Standing Up to Trump: A Reader's Guide to the Pro-Democracy Movement
Amid the march of Trump’s authoritarian project, it’s easy to fall into defeatism and despair. Here’s a list of writers who analyze what’s happening to the U.S. – and what we can do about it
By Hap Freund and Claudia Chotzen
In witnessing one big media outlet after another bend the knee to Trump since Jan. 20, many of us have become disillusioned by their compromised or complicit quisling owners (looking at you Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong), and have searched for news and opinions that reflect our commitment to facts, honesty, and action.
That is the rationale behind Newsmakers’ 2025 pivot, to supplement its decade-long menu of hyper-local Santa Barbara news content with a steady diet of pieces focused on the fight for democracy and against Trumpism, across the nation and around the globe.
Here’s our reading list of other Substack sites, blogs and local resources that we have found useful in staying positive, informed, and actively involved about the future. There is too much at stake to succumb to depression and silence.
Most of these offer free subscriptions, with bonus content to those who pay. In no way is this list complete, and we’re sure readers have their own ‘go to’ sources. We’d love to hear about other sites pushing back against autocracy and the MAGA authoritarian project – please email us at sbnewsmakers@gmail.com and we’ll publish an appended list in the future.
We’re not suggesting you try to read all these every day. But these do provide informative options to what you might see or read on compromised traditional media. Stay strong.
Today’s Edition by Robert Hubbell. Suggested to us six years ago by a college friend, Hubbell‘s site consolidates a lot of news and excellent links into a daily email. A retired corporate attorney in LA, Hubbell started his site in February 2017, after Trump’s first election, as letters to his daughters to give them hope. Now it has over 55,000 subscribers and over 100,000 daily views.
Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance Joyce is a joy. A lawyer, law professor, MSNBC commentator, and former US Attorney, she offers insights into courts, law, litigation, and occasionally shares photos of her chickens and new puppy.
Medias Touch Network Three brothers (Ben, Brett, and Jordan Meiselas) have created a blog site and a very active and successful YouTube channel. They are young and brash. They pride themselves on getting under Trump’s thin skin and apparently really irk some of the Fox “news” personalities because of their large audience. It’s a much welcomed, more aggressive “in your face” approach.
Heather Cox Richardson/Letters from An American Many Newsmakers readers are probably already aware of HCR’s daily posts. A historian, she puts daily political events into context with our past, while also alerting us to the dangers in our challenging present and uncertain future.
Jessica Craven- Chop Wood, Carry Water A terrific resource for taking action. She provides, among other items, short videos and scripts to call your elected representatives and even some state-specific email alerts. On Saturdays she posts a summary of “Good News,” which is a welcome reminder of positive developments.
Simon Rosenberg- The Hopium Chronicles Analysis, facts, and hope- all in one place.
Patrick Reis, The Logoff Something different- a short summary of one big topic from Vox news at the end of the day. If you are too busy or too distracted to wade into the swamp of Trump/Musk indignities and articles, this is a very quick read about one topic that was important on each particular day.
Marc Elias, Democracy Docket Elias, a lawyer who specializes in election law, is a great resource and daily read on the flood of litigation by those working to use the courts to counteract Trump/Musk lawlessness.
Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen, The Contrarian One of the best features in the Washington Post was columnist Jennifer Rubin; when she fled the WaPo, this is where she landed. Eisen was co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment and was White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government. Their site is rich with other contributors, who are “unflinching, unapologetic, and unwavering in (their) commitment to truth-telling.”
Harry Litman/Talking Feds Another columnist who abandoned a newspaper that lost its way, Litman, a former U.S.Attorney who wrote for the L. A. Times, leads this site. With guests like the aforementioned Rubin and Eisen, as well as Cory Booker, Laurence Tribe and others, the description of his site as bringing together “prominent figures from government, law and journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day” seems like an understatement.
Jay Kuo/The Status Kuo Another lawyer? No apologies. Personally, it feels gratifying that so many lawyers are actively engaged in the pro-Democracy movement and aren’t cowering in fear and complicity, like much of our legacy media, newspaper and television corporations. Jay Kuo brings a sense of humor and insight to his analytical blog on current politics and legal matters, as well as a unique perspective from being gay, Chinese-American, and an accomplished playwright.
Timothy Snyder/Thinking About Snyder’s prophetic 2017 best seller On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, focused on changes in the U.S. and how democracies morph into authoritarianism. Snyder is a Yale history professor with expertise in Eastern European countries, the Holocaust, and Russia. Smart guy.
Locally, it’s obviously important to be informed and involved about what is happening in our own community (we suggest starting with a subscription to SB Newsmakers if you don’t already have one).
Also check out (and support) these, among other organizations:
The Immigrant Legal Defense Center
Hap Freund, a recovering attorney, is the former executive director of TV Santa Barbara and the co-founder of SB Newsmakers. Claudia Chotzen, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and also a former lawyer, is the author of the memoir “The Dark Room, A Memoir of Triumph.”
Image: Journal of Democracy.