Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit

Midterm Elections 2026

• Hands Off Our Vote: Protecting Our Vote in the 2026 Midterm Elections

Rapid Response Links:

• Hands Off Ohio: FBI Raids Ohio Organizing Collaborative
• Destruction of the Voting Rights Act
• Trump’s War on Iran
• FBI Raid on Fulton Election Office
• Messaging Guidance for Assault on Minnesotans and Funding Fight / En Español
• Responding to Trump’s Attacks against Somali Americans & Haitians
• Redistricting Battle
• MAGA Regime Sending Military and Law Enforcement into our Communities
• Trump Executive Order to Silence Working People

Quick Links & Table of Contents:

• Messaging Best Practices
• Fascism and the English Language; Fascism and the English Language: Telling the Truth about Attacks on Immigrants
• The MAGA Agenda

• ICE Out Now
• Funding Fight

• MAGA Regime & Corporate Cowards Price Us Out of Our Homes, Healthcare and Food
• Trump’s Tariffs

• Regime’s Attacks on Immigrants: Brave of US Messaging Guide / c3 version / En Español
• When Trump Defies Court Orders
• MAGA’s Anti-DEI Efforts, En Español
• MAGA’s Anti-Trans Attacks
• Reproductive Freedoms, En Español
• Executive Orders
• Project 2025        

• Responding to Political Violence / Responding to Political Violence (c3)
• Supreme Court: How to Talk About the Roberts Court / Messaging the Roberts Court: A Freedom Over Fascism Supplemental Guide

Introduction

Generations of Americans before us have faced and fought oppression, confronting forces determined to harm their lives and endanger their livelihoods while still forging ahead toward the unrealized promise of liberty and justice for all. Now, it is our turn to pick up the baton and show up – marching, striking, voting and protecting each other – for our freedoms, our families, and our futures. We have won fights against exploitation by a wealthy, White few before, and by joining together, we will again.

As we enter an era of increased authoritarianism in this country, it will be critical to stay true to our values. The siren song of the right is intended to entice many to abandon their principles, and their fellow Americans, capitulating in order to protect themselves or in a misguided attempt to attract conflicted voters. To fall into this trap is to lend credence and credibility to the MAGA Agenda. Americans consistently favor progressive policies – from our freedom to decide if and when to start a family, to our freedom to join together in union, to our freedom to shine bright as our true selves - and we must continue to promote them.

Over the next few years, MAGA leaders will launch attack after attack, perpetrate outrage after outrage, commit injustice after injustice with the goal of keeping us disoriented, demoralized, and demobilized. Rather than exhausting ourselves reacting to each new indignity, we must expose the throughline between attacks and remain consistent and determined. We do that by telling a single, clear story about who we are, what our opposition intends, why they scapegoat, and how we build power to defeat them.

We are people of all races, genders, and backgrounds who value our freedoms. They are a handful of billionaires and scammers trying to take away our freedoms and permanently rig the rules so that wealthy White men control all who do not look, live, or love like them. But joining together – Black, White, and brown, Native and newcomer, transgender and not – the many can and will defeat the money and finally make this a country where liberty and justice are for all, no exceptions.

Messaging Best Practices

Lead with Shared Values: We must connect with and motivate our audiences by opening our messages with values, and name explicitly how they’re shared across race, class, and gender. We start out by creating a big us before we identify the small them violating our values to enrich themselves at our expense. That requires saying what we are for and avoiding negation. Rather than directly refuting the deliberately false claims that MAGA Republicans spread in their efforts to take away our freedoms, we must contend with their falsehoods by affirming our values within our own frame, then expose how and why our opponents sow doubts and stoke fears.

Name the Villains and Expose their Motivations: As in any effective story, we must name a clear villain. This is imperative for our efforts to protect our freedoms because MAGA Republicans will loudly and insistently cast our communities as villains, pointing the finger at Black and brown, transgender and queer, and Native and new Americans for the challenges a wealthy and powerful few have created. If we fail to impugn the true culprits and just passively name harms without an agent (e.g., “election workers are being threatened”), then our opponents’ explanation for the problem goes uncontested in the public conversation. We must always articulate who they are and what they are doing in the active voice and ascribe motivations behind their nefarious actions.

