OPINION: Time for local Democrats to step up the resistance to Trump

As Senator Bernie Sanders, and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and Greg Casar, return from the barnstorming across the heartland, it’s clear that our Democratic leadership continues their sleepwalking –dreaming in numbers, in charts, in the smooth illusions of abundance spun by men like Ezra Klein. They tell themselves that if the pie is big enough, everyone will get a piece. But they do not ask who bakes the pie, who kneads the dough with tired hands, who stokes the fire, who is left scraping at the crumbs while the masters of the table lean back, full and satisfied.

They are walking blind into complicity, into the quiet, slow betrayal of the very people they claim to fight for. They are not building a world for the working class; they are fighting for a seat at a table in a room that locks the workers out. They want power in a system that was never meant to serve the many, only the few. They call it pragmatism, call it strategy, but all it means is SURRENDER dressed up in careful words gathered from cowardly polls.

They go through the motions of governance as if the motions themselves are enough. They balance budgets like they are balancing scales, but the weight always falls the same way—heavy on the backs of the poor, the laborers, the ones who make the wealth but never touch it. They count on silence, on exhaustion, on the voices of the dispossessed being too scattered to rise above the hum of business as usual.

If the Trumpublicans and their DOGE oligarchy gut the federal government, if they slash the safety nets and turn the people’s money into gifts for billionaires, then we must fight where we stand. If they take from the vulnerable at the highest level, we must shield them at the local. If they carve up the tax code to serve the lords of capital, then we must take back our tax base, state by state, city by city, street by street.

We are not pleading for Medicaid and Medicare to be patched and propped up like a tired relic. We are fighting for care—real care, the kind that does not ask for proof of worthiness, the kind that holds the fevered hand without checking for payment. We are fighting for health that is not rationed, for healing that does not come with a bill, for a world where no one is forced to choose between their body and their rent.

We are not just calling for the return of education as it WAS, battered and bruised. We are fighting for learning that stretches long and wide, from first breath to last light. We are fighting for minds set free, for knowledge not chained to wealth, for classrooms that do not close their doors on the poor, the old, the wanderers still searching for wisdom.

We are not just trying to save what remains of the earth. We are fighting for rivers that do not carry poison. For air that does not burn the throat. For land that is not stripped bare and sold off to the highest bidder. We are fighting for a country that does not forget the land it stands on, does not silence the stories the trees could tell, does not bury the blood and bones of the past under steel and concrete.

We are not just asking for more buildings, for more doors to be thrown up with no care for who walks through them. We are fighting for home—not shelter, not survival, but home. A place to rest, to dream, to belong. A place where dignity lives in every brick, every beam, every key turned in the lock.

We are not asking. We are claiming. We are not waiting. We are taking. Because we know what is owed. We know what is possible. And we know we will not stop.

And so, we must resist. Not with empty gestures, not with speeches that fade into the air, but with action—real, tangible, undeniable. If the federal government turns its back, if it lets the Trumpublicans strip protections from the people who need them most, then the states and cities must be the shield. We must serve the people who keep this country alive, who feed us, who raise our children, who care for our elders when their legs grow too weak to stand at the stove to make their meals.

The immigrants they target are the ones who pick our food from the fields, who clean the homes of the wealthy, who wake before dawn to make the world move while the powerful still sleep. They are the ones who need our protection, not our pity. 

The best way to serve our communities is not to negotiate with fascists but to plan, to build, to refuse—to say NO to the Trumpublicans and yes to a future that belongs to all of us.

We must stand for our trans family, who are hunted by laws that try to erase their existence. For our veterans, who gave their bodies for slogans only to be left to struggle alone. For the workers, the mothers, the caretakers, the artists, the ones who make beauty and labor in the same breath. For the people honored by San Francisco’s namesake, those who carry the spirit of compassion, of service, of love.

The wealthy owe us. They owe us not just for what they take but for what they could never create without us. Their towers do not rise without our hands. Their wealth does not exist without our labor. The ones who donate, we see you, we thank you, but let us be clear—charity is not justice. A tax break is not a fair share. And no amount of philanthropy will make this society secure if the people at its foundation are left to suffer.

