proud national network of 38 member-based, power-building organizations in 29 states with more than a million members and tens of thousands of national volunteers. We are from every background, speak many languages, and live in small towns, cities and rural areas. We are all of us!
Popular Democracy is 50 grassroots organizations across 34 states and DC, who unapologetically demand transformational change for Black, brown and low-income communities. We upend politics as usual to forge a representative, multiracial government and society where we all thrive – no exceptions.