“Make It Stop” Is a Strategy
(End of Year Wrap, Part Two)
Deep breath taken. Holidays survived. We’re still here.
Which matters more than it sounds.
Because the goal of 2025 wasn’t just to hurt people. It was to convince everyone that the hurting is permanent. That nothing interrupts it. That this is the weather now.
That lie only holds if nobody pushes back in ways that actually land.
And here’s the thing they don’t want to admit: we already did.
Not everywhere. Not perfectly. But enough to prove this isn’t inevitable.
What 2026 is actually about
2026 is not about finding the perfect message, the perfect candidate, or the perfect moment.
It’s about interruption.
Slowing the damage. Blocking the worst impulses. Forcing the chaos merchants to hit resistance instead of empty space.
Flipping the House doesn’t solve everything. But it does something crucial:
it puts hands on the brake.
And when the brake is on, a lot of things suddenly become possible again.
Investigations.
Budget fights that don’t automatically end in cuts.
Courts that don’t get rubber-stamped extremists.
Policies that stop actively making people’s lives worse.
This isn’t about vibes. It’s about leverage.
“Make it stop” works because it’s honest
People are tired of being told to fall in love with politics.
They just want the harm to end.
“Make it stop,” is not negativity. That’s clarity.
Affordability crisis? Make it stop.
ICE raids? Make it stop.
Endless Oval Office scandal & propaganda? Make it stop.
Lawlessness for the rich, punishment for everyone else? Make it stop.
Corporate war on the environment? Make it stop.
Violence & culture war garbage infecting daily life? Make it stop.
You don’t need to convince people these things are bad. They’re living it.
What they’re asking is simpler & harder:
Who is willing to stand between me & this?
The plan isn’t flashy. That’s the point.
Authoritarians win when people think resistance has to look dramatic to count.
In reality, what works is boring & local & human.
2026 is about:
1. Building on real wins
Special elections showed us something important: when people feel seen & respected, they show up. Even tired. Even cynical. We copy what worked & stop reinventing the wheel.
2. Relational organizing, not viral miracles
The most persuasive voice in someone’s life is not a campaign ad. It’s a coworker. A cousin. A neighbor. Someone who says, “Yeah, this sucks. Here’s how we slow it.”
3. Making local races feel real
School boards. County commissions. Judges. Clerks.
These are the offices that decide how much harm reaches people’s front doors.
4. Treating turnout like logistics, not morality
Rides. Childcare. Reminders. Time off.
People don’t skip voting because they’re bad. They skip it because life is hard.
5. Letting people pick a lane & stay in it
Not everyone needs to knock doors. Some people explain things well. Some donate. Some organize quietly. Some watch for disinfo. All of it counts.
Burnout is not a badge of honor. Sustainability is strategy.
Pressure beats purity
2026 is not a personality contest. It’s not about waiting for someone who agrees with you on every issue in the exact right language.
It’s about power.
You don’t get better options by opting out. You get them by making the cost of cruelty higher than the benefit.
Pressure creates room.
Room creates change.
That’s how it’s always worked, even when the history books try to clean it up.
What winning actually looks like
Winning doesn’t look like everything getting fixed overnight.
It looks like:
Fewer families torn apart.
Fewer rights stripped quietly.
Fewer blank checks for grifters.
More time. More friction. More chances to push.
It looks like a system that stops accelerating toward disaster long enough for people to breathe & organize & imagine again.
That matters. A lot.
The quiet truth, again
They want you hopeless because hopeless people don’t interfere.
But 2026 is an interference year.
Not because anyone is coming to save us.
Because enough people are done letting it run unchecked.
If someone convinces you they can make it stop, even a little, that’s worth something.
And flipping the House?
That’s how you start.
Not with magic.
With pressure.
With patience.
With people who refuse to accept that the horror movie is the only ending.
We’ve seen enough to know that’s a lie.
Now we get to prove it.
~AK