It’s D-Day!! Three for the price of one today.

D is for Do Your Homework, Donate, and Document

Do Your Homework

• Whenever you contact a legislator, write a letter to the editor, or discuss an issue at any forum—including the grocery store checkout line—Know your talking points. Research your topics and think like your opponent.

• Know not only what you are going to say to your representatives or their lackeys, but also what they are likely to say to you.

• If you are lucky enough to have representatives who are acting in accordance with your ideas, give them all the support you can. They are fighting the good fight and they are probably catching hell for it in one way or another. Reassure them that you and more like you are depending on them. Ask if you can help in some way. They’ll say by donating, and if you can’t do that, tell them so and ask again.

• If, like me, you live in a state where the local, state, and federal representation is dismally tied to the cult, you have another assignment. Lodge your complaints about specific bills. Urge them to vote responsibly and have facts and statistics to back up your demands. Cite your sources. Raise hell if they give you the runaround. Call them on their lies and misstatements. Make sure they know that you will be telling your community about the level of their help or lack thereof. And then do that. Follow up.

Donate

I don’t have a lot of money, so I can’t donate in that way. But I have a certain set of skills. So do you! Use your skills for good instead of evil. If you want to march in protests—you are donating. If you volunteer at the local foodbank– you are donating. Donate your time and talent to the causes you support, and donate your voice by posting, reposting, and all the other interactions at your fingertips on social media.

Doing your homework is important when you donate as well. Check out these resources to avoid scams and know the basics of donating money to a political cause.

Resources

1. How to Make a Political Donation
2. Key Facts About Political Donations
3. How to Avoid Scam Political Donations

Document

Be able to cite sources, and these sources should be legitimate news or political sources. Just because the other side pulls alternative facts out of their—well, you know where those things are stored—doesn’t mean we get to do the same. Be able to point to reality.

This article gives you a list of fact-checking sites.

Fact-Checking Sites To Use

Don’t be discouraged if your carefully worded arguments are met with name-calling and motto-shouting. That means you’ve won. Walk away.