It’s Not Us. It’s Them.

Let’s keep our focus on the right target.

Our heads are spinning. Each day brings a barrage of bad news about the new administration’s haphazard and harmful decisions. As we’ve written, that’s their strategy.

You know what else is part of the strategy? Getting us to turn on one another, arguing about direction, while they plow forward.

Many organizations we care about—including NGOs and universities—are in the fight to address these wrongs. But they’re also finding themselves in the difficult position of having to pick their battles in a multi-front war. Or having to do business differently under threat of losing critical funding or the access they need to make their case on issues.

To be sure, the choice of which orders to comply with and which threats to prioritize and how should be a matter of open debate. Constituents should engage. None of this is easy, particularly in this new terrain.

But let’s approach these questions with a sense of empathy for the organization and pragmatism for the situation we’re in. And above all, let’s not turn on ourselves. Because I already see that happening.

Take the administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Is this silly? Yes. Disrespectful? Yes. The hill our organizations should die on? Probably not.

So if an org chooses to comply—say with regard to the name of these US territorial waters—we may not agree (and we don’t have to), but lashing out in public is not the best way to engage. Unfortunately, that’s just what’s happening. Again, nothing wrong with registering when and why you disagree and noting preferred actions. But I’m seeing harsh disavowals of very good orgs, declarations of shame, and encouragements for donors to withhold funding.

I’m sure the MAGA world enjoys watching this in-fighting. But I certainly don’t.

We need our civic organizations and universities to be at their best now more than ever. So please, speak up when and where you see opportunities to do things better. But otherwise, let’s focus on doing everything we can to help our leading organizations thrive. We’ve got to keep our side together and aligned. We’ve got to row in the same direction. That’s how we can get some big wins achieved soon.

Keep your eyes trained on the real troublemakers. That’s the only we’re going to make it through this period—perhaps not unscathed, but definitely not defeated.

Onward,