We’re still right, Trump’s still wrong, so what do we do next?

No surprise: This week the Supreme Court took the extraordinary step to protect Donald Trump by allowing him to remain on the ballot in Colorado and other states, despite having led an insurrection to overthrow the results of the 2020 election in plain view. This latest decision came just a few days after the Supremes voted to protect Donald Trump by delaying his trial over the January 6, 2021, insurrection by several months, possibly until after the election – when he can pardon himself if he wins.

We’ve told you before how both Maine and Colorado barred Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024 due to his role in inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection. And we’ve been advocating to bar Trump and other insurrectionists under the 14th amendment to the Constitution since 2021, but we did warn you that this is the most-likely outcome right after the court heard oral arguments a few weeks ago.

As many observers have noted, this decision wasn’t just extreme because it protects Trump, but because, as Justices Jackson, Kagan, and Sotomayor argued: “… [T]he majority attempts to insulate all alleged insurrectionists from future challenges to their holding federal office.”

To put it simply: The Supreme Court isn’t ruling on the law; They’re throwing out parts of the constitution and overruling the law specifically to protect Donald Trump, and help him seize power again. And they’re sending a clear message to any fossil fueled fascists out there that if they engage in violence or intimidation to take power, the extreme MAGA Supreme Court will protect them too. This will obviously increase threats of violence against election officials in Colorado, Maine, and many other states.  So two immediate actions you can take:

1. Add your name to our petition that threats of political violence are never acceptable.
2. Chip in to fund our fight against fossil fueled fascists in 2024 – we’re going to need to do a lot more work.

As we’ve also been saying for a while now, this is all very terrible news; But it’s also very predictable. So, since we’re unfortunately often right about how fossil fueled fascists will behave…

Here’s what we predict will happen next:

I’m writing this on Super Tuesday, and the expectation is that both Trump and Biden will sow up their respective party nominations today or soon after. That’s not-exactly good, but not exactly bad for us: mostly it means we’re moving on to the next phase of the campaign.

And we’ve got a lot of work to do: Polls show that a majority of voters, especially young voters and voters of color, have either forgotten or never knew how bad things were under Trump – especially for climate and environmental justice. When asked about specific policies, voters think Trump did a better job on clean energy and democracy than Joe Biden, and many voters, including 35% of Black voters, still don’t believe Trump can win.

The reality, of course, is that Trump is certain to win the 2024 Republican Nomination. And that if elected he will run the country as a fossil fueled fascist dictatorship, again. In fact, he’s already promised to overturn a number of Biden’s policies, like the pause on LNG exports, and been rewarded with more than $7 million in fossil fuel industry donations as a result. And pro-fossil fuel policies and talking points have been making up a big part of what Trump talks about on the campaign trail for the last few weeks.

In short, Trump was a terrible President – especially for our climate. Trust us, we were there. And having already engaged in insurrection once, and gotten away with it, he’s absolutely going to to use any means he can — including violence, intimidation, and illegal actions — to regain power. And fossil fuels are the main financiers and backers of Trump and his fellow fascists, and will be the primary beneficiaries (again, we were there) if he takes power.

But we’re not an electioneering group – so we’re less concerned about polls and fundraising and the horse-race than we are in preparing the climate and environmental justice movement to fight back – non violently, but directly – regardless of the election outcome. But it’s important to name that this election is very important, if only as a deadline.

Until November of 2024, Trump will be a candidate – and so we expect his attention, as well as the threats, violence, corruption, and intimidation that he brings with him to be focussed on voters, polling places, election workers, and the like. Once he’s confirmed as the nominee, that will probably look less like rallies to attract support from Republican voters, and more like attempts to drive down turnout, and sow chaos and confusion around voting. Think back to 2020 or 2016, and you’ll remember that Trump did a lot of rallies and events that were designed to encourage violence against people of color, immigrants, and people who live in cities.

We’ll have to see how bad things get, how quickly, but in 2020 that turned into a lot Trump rallies turning overtly racist, and then Republican Governors calling up National Guard troops or off-duty prison guards to violently suppress the angry protests that followed. Trump events are already drawing nazis and white power groups, and Republican officials like Governors Abbott and Desantis are already mobilizing paramilitary forces. So later this spring, we’ll publish some updated guides on how to protest and take action to fight climate change safely when there are fossil fueled fascist groups on the move around you – simple things like how to de-escalate a tense conversation, and complicated things like how to track and understand the connections between fossil fuel companies and the fascists they fund for election.

Later on this year, as we get closer to election day, we’ll update our information on what to expect and when to expect it in terms of Trump’s likely denial of election results, calls for mob violence to disrupt voting or vote-counting, and eventually what’s likely to be his second coup attempt in early 2025, if he is not declared the winner in 2024. But for now, it’s still an election and the most important thing you can do is vote, learn about voting, and compare the candidates on your ballot based on the issues you care about – including climate and fossil fuels.

Stay safe, fight hard, and we’ll see you in the streets.