Only when all of us have the ability to live with dignity, to be free from persecution, to walk unafraid in the place we call home—only then will we be secure. Only then will we be free.

As our country faces a Constitutional crisis, state and local governments must take unprecedented steps to safeguard democracy, protect essential services, and uphold the rights of our communities. Here are some ideas for concrete actions that state and local elected officials can take to resist, to protect economic stability, and to defend vulnerable residents.

I. Financial Resistance and State Tax Protections

1. Corporate Accountability Taxation – State governments should impose special taxation on corporations that have benefited from federal tax breaks and sweetheart contracts under the corrupt federal regime.
2. State and Local Wealth and Income Taxes – States should pass enabling legislation to allow cities and counties to levy wealth and income taxes on corporations and the ultra-rich to fund local essential services.
3. Emergency Public Services Fund – States should establish a state-managed emergency fund sourced from corporate accountability taxes, and wealth taxes to sustain critical public programs
   
   
4. States should explore legal avenues to protect federal tax dollars for their intended purposes, ensuring that vital services like Social Security, Medicaid, and public education remain funded.

II. Protecting Social Services and Public Welfare

1. State Control Over Federal Health Programs – States should explore how to take firm guidance of Medicaid and other healthcare programs to prevent service cuts and ensure public health remains a priority.
2. Public Oversight of Federal Funding – States should establish independent state agencies to monitor and prevent the diversion of federal funds meant for Social Security, education, healthcare, and disaster relief.
3. Protection of Public Education Funding – State and local governments should reject federal interference and secure funding for public schools, state universities, and research institutions like NIH and NSF programs.
4. Worker Protections Against Federal Rollbacks – Local jurisdictions should pass laws preserving worker rights, including living wages, union protections, and anti-discrimination policies, countering federal deregulation.
5. Universal Basic Services at the State Level – States and cities should expand affordable housing, public transit, food assistance, and mental health services, ensuring continued public access despite federal cutbacks.

III. Defending Democracy, Civil Rights & Local Governance

1. State  and Local Constitutional Defense – State and local governments must formally declare the US is in a constitutional crisis and invoke emergency measures to defend democratic governance, civil liberties, and the rule of law.
2. Statewide Legal Protections for Vulnerable Communities – States should enact anti-discrimination ordinances protecting immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and racial minorities from federal persecution.
3. Banning State and Local Participation in Federal Overreach – State and local agencies should refrain from cooperating with federal programs that undermine civil rights, voting rights, or environmental protections.
4. Public Education on Constitutional Rights and Resistance – States should implement civics programs to educate residents about state sovereignty, legal rights, and strategies for nonviolent resistance.

IV. Strengthening Local and State Government Resilience

1. State and Local Economic Independence Plans – States should develop economic self-sufficiency plans, investing in local supply chains, public banks, and worker-owned enterprises to reduce dependency on federal resources.
2. State and Local Ownership of Critical Infrastructure – States and cities should expand public control of energy grids, water systems, and transportation networks.
3. Public Banking and Alternative Financial Systems – State and municipal public banks should provide residents and businesses access to financial services free from federal financial instability.
4. State and Local Legal Defense Networks – States should create legal defense funds and rapid-response teams to challenge unconstitutional federal actions in court and protect residents from unjust enforcement measures.
5. Interstate and Municipal Resistance Coalitions – States should form alliances between progressive governments to coordinate policy responses, legal challenges, and resistance strategies against federal authoritarianism.

The United States, if we can truly call this country by this name, is in an unprecedented state of emergency. State and local governments must think outside the box to live up to our Constitutional obligations. These ideas offer an example of how we should be governing for the people.

The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee includes elected officials from the federal, state, and local levels including Congress Members Nancy Pelosi and Kevin Mullin, Lt. Governor Elaini Kounalakis, State Controller Malia Cohen, Senator Scott Wiener, Assembly Members Matt Haney and Catherine Stefani, Supervisors Connie Chan, Matt Dorsey, and Bilal Mahmoud and all its elected members.

Now is the time to resist. 

John Avalos is an elected member of the Democratic County Central Committee.