We all have found the recent national election to be disappointing and some people I know have expressed a desire to simply withdraw due to fearing what is to come. That may be understandable but it isn't realistic.
No matter what has occurred at the national level there is still your local community, your city, your county, your township, your board of education. Most local communities are not so large that you cannot know (or learn of) who holds office or is running for office. Nor can anything be kept from you. Nearly every thing these elected people do is recorded and available to the public. You can ask for and receive any of these public documents (maybe paying a copy fee) and you can attend almost any meeting. Thank you open meeting laws. This would also include public commissions, boards and committees.
You can also lobby the these elected officials and appointed members to express your opinions. You can attend meetings and even step up to the podium and express your opinion and also present written papers. You can get other local citizens together and establish a lobbying group. In some places you may have access to local public access television where you can air your opinions and at the very least write letters to the local newspaper.
You can select you own people (including yourself) to run for elective office as well as volunteer to serve on appointed commissions, boards and committees.
In these local activities you can have nearly immediate impact as well as effecting long term results on local government. If you do it right, with enough commitment, and with a long enough effort you may do more than simply have impact on your local community. With enough effort you may also change other counties as well as your State legislature. If you can cause that level of change you now have the grassroots position to begin changing the federal level of government.
It is simply a matter of how much you believe in what you say you believe in and how hard you want to work at it.
