UNITED STATES — Even as activists took to the streets to protest the results of the presidential election, others adopted a quieter approach that has been since dubbed “rage donating” or the giving money to organizations that support populations deemed at risk once Donald Trump takes office. A web site named RageDonate was quickly created to channel this very desire; each screen pairs a Trump quote with a donation button tied to a related cause.
![Donald Trump [Wikipedia]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Donald_Trump_(25218642186).jpg)
Donald Trump [Wikipedia]
Specific Pagan causes have not been included in these high-profile lists, perhaps not surprising given that Pagans and those practicing related spiritualities collectively are only a very small portion of the population. The Wild Hunt reached out to representatives of some Pagan groups to find out if it appeared that they have benefited from these so-called “rage donations” since Nov. 8. Given the small sampling, this can only be considered anecdotal evidence, and no clear pattern can be gleaned at first glance.
A representative of Ar nDraiocht Fein: A Druid Fellowship responded, “ADF, as a church, is not permitted to engage in the political process, therefore we tend to whether political storms pretty well. I haven’t noticed an uptick in membership numbers” since the election.
Oberon Osiris noticed a change in the yearly cycle at Covenant of the Goddess, and it wasn’t a positive bump. Typically, they see a post-Halloween bump in emails from seekers, but that did not occur. “I have a feeling . . . the decline is tied to nervousness or paranoia about being known or seen to be contacting ‘Witches,’ since the election was won by Mr. Trump.”
“I can’t base it on any actual evidence, just the lack – even possibly more so than normal,” Oberon Osiris continued. “As of this date, late November I have no regular flow of other ‘info’ type questions I might have to handle. Just a lot less flow/volume than we normally get. I was not in this position in 2008 or 2012 so I can’t address if it happened during that Presidential campaign.”
On the plus is The Wild Hunt itself, according to managing editor Heather Greene. Social media followers and email subscribers have increased measurably, and there were even some unexpected donations, which are rarely made outside of the annual fund drive. Greene wrote, “Typically, we receive most of our funding through the fall drive, and that campaign ended before the election. But, since that point, we have been gifted with several unexpected donations. We appreciate the extra support.” Even without this small bump, Greene was clear that The Wild Hunt’s writers will continue to serve the Pagan, Heathen, and polytheist communities through what is widely expected to be uncertain times to come.
A representative from Lady Liberty League declined to comment, and no response was received from the Patrick McCollum Foundation in time for this story.
![[Pixabay]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/money-230265_1280-500x333.jpg)
[Pixabay]
Gwendolyn Reece posted a list of recommended organizations, and wrote,
This is not a sprint. Therefore we must consciously build our individual capacity and the capacity in our communities to keep going. That means self-care and cultivating joy. Grim determination only really works when it is an expression of love.
Other Pagans asked about their intentions had a variety of opinions. Some, like those above, intend on starting or increasing donations to various organizations. Elizabeth Sturino, for her part, is looking to hunker down and focus on local needs. “I think it is prudent to only spend on necessities, stock up on canned foods and alternative heating sources and put any ‘extra’ money into credit unions instead of a bank at this time. Volunteering is the most authentic form of donation as I am sure my time is going to directly benefit those whom I am serving.”
Activist Peter Dybing raised another question for those heading up progressive causes: “What is your organization’s plan for working with other unrelated progressive causes to defeat Trump? Our old fractured ‘my cause first’ approach is not something we can afford now. Real progressive mutual aid is the order of the day.”
Overall, it doesn’t appear that Pagans — nor any falling under the shadow of the Pagan umbrella — are feeling the need to express rage through their wallets. It is possible that they, like Sturino, are keeping charity close to home, or perhaps they are attempting to supplant rage with a different emotion for their own actions.
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My mother died two days before the election….I think she believed that Hillary would win and I am grateful that she didn’t have to see or anticipate the success of Trump. In her memory I made a donation to the SPLC and will continue to make regular donations to them and similar organizations until Trump is out. You can call it a “Rage Donation” if you wish.
I’m investing in guns, ammo and reloading supplies. An armed Pagan is prepared Pagan.
