The greatest holiday gift ideas share one purpose: Saving The World
With the passing of Thanksgiving, we’re officially in the holiday season. The annual American tradition of breaking out the wreaths and menoras, of cutting down Christmas trees and listening to old white crooners on the radio with some Johnny Mathis thrown in for good measure is upon us. For the next few weeks we’ll be putting together cards and stringing out lights and cooking like fiends. And of course buying presents. Yes, the time for every website to roll out their holiday gift ideas is nigh.
For progressives, this has been a rotten year, one that began with the hope of Obama doubling down on every progressive goal he’d been promising from the start, only to see those hopes wane and then collapse against a seismic uprising from the forgotten whites who don’t think progress is necessarily a good thing. Now we live in fear of all the hardfought progress won over the last 8 years being destroyed through formerly-illegal power plays from America’s greatest con man-dictator-wannabe.
The good thing is that means we can no longer just sit back and cheer when we get our way or boo when we don’t. If Trump delivers on even half of his social agenda many of the progressive ledges we’ve scrambled up to will crumble beneath our feet. No, now we’ve gotta be active. As such, this is a year when all our progressive brethren and sisteren should really appreciate those gifts that in years’ past only the noblest would get excited about – charitable contributions in their name.
So as we plunge into the holiday shopping season, here are 5 different sites to help you pick out that perfect holiday gift idea for your progressive friend – though there’s also something to be said for making a donation to Planned Parenthood in the name of that pillhead aunt of yours who voted Trump because they “are Christian and believe in life.”
Holiday gift ideas, progressive donation edition
- Rage Donate (https://www.ragedonate.com/) — This amazing site uses Donald’s trick of turning rage into power. Namely, it brings up various infuriating phrases El Trump has spewed upon the world and shows how you can contribute to a cause fighting against it.
- Islamic Relief USA (http://irusa.org/syria/) — Trump made a big promise that he’d be doing everything he could to keep middle-Eastern refugees out of America. This will likely lead to more disenfranchised citizens who make easy pickings for ISIS recruiters. Moslems are our strongest allies in the war on terror and Moslem contributions to our Western world range from medical breakthroughs to Euro soccer players. Islam Relief USA is one of our greatest allies in providing food and shelter for Syrians, Iraquis and even supporting homegrown populations here in America as well.
- Gifts That Keep on Giving (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/opinion/sunday/gifts-with-meaning.html) — Every year, NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof compiles a list of various international charities to donate to. These run from supporting education for girls in impoverished nations to paying for rats to be trained and used as minesweepers. He hasn’t come out with his 2016 one yet but I’m pretty sure all of the charities from his 2015 column are still in full operation.
- Pipeline Masters – Jezebel put together a pretty good compendium of various organizations accepting donations to support the people, both First Nations and non, fighting evil government forces to keep a greed-fueled pipeline from passing through and likely contaminating their water supply. Because in Trump’s America, the non-immigrants are supposed to be the winner, right? Wait, let me correct that, he actually just meant to say white people. My bad.
- Holy Fuck! The Election… (http://www.holyfucktheelection.com/) – I walked into my bedroom half a bottle of Wild Turkey deep, cackling madly, after Trump defied all the professionals and won the White House. A few days later I published a list of the top 10 reasons to climb off the ledge and feel OK about the future. That said, one of those reasons is that dark times give heroes the best opportunity to show their mettle. My next step? Finding Holyfucktheelection and clicking through to all the ways that I can spend my time and money to help the causes directly jeopardized by a Trump presidency.
Are there other foundations out there, other organizations that support civil liberties, women’s rights, the poor, the environment, refugees, immigrants, any other person or thing or value that is threatened by Donald Trump and the Legion of Doom he’s collecting to serve as his personal advisors? Absolutely.
But there’s a decent chance a lot of those brilliant contributional holiday gift ideas can be found in at least one of the above links. And if not, hell, contribute to them, and contribute to the above charities; time, energy, attention, skills, whatever you got.
Remember, this is a land of procedures and laws and rules. As Trump has shown, the Golden Rule is most important – namely, he who has the gold rules. Time to spread it around to the people we really want directing the future of our country.
Hell, it’s not everyday that you can give the ones you love the world.