Close with a Positive Vision for the Future: Close with a vision for a better future and a call to action for how we can achieve it. A positive vision and a call to action are critical in breaking through the disillusionment so many of us are understandably feeling at this moment. If possible, reference other victories to demonstrate how we’ve used collective action as a powerful tool to solve problems in the past.

The MAGA Agenda

ICE Out Now

• From Maine to Minnesota*, the Brave of US are joining together by the thousands to demand an end to this regime’s assault by eliminating ICE from our communities.
• It’s time to free our cities of masked militia, free our friends and loved ones from abductions and concentration camps, and free America from this cowardly regime of the bullies, for the billionaires.
• This cowardly regime and its masked militia are assaulting families, invading homes, kidnapping children, and murdering people on the street. We must eliminate ICE and bring agents and the people giving them their orders to justice.
• To truly make America the land of the free, we must first ensure it remains the home of the brave – the Brave of US who have moved heaven and earth to make a new life, who have faced assault by the cowardly masked ICE militia, and who now continue to demand dignity, justice and freedom even from within this regime’s concentration camps.  

*adapt to fit your audience and location

Funding Fight

Introduction

In 2025, MAGA Republicans in Congress passed their MAGA murder law to devastate American families, undermine our freedoms, and threaten our futures. Our leaders must vote NO on funding the MAGA regime’s war against Americans, so we can #FreeAmerica from this rule of the bullies, for the billionaires.

Full Narrative

Americans across races, places, and parties value our freedoms – but Trump and MAGA are running a regime of the bullies, for the billionaires. Our leaders must refuse to finance this MAGA murder regime’s war against Americans, and not be complicit in invading our cities, stealing our healthcare and putting kids in concentration camps. The brave of us must free America from this regime and protect our freedoms, our families and our futures.

Sample Talking Points:

• We will not enable the hostile takeover of our government
• We will not finance a war against Americans
• We will not be complicit in the abductions of neighbors, stealing healthcare from seniors, and taking food from kids.
• No funding for fascism. No dollars for dictatorship. No bankrolling billionaires.
• Free America
• Shut down MAGA’s war on Americans
• This MAGA murder regime is robbing our families of everything we’ve created to care for each other to finance abducting our neighbors and lining the pockets of their billionaire backers. We must #FreeAmerica of this regime of theft and destruction.
• The MAGA murder regime is taking away our freedom to care for our families and have them come home safely. We must #FreeAmerica of this regime of the bullies, for the billionaires.
• The MAGA murder regime is forcing us to struggle, handing everything we’ve created to care for each other to their billionaire backers. We must #FreeAmerica

Do’s and Don’ts

MAGA Regime & Corporate Cowards Price Us Out of Our Homes, Healthcare and Food

For two weeks, 1 in 8 Americans went hungry because the Trump MAGA regime withheld SNAP benefits for the chance to finance fascism. Now that the regime has pushed through funding for MAGA’s war on Americans by holding our food, flights and paychecks hostage, these bullies and their billionaire backers are pricing us out of our homes, our healthcare and the food on our plates.  

Narrative

No matter what we look like, where we call home or what’s in our wallets, most of us would do whatever it takes to care for our families. But as Trump bulldozes our White House to build his ballroom, someone you love is choosing between having a home and having a meal because the MAGA regime and the corporate cowards that support them are stealing food from our families, cutting our healthcare and abducting our neighbors. By joining together, we can ensure all of our families have what they need and free America from rule by the bullies for the billionaires.

Talking Points

• The MAGA regime is making the choice to let children go hungry.
• This regime of bullies and their billionaire backers are holding down our wages, raising our prices and stealing food from our families.
• The MAGA regime is catering to billionaires while starving our families and stealing our wages.
• Today [or “this holiday season,” “this Thanksgiving”], someone you love will go hungry because of the MAGA regime.
• The MAGA regime and their corporate cowards are pricing us out of our homes, our healthcare and the food on our plates.