Pagan groups haven’t been at the top of my list of rage donations because I don’t feel especially at risk by virtue of my Pagan identity. Many of the values I hold around diversity and environmentalism etc. which are informed by my Pagan beliefs are at risk. I don’t feel I have reason to feel as personally threatened as do Muslims, immigrants, people of color, cis and trans women and so on.
The Trump movement isn’t about fundamentalist Christianity the way the conservative movement was in the Reagan and George W. years or the way it would have been under Ted Cruz. Trump’s movement is about extreme nationalism and nativism, and religion enters into that only to the extent it becomes a proxy for forces they consider foreign and innately hostile to “our country”. There will be religious discrimination, but I think better than 98% of it will fall upon Muslims, and much of the rest will include the garden variety anti-Semitism which has always been a core part of the white nationalism wing of Trump’s supporters. I don’t think Pagans loom large on the radar screen of Trump’s “what’s wrong with America” narrative. He isn’t going to dedicate a lot of resources to troubling us for our religion, but some of his fundie appointees might. We may well find ourselves re-fighting issues like veteran headstones, chaplaincy and freedom of practice within the military and prisons. Just being Pagan and out isn’t going to be especially dangerous by itself. In fact, the white power/racialist Pagans who are among Trump’s most energized supporters, are going to get along famously in the movement.
Part of what made Trump so devastatingly effective is that was very little orthodoxy and a dirt-low bar for entry. If you were pissed off about the state of our nation and believed it was somehow stolen from us by “them”, and believed that anything was better than the establishment, you were given a pitchfork and torch and welcomed warmly into the mob.
Going forward, the orthodoxy is going to be equally simple: Don’t question the narrative of the revolution or the Glorious Leader. Either get with the program or get run over. THAT is where we’re going to find friction as Pagans, because we don’t shut up or back down and because external threats are the one thing that transforms us from master-less rabble into an effective fighting force. Those of us of any religion or identity who seriously and publicly and effectively oppose Trump are going to find themselves at the sharp end of new and unconstitutional legislation, abusive and selective enforcement of existing laws, increased police brutality and quite possibly unofficial paramilitary thug groups of Trump supporters.
That is a favored tactic of Vladimir Putin, who is Trump’s idol, and it’s a fairly effective one. It’s already happened here. Fox reporter Megyn Kelly, who angered Trump over sexual abuse allegations. She found herself under constant siege, stalking and death threats by Trump loonies. He, of course, maintained he had nothing to do with that, but once she begged his forgiveness and made nice, the harassment shut off like a switch…
By all means, I think we should support Pagan groups as part of the local and regional nurturing networks we’ll need to get through this, but the big fights are going to be fought on broader issues of civil rights and the rule of law, and it’s good to put our resources into the proven fighters in those arenas.
In the case of the COG anecdotal evidence, I would suggest that there may be other reasons for the relative lack of inquiry this year. One, I think people were just preoccupied with shock after the election. I think Paganism has also permeated mainstream awareness to the point where there aren’t as many people who need to ask the basic questions of what we’re about. Lastly, COG is really about Wicca and closely related forms of witchcraft, and it’s my sense that little to none of the growth in our movement has been in that area in recent years as people have branched into various forms of hard polytheism, reconstruction trads and other systems. Even within the world of Wicca, COG by virtue of it’s membership structure and history has really been primarily oriented around traditional covens and clergy, and that’s not where almost any of us are at anymore.
Trump himself isn’t about fundamentalist Christianity, but he’s surrounded himself with them, and that’s the bubble that he’s getting his ideas from right now. Since he strikes me as someone easy to lead by the nose if only you agree with him all the time, I wouldn’t feel so secure if I lived over there.
I’m not a Trump supporter, but I think you’ve misread the motivations of most Trump voters.
Is it rage donation, or care donation? Caring about vulnerable communities who will be, and are being, disproportionately impacted by this presidency and his supporters who have been openly intimidating and harassing certain communities is not necessarily based in rage, but can be rooted in common human compassion. I think of it as compassion donation. We are here to take care of each other, and now it is needed more than ever.