Thom Talks with . . . Svante Myrick
How To Start Resisting Trump's Second Term
If we want to have a chance of saving our Democracy, the resistance has to start right now. Svante Myrick joins Thom Hartmann to discuss People For the American Way's new campaign Resist Project 2025.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Thom:
So, when does the resistance start, and what does it look like? People for the American Way has announced a new campaign, Resist Project 2025, and Svante Myrick, who is the president of People for the American Way (PFAW.org), is on the line with us. Svante is the former mayor of Ithaca, New York, and the youngest mayor in that city's history at 24 years old. Svante, welcome back to the program. Tell us, when does the resistance start, and what does it look like?
Svante:
Hi, Thom. Good afternoon, and thanks for having me on. It’s so good to be able to do something instead of just feeling big feelings, as we say to the toddlers in our lives. For me, the resistance started around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night when it was clear that Donald Trump was going to be reelected President of the United States. I think he legitimately won the election, and I think that was a mistake. I think he is a very dangerous person, backed by even more dangerous people like J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, and the Heritage Foundation.
Around 11:30, I tried to go to sleep. That lasted about 10 minutes—I couldn’t sleep, and neither could my staff: Meg, Na, Lori, and a handful of others. We didn’t sleep all night. So, we created a website, launched a campaign, and began building a place for people who agreed with us to come together. By the next morning, it was live—Resist2025.org. It’s already a home for hundreds, now thousands of people, who’ve signed up to say, “Donald Trump’s going to be sworn in, but we’re not calling for an insurrection. We have the right to stop and resist Project 2025.”
Trump will claim he has a mandate to lead because he won the vote. Well, he won the vote by disavowing Project 2025. He swore up and down he had nothing to do with it, that he never read it, didn’t know the people who wrote it, and didn’t want to implement it. If that’s true, then Donald Trump should join us at Resist2025.org. He can sign up and volunteer to make sure 2025 is not implemented.
Thom:
Well, that would have to assume that Donald Trump doesn’t just routinely lie to everybody, including his voters.
Svante:
Exactly, Thom, and I’m glad you’re sitting down because I suspect that Donald Trump might have been lying. He might have been lying to his voters and his supporters. Do I think Donald Trump read the 900 pages of Project 2025? No, I don’t think he read it. But will he allow J.D. Vance to push it through in a blitzkrieg-style assault on our nation’s institutions? Yes, I do.
I think they’re going to use a backdoor method of banning abortion by invoking the Comstock Act to make it illegal to ship mifepristone across the country. They said in their plan that they’re going to do this. I think they’ll eliminate the National Weather Service so the federal government no longer addresses climate change. They promised to do that too. I think they’ll eliminate Head Start, which provides critical support to 800,000 children. I know what it meant for me—I spent the first six months of my life in a homeless shelter and the next eight years in severe housing instability. Without Head Start’s nutrition and education, I wouldn’t have made it to the Ivy League and beyond. They’re planning to rip that away without a mandate to do so.
I don’t think most Trump voters want these things to happen. They don’t even know this is on the table. We’re standing up to fight back, starting now.
Thom:
If they start enforcing the Comstock Act, things are going to get interesting. J.D. Vance wrote a letter to Merrick Garland demanding its immediate implementation. The Comstock Act was originally an anti-pornography law but could now be used to ban birth control, abortion, and even abortion-related information. One thing we know is that red states consume more pornography per capita than blue states.
Svante:
True, and Project 2025 explicitly calls for banning all pornography. Not only is that going to be unpopular, it’s wrong. Arresting people for watching or making pornography is wrong. What’s more dangerous is letting a right-wing government decide what is and isn’t pornography. That’s why People for the American Way was founded 45 years ago by Norman Lear—to stand against the so-called Moral Majority. He understood that allowing the government to define obscenity opens the door to banning depictions of interracial marriage, same-sex couples, or even basic sex education.
We’re going to resist their attempts to ban pornography because they won’t stop there. Mission creep is inevitable, and they’ll begin banning other things nobody considers obscene.
Thom:
And that’s just the beginning. How do we best resist?
Svante:
Besides signing up at Resist2025.org, contact your senators. Democrats still control the Senate. President Biden has dozens of judicial nominees who need confirmation. Demand that they confirm every judge. Also, push for reforms, like eliminating the filibuster and disregarding blue slips for judicial appointments. The time for respecting broken institutions is over.
Thom:
Svante Myrick, president of People for the American Way and Resist2025.org, thank you so much for joining us.
Svante:
Thank you, Thom. Keep up the great work.