THE PROJECT

Millions of lives have been up-ended by the actions of the Trump regime. In every area of the country (coastal, heartland, urban, rural, red, blue, purple), Americans have been fired, demoted, defunded, deported, disappeared, or hammered in the pocketbook. “We Are Your Neighbors” is an effort to gather and share these stories – as many as possible, as widely as possible.

For a sense of where we’re headed, picture this demonstration website multiplied several times over. Were buidling a gallery of portraits of individual, relatable people, with brief accounts of what they’ve been through and video testimony to accompany the text wherever possible. Then imagine a high-energy promotional campaign (making heavy use of local radio and TV as well as social media, neighborhood listserves, and other unconventional channels) to call these stories to broad public attention – the attention, above all, of people who aren’t yet sufficiently alarmed.

OUR AIMS

Many people voted for Trump without admiring him or sharing all his ugly impulses. Many are already feeling unsettled, and, depending on the course of the economy and other forces, could sooner or later be in a mood to defect. How they react, though, will partly depend on how we address them. In a recent New York Times piece, the sociologist Arlie Russell-Hochschild quoted a Kentucky man’s warning that “People around here will get more pissed at the snarky left than they are at the hurtful right” if we try to sound clever and speak from on high – if our message comes across as “You Trump supporters brought this on yourselves.” With that audience and concern in mind, we’ll tell our stories in a matter-of-fact way, with a cover message that amounts to: “These people are your neighbors. Here’s how they’ve been treated.”

We’re not expecting magical results. Alongside other forms of resistance activity and the cruelty and recklessness of the Trump agenda itself, though, we think this project can help people grasp what Trump and Trumpism are really about and help stir a longing for simple decency and something like democracy.

More specifically, our project is intended to:

  • Dramatize the worth and humanity of immigrants and government workers – two of the administration’s prime target groups, chosen in the belief that most Americans don’t care much what happens to them.
  • Shine a light on the many other categories of people wounded by Trump’s policies.
  • Supply issue-focused advocacy groups with evidence to support their pushback.
  • Help shaken people find one another, break out of their isolation and distress, and forge strategies of resilience and resistance.
  • Serve as a valuable record of the human damage.

PROJECT TEAM

James Lardner (Project Director) is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker as well as The American Prospect and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. His books include “Up to Our Eyeballs: How Shady Lenders and Failed Economic Policies Are Drowning Americans in Debt” (co-author and editor) and “NYPD: A City and Its Police” (co-author). He is the host and producer of a podcast, Good Trouble, built around conversations with “organizers, movement-builders, and engineers and imaginers of change.”

Tom Weis (Reporter) is a climate and social justice activist as well as a longtime contributor to HuffPost and Common Dreams, among other online publications. He is the author of “WORLDFIRE: A Climate Journey from the Depths of Despair to a Haven of Hope.”

Lauren Jadotte (Reporter) is a communications strategist and designer who has spent her career amplifying stories that deal with financial justice, culture, and community. She has led storytelling and digital campaigns for national nonprofits and brings a background in journalism and visual communication to her reporting.

Emma Winn (Site Manager) is a communications professional, a 2025 graduate of Shepherd University, and an active member of the veterans’ community in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Douglas Lasdon is Executive Director of New York City’s Urban Justice Center, which he founded forty years ago in a burned-out building in East Harlem. Through its many anchor projects, UJC serves tens of thousands of people contending with homelessness, discrimination, and partner violence, among other deep problems.

Miles Rapoport is a longtime organizer, policy advocate, and elected official as well as the Executive Director of 100% Democracy, which seeks to reimagine voting as both a fundamental right and a civic responsibility, with every eligible citizen required to participate.

Nancy Rosenblum is a political scientist and political philosopher, Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University, and the author, most recently, of Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos.

Mike Tidwell is the founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., West Virginia, and nationwide.

LEGAL COUNSEL

Peter Jaszi is Emeritus Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, D.C., and a world-renowned expert on intellectual-property law.

FISCAL SPONSOR

We Are Your Neighbors is a project of the Oil and Gas Action Network (OGAN), an IRS-recognized 501c3 nonprofit.