Trump’s Tariffs 

It’s critical that we harness ongoing anger over the Trump tariffs to keep pushing our broader narrative about the hostile takeover of our government by the MAGA murder regime. The Trump tariffs offer the ability to bring new people into resistance, refusal, and ridicule and we must welcome them to the broader cause of confronting the wrongdoing across all domains, including those that directly hit our finances and those that unleash untold horrors on our neighbors.

Narrative

Trump and MAGA are running a regime of the bullies, by the bribes, for the billionaires. From Trump’s tariffs seizing our wealth, to the hostile takeover of our government, to the abductions of our neighbors, this MAGA murder regime abuses and bankrupts anyone who doesn’t look, live, or love like them. They’re draining our savings, murdering our neighbors, and stealing medicine from seniors to enrich their billionaire backers. Only by joining together to confront these bullies who seek to control us will we protect our freedoms, our families, and our futures.

Dos and Don’ts

Executive Orders

As we endure the onslaught of Executive Orders that are harming our lives and endangering our livelihoods, we must take care to react in ways that advance our core aims. Reacting to each attack separately risks having Americans tune us out and perceive our pushback as “politics as usual” wherein one side instinctively dislikes the actions of the other. Instead, we must offer a repeated refrain to each action in order to have a hope of getting heard and being believed.

Principles for our response:

1. Ground in widely held shared values to make clear how the executive order harms us all

2. Make clear Trump is acting on behalf of the billionaires that brought him to power

3. Articulate the problem in personalized harms as opposed to lifting up how they stand to imperil institutions or abstract ideals

Narrative

No matter our races, genders or backgrounds, most of us value our freedoms. But today, Trump is doing the bidding of the billionaires who bought his way to power, claiming the power to control our lives and decide our futures by issuing an Executive Order to [insert Executive Order description]. But, standing united, we know that the many can defeat the money. By joining together and [insert relevant movement call to action] we can demand that our leaders protect our freedoms, our families and our futures.

Characterizing Potential Executive Orders

Dos and Don’ts

When Trump Defies Court Orders

Narrative

[Name the time frame: yesterday, last week, etc], the Trump MAGA regime defied a court order to [describe order: e.g., ensure our money funds the services we need, protect our air and ensure our children learn, protect our Social Security and Medicare], in order to seize more power and line the pockets of their billionaire backers. This is an assault on our country, our families, and the core freedoms we value as [name relevant identity, e.g. Americans, people of faith, Texans, etc]. Our freedom to earn a good living, retire in dignity, get affordable care and have leaders who represent us, not rule over us. Now is the time for every person who values liberty and justice to unite and fiercely defend our communities against this murderous regime of the bullies, for the billionaires. Only by joining boldly together can we safeguard our freedoms, protect our families, and reclaim our future from those determined to dominate us.

Project 2025

As part of an effort called Project 2025, a coalition of over a hundred right-wing organizations researched, developed, and released a 920-page document that sets out the MAGA agenda for every aspect of Americans’ lives. From sabotaging our elections to seizing the resources we need for education, and from cutting Social Security and Medicare to dictating the religion we must practice, Project 2025 is MAGA’s guiding document for taking away freedoms from every aspect of our lives. Project 2025 includes banning contraception and taking away our freedom to decide what happens to our bodies, giving corporations more control over our families, and allowing discrimination based on our races, genders, and origins.

It is critical to talk about this agenda by affirming our values within our own frame. Instead of repeating the MAGA movement’s hateful rhetoric, we must call out how they deliberately spread false claims so they can turn us against each other, take away our freedoms, and impose their will. And to avoid cynicism and defeatism, we must always remind our audience of our own power when we join together, the many against the money, to protect our freedoms.

Research

Below are the agenda items in Project 2025 that voters consistently identified as most concerning in our research during the 2024 election cycle. Voters see these policies as an attempt to control our lives, decide our futures for us and take us backwards.

