| The Green New Deal languished in Congress for five years, and it might not have any hope of passing during a Trump administration. But it does have something that the left can tap into: grassroots power. “Community groups, unions, city and state governments, tribes, and others outside the federal arena have been creating their own Green New Deal programs,” Jeremy Brecher writes this week. We might not be able to undo all of Trump’s damage at the federal level, but that doesn’t mean our efforts to combat climate change need to end. “We can still establish Green New Deal cities,” Brecher argues, listing examples of what he calls an emerging “Green New Deal from Below.”
On climate and beyond, community will be our watchword. How else will we protect and foster public health under Trump, Gregg Gonsalves asks? “Our work in the early years of public health—the 19th century—was deeply tied to communities and to making people’s lives better,” he writes, echoing a 2021 piece by Ed Yong in The Atlantic. “By the 20th century, the field got subsumed under the medical profession,” and now, we’re mostly left with talking heads. With the likes of RFK Jr., Mehmet Oz, and others running health-adjacent government institutions, Gonsalves urges us “to rebuild public health from the ground up.”
Small and localized seems to be the name of the game. This election was obviously a bad one for the Democrats. But downballot, Heather Williams points out, that wasn’t exactly the case. “State legislative Democrats largely held their ground, even scoring key victories in battleground states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, while fighting to a draw in others like Minnesota,” Williams reminds us. This means, even if Trump tries to execute pieces of Project 2025, “Democrats in state legislatures are ready to pump the brakes.”
So let’s not despair, even as we stare down another Trump administration. There’s still a lot to be thankful for—among them a new book, Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America. This fascinating history of sitting up straight tells the story of a moral panic connected to race, class, and industrialization. Zoe Adams, an internal medicine resident, doesn’t exactly tell us to slouch away, but the history of back science is more complicated than you might think.
-Alana Pockros
Engagement Editor, The Nation |
