Let's Do This: Here Are Seven Ways You Can Oppose the Republican Megabill

Photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash

One of the most common questions I am receiving over email lately is some variation of “I sign petitions, contact my elected officials, make small donations, write postcards and attend marches, but it never seems like enough. What else can I do to make a difference?”

This is a really good question, and so today I am going to try and answer it as best I can in the context of the budget reconciliation bill that contains Donald Trump's legislative agenda which Republicans are currently trying to shepherd through Congress. What can you actually do to oppose this bill, and how much of a difference can you actually make against it?

1. Petitions

Here are a couple petitions you can sign opposing the Republican megabill:

Sign the petition telling the Senate to Vote NO on Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Add your name denouncing House Republicans for passing a megabill that literally takes from the poor to give to the rich.

(Note: Signing the first petition might result in receiving emails from allied Democratic and progressive organizations who oppose the Republican megabill. Signing the second petition will not.)

What difference would signing these petitions make? Admittedly, not that much. For one thing, neither are actually going to be delivered to the offices of any particular targets. Further, even if there were deliveries of these petitions, the offices would probably just throw all of the signatures in the trash as soon as they received them. Now, it is possible that the organizations behind the petitions could work with reporters to generate some free publicity around a petition delivery, but even if they did, the effectiveness of this method is more about drawing attention through free media and not from the petitions themselves.

However, there are three things that petitions offer.

First, they can serve as a means of emotional venting for the people signing them.

Second, they can be a highly effective a means of connecting activist organizations with like minded citizens who they can contact in the future—basically, as vastly superior signup forms. I've used petitions as sign up forms for over 15 years now, and I have consistently found that they are about five times more effective at getting people to sign up for your organization than generic “sign up to join us” forms.

Third, petitions can make a difference in the way speeches, political social media posts, and op-ed pieces make a difference. These are all part of the broader discourse promoting different ideas. Petitions are one more way to do that.

It should also be noted that once in a great while, a petition can spark an idea so powerful and viral that it actually can make a meaningful difference in national politics. The example of this that always come to mind is cancelling student loan debt, which is an idea that came from a viral petition and which was eventually adopted into public policy (before being mostly struck down by the courts).

2. Letters

Here is a form that allows you to send letters to your senators, urging them to oppose the Republican megabill:

Please sign and send a short, pre-written letter to your U.S. senators, urging them to vote ‘NO’ on the Republican megabill.

(Note: Completing this form might result in receiving emails from allied Democratic and progressive organizations who oppose the Republican megabill.)

When you use this form to send this letter to your U.S. senators, the most likely outcome is that, a few days later, you will receive a generic response from them explaining why they favor or oppose the bill. This is the same response they will send to thousands of other constituents. Your response will not change the way they vote, but it might be entered into a tally of how many letters they are receiving for and against a piece of legislation. Effectively, you send your senators a pre-written letter, and they respond by sending you a pre-written letter back.

How much of a difference does this make? Individually, not very much, outside of remembering that all the caveats about petitions also apply to letters. One exception might be if you are contacting members of your own party about something over which the party is itself divided. These are instances when it is possible that, in conjunction with a large enough number of other people, you can make a difference in changing votes, mostly in a way that will generate greater uniformity within your own party.

3. Phone calls

You could also contact your senators over the phone by calling the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request. When you do this, you can leave a short message of your choosing with someone working in the office of one of your two U.S. senators, telling them that you oppose the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” and would like them to vote against it. Your message will then likely be added to tallies of people calling for and against that bill.

How much of a difference will that make? Again, not very much, but also not zero. The number of phone calls received for and against different pieces of legislation are typically conveyed to members of Congress. These tallies play a role in congressional decision making.

4. Donations

You could also make donations to members of Congress, or to their prospective opponents, as part of a pressure campaign to get them to oppose the Republican megabill (or any other bill). One way you could do that in this instance is to split a donation to the eventual Democratic nominees in the five Republican-held Senate seats that Democrats have the best chance of flipping in 2026: Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. I have made a form where you can do that, here:

Please, split a $20 donation to the Democratic nominees for U.S. Senate in Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, as well as to Bowers News Media PAC. Make Republicans pay at the ballot box in 2026 for the so-called “big, beautiful bill.”

How much of a difference will this make? On its own not very much, but also not zero. Senate races are expensive, but while each donation may be just a tiny percentage of the total cost, many small contributions can add up quickly.

5. Protests

You could join a protest against the megabill (although I don't think any large national protests are planned between now and when the bill is expected to pass).

As I wrote on the day of the No Kings protests, there are two primary ways that protests can make a difference. They can increase the courage of the people participating in the protests to continue to publicly dissent against the Trump administration. And if the protests receive positive media coverage they might persuade swing or marginal Trump voters who are growing disillusioned with their past support for Trump.

It is on the second point that the effectiveness of protests can vary quite widely. Some can even be counterproductive. Make sure you look into the protest you are attending before you go, specifically by learning more about who is organizing it and about the message the protests intend to spread.

6. Spreading the word on social media, and among your social contacts

It is pretty common among people who are highly politically engaged to debate the effectiveness of the messaging used by national political leaders. However, simply due to the sheer size of our country, you don't really have any ability to directly communicate with those leaders and thus make any impact on their messaging. This is just as much the case for the Republican megabill as it is for anything else.

Instead, you can make a difference by focusing on your own personal messaging among your social contacts and on your personal social media feeds. As I wrote back in March, “Don't think about what messaging Democrats should use. Think about what messaging you should use.” You are in complete control of your messaging, and as such it is what you should focus on.

No matter how small your social media feeds, and no matter how small your social circle, you have the ability to communicate with at least some other people about political news. As such, this is an avenue where you can make a difference.

7. Learning more

When all other avenues of activism are spent, one often under-appreciated action you can always take is to study and learn more about the piece of legislation that’s the focus of your activism.

The more informed you are, the more effective all your other types of activism will be. You will have a better idea of what petitions you should and shouldn't sign, of what letters you should and shouldn't send, of what you should and shouldn't say in phone calls to elected officials, of what candidates are more or less likely to benefit from your donations, of what protests are or are not worth attending, and of what messages you should spread among your social contacts and on your social media feeds.

Really, learning more is almost always the most effective form of political activism you can take, as long as it isn't the only form of political activism you take. This goes for the Republican megabill, and for every other political topic as well.