• Removing checks on presidential power, allowing Trump to rule over us completely unrestrained
• Taking away our freedom to decide when, whether and how to have children:

• Allowing state governments to monitor people’s periods and pregnancies to possibly prosecute them if they miscarry
• Restricting or banning access to abortion, fertility services, and contraception nationally

• Taking away our freedom to thrive by making massive cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare and giving corporations more control over our families

Talking Points

• MAGA Republicans want to rule over us, not represent us. Trump’s Project 2025 promises to remove checks on presidential power, paving the way for a MAGA dictatorship that will take away our freedoms.
• From taking away our freedom to make decisions about how to care for our bodies to stripping away our freedom to thrive with cuts to Social Security and Medicare, Trump’s Project 2025 is the MAGA movement’s plan to control our lives and imperil our livelihoods.
• By eliminating programs like Social Security and Medicare, MAGA’s Project 2025 takes away our freedom to thrive.
• Project 2025 is MAGA’s plan to take away our freedom to make decisions about what happens to our bodies. From banning contraception and abortion to monitoring people’s pregnancies, MAGA Republicans are determined to strip us of our reproductive freedoms and decide our futures for us.
• Trump’s Project 2025 confirms what we already know: MAGA Republicans want to control us and decide our futures for us, taking away our freedom to get the care we need, vote in fair elections and decide whether and when we grow our families.
• Trump’s Project 2025 is MAGA’s plan to control our families and decide our futures for us. By joining together as we have in the past, we can reject Trump’s plan and protect our freedoms.

Dos and Don’ts

Responding to Political Violence from Militarization to Arresting Elected Officials to Assassination

*Gratitude to Over Zero for their guidance, incorporated here

Guidelines

• Continue telling the truth about this regime. Ongoing violence does not happen in a vacuum nor is it of unknown origin. Naming the culprits - the MAGA regime, gun lobbyists and the hatred they fuel - is essential to countering MAGA’s lies about immigrants, activists, LGBTQ+, Black or Indigenous folks. Further, unless we make clear there is a known cause of our problems – by saying that violence simply “is increasing” or threats “are occurring” – we leave Americans with a sense that there is no possible cure.
• Avoid feeding “both sides” sentiments. Avoid statements about how we must all “remember to act peacefully,” or “recommit to the democratic process,” or “pledge to condemn hateful rhetoric.” These make it seem like political and other types of violence are of origins unknown.
• Seize the moral high ground. Begin by affirming broadly-held shared values. Present popular solutions to violence and demand unity not as rhetoric but as concrete action. “We must come together” is a platitude, if presented without a clear demand.
• Activate shared identity: Create a big “we” to transcend “us” vs. “them” framing.
• Build a sense of agency and reassert positive norms: Give people clear, constructive, and nonviolent ways to take action in support of affected communities.
• Do not amplify right-wing hatred. Cataloging examples or repeating the lies of the MAGA regime’s violent rhetoric spreads their statements.
• Focus on outcomes, not process. Arguments about hypocrisy - they said X but are doing Y - fall flat. Instead, it’s far better to present outcomes based arguments – making clear how current events and desired solutions will impact real people’s lives.
• Avoid spreading fear or providing incentives for greater violence. Don’t create the sense that violence is more widespread, normalized or inevitable than it is. Avoid naturalistic metaphors (“violence erupted” “protestors flooded the streets” “swarms of people”.) Don’t glorify wrong-doers by repeating their names.
• Take care not to feed hunger for a “strongman.” While it is critical to name the need to address the violence in our country, focusing too much on “danger,” especially without indicating we have solutions for it, risks tacitly feeding desire for an authoritarian “strongman.” When people are operating from fear, they are more susceptible to promises that someone can come and provide “law and order.”

Recommended Messaging 

No matter our background, origin, or party, most of us believe that violence has no place in our politics, our schools, or our communities. Yet as the nation mourns another tragic shooting, the MAGA regime is feeding our fears and fanning the flames of violence. There is one reason Americans fear for our lives when we do the most basic things: ready access to guns. There is one massively popular solution this regime keeps blocking: common sense gun laws. Allowing anyone to buy a gun and massacre people is a choice we don’t need to keep making.

