What Would You Do?

As the U.S. struggles against an authoritarian takeover, what will you do to protect democracy? How will you step up, especially if you're a white male with power? What are you willing to sacrifice?

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

On the January 15th episode of What Next, Mary Harris interviewed Bishop Robert Hirschfeld,10th Bishop in the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire. This was after ICE murdered Renee Good, but before CBP murdered Alex Pretti, with other forms of brutality exhibited by federal agents throughout and since. During that episode, entitled Would You Die to Stop ICE?, they discussed the bishop’s call to action he made at a rally. He asked his clergy to prepare themselves.

He asked them to get their affairs in order to make sure they have their wills written. Because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.

And that’s exactly what Alex Pretti did. He put his body in between himself and a woman whom agents had pushed to the ground. He was trying to see if she was ok, trying to help her up. And they executed him for it.

What would you have done in that situation? Would you have given your life for your neighbor? For children being taken from their families? For the right to assemble peaceably? For the right to film ICE and blow whistles? For democracy?

Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison put it a slightly different way on the January 19th episode of What Next:

Every great American you’ve ever read about was a person willing to risk for the greater good of us all. I mean, I’m not asking people to die. I’m asking people to live for democracy.

So, how would you live for democracy?

Would you get training to peacefully protect your neighbors if ICE or CBP invades your neighborhood?

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It’s important to acknowledge here that white people, especially white males, are now experiencing at the hands of the Trump regime what black and brown people, the LGBTQIA+ community, and women have experienced in the Americas since before the founding of this nation. There’s always been inequitable access to freedom, safety, opportunities, and self-determination in the U.S., with white, cisgender, heterosexual men having more access than most. I should note that Keith Porter, a black man, was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent on New Year’s Eve in LA.

So, what would you do to create a democracy where that access was equitable?

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What would you do to protect our free press, the fourth estate of a functioning democracy? Would you speak out against the arrests of journalists (such as the recent arrests of two black journalists - Georgia Fort and Don Lemon) for doing their jobs, reporting on protests and what the government is doing, and keeping us informed?

Would you cancel your subscription to Paramount for turning CBS News into state TV? Would you support through paid subscriptions the regional and local newspapers still struggling to do this critical work, such as the Kansas City Star or the Lawrence Times? Would you support independent journalists like Georgia Fort, Don Lemon, Erin Reed, Rebecca Nagle, Jonathan Larsen, Emily Atkin, Dan Margolies, Kansas City Stack, Robert Leonard, Art Cullen, Anya Kamenetz, Team Zeteo, David Roberts, and many others?

What would you do to protect free and fair elections? Would you speak out against the FBI seizure of Georgia voting records and AG Pam Bondi’s leveraging of the ICE and CBP state terror in Minnesota to gain access to the state’s voter rolls? Would you protest out in the streets the obvious efforts of the Trump regime to sow doubt in election results, harass and threaten voting officials, pressure states into reckless purges of voter rolls, and increase the difficulty in voting ahead of the 2026 midterms?

Would you get training to become a poll watcher or volunteer to drive people to the polls, especially knowing such efforts might put you at risk next fall as the Trump regime continues expanding its secret police force of ICE and CBP agents? Note this expansion will be fueled by a gross explosion in funding as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill, with no restrictions on how this funding is used.

What would you do to resist the EPA’s decision to stop accounting for the economic benefits to human health that result from the regulation of fine particulate matter and ozone, or its decision to roll back a rule limiting smokestack emissions burdening neighboring states that are downwind? Knowing that such actions make it easier for infrastructure that emits high levels of air pollution to be built and operated; knowing that excluding health and productivity benefits at any scale decreases the quality of our decision-making; knowing this, what would you do?

Would you write op-eds against these decisions? Would you call your members of Congress? Would you support organizations like the USGBC’s Advocacy Working Group and their efforts to lobby against these types of actions and advocate for green building and all things policy adjacent? Would you encourage your state legislatures and municipalities to mitigate the EPA’s decisions as best as they could through their own rules and regulations? Note that such efforts aren’t in vane, as ENERGY STAR, at one point seemingly destined for the chopping block, has now been fully funded.

What would you do to protect the trans, non-binary, and intersex communities, including being able to meet their needs in the built environment? Knowing that anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation is an attempt to legislate groups out of existence; knowing that the legislation and associated rhetoric puts a target on the backs of already vulnerable groups, including kids; knowing that genocidal scholars have recently warned that “… the attacks on transgender and nonbinary people in the U.S. represent a ‘genocidal’ attempt ‘to destroy a gender group;’” knowing that such legislation and rhetoric harms all of us - knowing all this, what would you do?

Would you submit testimony opposing anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation to your state legislatures? Would you put your body in between a trans individual and someone accosting them in a restroom? Would you educate your clients on the importance of, and advocate for, gender neutral restrooms, as well as the reality of entangled sex / gender spectrums? Would you walk away from a project that refused to be inclusive? Would you hug a trans, non-binary, or intersex kid and tell them they’re enough, that they belong?

And so many more things from protecting our federal architecture from the whims of an autocrat to protecting an organization’s right to implement genuine DEI initiatives, to protecting against attacks on science and expertise, to protecting relationships with our allies. But you get the drift.

In the end, what would you do to save democracy? How would you live to save democracy?

Will you talk to friends and family about it? What are you sharing on social media? Are you engaging with your elected officials, at all levels of government? What candidates are you supporting, and how? What corporations are you boycotting? Are you participating in strikes? Are you marching in the streets? Are you supporting food banks? Are you checking in on your neighbors? Are you asking your company leadership to support democracy? To post signage that says ICE isn’t welcome on your premises? To decline work that supports the Trump regime as well as those implicitly or explicitly supporting the Trump regime, authoritarianism, white Christian nationalism, and white supremacy?

You don’t have to do everything, but we all should be doing something.

And FYI corporate and business leaders, such actions demonstrate to your own employees, especially minorities and immigrants, that you support them and their civil and human rights.

Being a citizen in a democracy comes with responsibilities (and yes, I’m using democracy in the general sense to refer to our form of government which is both a constitutional republic and representative democracy). Being engaged, protecting democracy, standing up for human and civil rights, resisting an authoritarian takeover - that is the responsibility of all of us - from custodians to corporate CEOs. But maybe those with the most power and privilege shouldn’t continue sitting back while ordinary citizens do the bulk of the heavy lifting here.

Along those same lines, in the AEC Industry where I work, I know there are black and brown professionals, LGBTQIA+ professionals, and non-citizen professionals working here legally who are nervous about speaking out. Some do it anyway while others quietly resist and advocate in the background. This is where white, cisgender, heterosexual males need to step up, especially CEOs, politicians, organizational board members, and community leaders.

We need to expend whatever political, economic, reputational, and otherwise privileged capital we have in support of democracy. And when we’re out in the streets we need to follow Alex Pretti’s lead and put our own bodies in between the vulnerable and fascist forces, to protect our colleagues of color, to protect our neighbors, to protect democracy.

And as we’re resisting this authoritarian takeover, we need to seriously consider how we’re going to build a more just and equitable society. As I stated earlier, actions of resistance won’t be enough - we must also create a democracy where access to freedom, safety, opportunities, and self-determination is equitable. That’s a necessary component of protecting democracy from authoritarianism.

None of this is easy, but this is the price of living in a democracy.

It’s how we live for democracy.