Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Trapp.
Hi Mike, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In 2024 I left my job as executive director of a domestic violence and sexual assault center and wrote The Practical Guide to Building a Better World, published by Bread and Roses Publishing. With a long career in social services, protest organizing, and as local elected official I wrote a memoir driven how-to on making the world a better place. From personal lifestyle to direct action, to the social services skillset, the reader will learn how to organize a protest, start a business, run for office, and even how to govern when you win.
To support my change efforts, with some other experienced political organizers we founded the New American Community, a federal PAC to support local organizing. Think nationally, act locally. We are providing organizing and technical assistance to Democratic County Party Organizations, the real engine of democracy. We are also fighting mass deportation by stopping CoreCivic from reopening their troubled private prison as an ICE detention facility. We bolstered and supported our city’s successful lawsuit forcing them to go through the Special Use Permit Process. We are using this fight as model and building a national movement of those opposed to private prisons and ICE detention.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My biggest struggle was switching gears from the solitary pursuits of a writer to the slow and collaborative publishing process. Writing the book before the election and then editing it in a very different world was something I hoped to avoid but I am glad I did not. Having the opportunity to address the rise of authoritarianism kept me from being immediately dated. Having a relevant how to on build grassroots democratic movements, recovery-oriented systems of care, political campaigns, mass mobilization, and mutual aid projects are all super timely.
On the political organizing front the biggest challenge has been a lack of trust and suspicion towards a new player in grassroots democratic politics. After raising direct donations to fund organizing and fundraising support for rural and hard to organize areas, we had a lot more difficulty getting long-shot campaigns and under supported county party organizations to accept our free help. With a lengthening list of accomplishments we are hoping to gather testimonials and references to increase the scope of the work. In spite of this lack of trust we have garnered 200 survey responses from county parties and helped dozens of local groups across the country.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
To promote a book and be a social movement entrepreneur for local organizing and capacity building in rural America takes some creativity. We started the New American Community to allow grassroots political fundraising to support both my creative efforts and build a solid political organization. We also started a consulting firm Clear Creek Solutions, to both manage the PAC and also address local and state issues that a federal PAC can’t.
As both a nine-year Columbia, Missouri City Council Member, performance poet, clinical practitioner, nonprofit manager and executive, protest organizer, and anarchist mutual aid project organizer I bring a lot to the table. The Practical Guide and a PAC with a broad focus on hard to organize communities has been an amazing opportunity to link all of my disparate interests.
We have started a podcast, multiple blogging outlets, and I have been writing op eds for local and regional news outlets. Fundraising has lagged since the election but our growing track record and for now regional notoriety is going to turn that around.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I like plans that start today. I like to focus on solutions. I like democracy, civility, and the rule of law. All of us who do, are on the same side now. I encourage you to consider yourself part of the pro-Democracy Alliance. I like listening, strategic planning, community collaboration, and native plants. I like thoughtful consumption and personal responsibility. I like the Detroit Tigers, when I want to see millionaires play baseball. I like to be part of the natural world and to help bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice.
I dislike complaining. I dislike authoritarians, would be authoritarians, and authoritarian defenders, though I recognize that evil is merely the absence of good and it is our highest purpose to fill up the void with truth, love, and beauty.
Pricing:
- The Practical Guide to Building a Better World $20.00
- I will stop drinking when I am named Secretary of Defense Koozie $10.00
- Membership in the New American Community $5.00 recurring
Contact Info:
- Website: https://miketrapp.store/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ekimppart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trappmike
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-trapp-b4941a5/
- Other: https://www.newamerican.community/