The MAGA regime is using this shooting to push more violence against people based on what we look like and where we come from. We must come together to Free America from rule by the bullies for the billionaires, and pass laws the majority of us favor to make this a place where everyone is safe to come home to the people we love.  

Responding to Political Violence from Militarization to Arresting Elected Officials to Assassination (c3)

*Gratitude to Over Zero for their guidance, incorporated here

Guidelines

• Make clear the origins of violence. Ongoing violence does not happen in a vacuum. Naming the culprits - however possible in your context - is essential to countering lies about immigrants, activists, LGBTQ+, Black or Indigenous folks. Also, saying that violence simply “is increasing” or threats “are occurring,” leaves Americans with a sense that there is no possible cure.
• Avoid feeding “both sides” sentiments. Statements about how we must all “remember to act peacefully,” or “recommit to the democratic process,” or “pledge to condemn hateful rhetoric.” These make it seem like political and other types of violence are of origins unknown.
• Seize the moral high ground. Begin by affirming broadly-held shared values. Present popular solutions to violence and demand unity not as rhetoric but as concrete action. “We must come together” is a platitude, if presented without a clear demand.
• Activate shared identity: Create a big “we” to transcend “us” vs. “them” framing.
• Build a sense of agency and reassert positive norms: Give people clear, constructive, and nonviolent ways to take action in support of affected communities.
• Do not inadvertently repeat hateful, scapegoating rhetoric or amplify white nationalist hatred. Cataloging examples or repeating violent rhetoric spreads white nationalist statements.
• Focus on outcomes, not process. Arguments about hypocrisy - they said X but are doing Y - fall flat. Instead, it’s far better to present outcomes based arguments – making clear how current events and desired solutions will impact real people’s lives.
• Avoid spreading fear or providing incentives for greater violence. Don’t create the sense that violence is more widespread, normalized or inevitable than it is. Avoid naturalistic metaphors (“violence erupted” “protestors flooded the streets” “swarms of people”.) Don’t glorify wrong-doers by repeating their names.
• Take care not to feed hunger for a “strongman.” While it is critical to name the need to address the violence in our country, focusing too much on “danger,” especially without indicating we have solutions for it, risks tacitly feeding desire for an authoritarian “strongman” who can provide “law and order.”

Recommended Messaging

No matter our background, origin, or party, most of us believe that violence has no place in our politics, our schools, or our communities. Yet as the nation mourns another tragic shooting, certain politicians* feed our fears and fan the flames of violence. There is one reason Americans fear for our lives when we do the most basic things: ready access to guns. There is one massively popular solution certain lawmakers keep blocking: common sense gun laws. Allowing anyone to buy a gun and massacre people is a choice we don’t need to keep making.

Certain politicians* are using this shooting to push more violence against people based on what we look like and where we come from. We must come together to Free America from rule by the bullies for the billionaires, and pass laws the majority of us favor to make this a place where everyone is safe to come home to the people we love.  

*adapt as possible for your context

Supreme Court: How to Talk about the Roberts Court and the MAGA Regime

The Roberts Court has spent years paving the way for a MAGA dictatorship, and their latest rulings show they will stop at nothing to take away our freedoms and rule for their billionaire backers. Use the message below when addressing the role of the Roberts Court in the MAGA regime’s murderous rule.

For additional guidance on the Roberts Court and their rulings, please refer to Messaging the Roberts Court: A Freedom Over Fascism Supplemental Guide.

Narrative

Our leaders, whether elected or appointed, must respect our will and govern in our interest, not seize power, take bribes, and rule over us. But the MAGA Justices on the Roberts Court have betrayed the American people and paved the way for a MAGA dictatorship. From taking away our freedom to make decisions about our bodies to rubber-stamping the abduction of our neighbors to letting corporations seize the wealth our work creates, this Court rules for the bullies and billionaires who installed them. By joining together from New York to Nevada, Kentucky to California, Alabama to Arizona, the many must defeat the money and protect our freedoms, our families, and our futures.

Dos and Don’ts

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