Protect Democracy: The Movement for Freedom — March 20, 2026
Protect Democracy — March 20, 2026: Epstein cover-up, Big Oil war profits, Equal Tax Act & shifting Democratic views on Israel. Fight back now.
🗽 Protect Democracy: Fair Maps, Fair Votes, Our Future
Democracy doesn’t collapse overnight — it is hollowed out piece by piece, not by accident, but by design.
Powerful interests manipulate voting maps, weaken oversight, and rewrite the rules to protect themselves while silencing the public. This week, we see it clearly: a deputy attorney general burying Epstein files to protect the powerful, Big Oil pocketing billions from a war working families are paying for at the pump, and dark money flooding Democratic primaries to silence candidates who dare represent their voters. These are not separate scandals — they are the same system protecting itself.
Voter suppression and gerrymandering target Black and Brown communities, low-income families, the elderly — everyone historically pushed to the margins — because silencing the most vulnerable is how the powerful stay powerful.
That’s why Protect Democracy exists — to inform, connect, and mobilize. Freedom is a daily act. And democracy survives only when the people defend it.
Why the Grassroots Resistance Can’t Wait
💥 Your Power in Action: What You Can Do Today
Take action: Tell Congress to pass the War Powers Resolution and stop Trump’s illegal war in Iran
📢 Take action: Submit an official comment rejecting the criminalization of dissent
💸 Take action: This Tax Day, tell Congress to tax the rich and make life more affordable for working people and families
🗳️ Take action: Tell Congress to stop the SAVE America Act and defend the right to vote
🪖 Take action: Tell Congress to stop Trump from sending American troops into Iran and vote no on the draft
🛑 Take Action Now: Tell Congress: Block the $10 billion scam to fund Trump’s Orwellian Board of Peace
🗳️ Bonus action: Register to vote, vote in every election, and help your community do the same. Reproductive freedom is won and lost at the ballot box.
👑 Bonus action: Sign up for the next national No Kings Day of Action and show up in solidarity with everyone whose rights are under attack.
The movement for defending and protecting democracy starts here.
📰 What’s Happening: Stories Shaping Our Democracy Right Now
🕵️ Trump’s DOJ Is Blocking Unredacted Epstein Files — and Surveilling Congress
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump’s own former personal defense attorney — is blocking the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from releasing an unredacted 69-page file detailing a secret 2015 investigation into Epstein’s drug trafficking and prostitution network. Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Whitehouse sent a formal letter to Blanche after learning the DEA was fully prepared to comply with his request — until Blanche personally intervened to stop it. Wyden accused Blanche and Attorney General Pam Bondi of hiding files in a “black box” at the DOJ in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act — and alleged the DOJ is surveilling members of Congress who go to view them. (Bloomberg)
Why it matters for democracy: When the deputy attorney general — a man who defended Trump in court — can bury a federal investigation and spy on legislators demanding answers, accountability has been replaced by cover-up. The DOJ works for the people, not to protect the powerful. People Power United stands with Senator Wyden and Senator Whitehouse: the truth belongs to all of us.
💰 Big Oil Is Profiteering Off Trump’s Iran War. Democrats Are Fighting Back.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Ro Khanna reintroduced the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act — legislation that would place a 50% tax on oil companies’ war-inflated profits and return the money directly to American families via quarterly rebates. Since the beginning of the war, oil prices have surged from under $70 a barrel to around $100, and national average gas prices have jumped from $2.94 the week before the war to $3.84. 1At $100 per barrel, the levy would raise approximately $33 billion per year2 — money that goes back to the families paying for it at the pump, not to Big Oil executives. (The Guardian)
Why it matters for democracy: This is the authoritarian economic playbook made visible — a war of choice enriches Trump’s donor base while working families absorb every cent of the cost. The Windfall Profits Tax is people-powered accountability in action. Over 70 organizations are demanding Congress pass it. Add your voice.
⚖️ Sen. Markey’s Equal Tax Act: Make Billionaires Pay Like the Rest of Us
Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) introduced the Equal Tax Act, landmark legislation ensuring that millionaires and billionaires who earn their money through passive investments pay the same tax rate as Americans who earn theirs through work. The bill closes major loopholes exploited by the ultra-rich and ends a system where wealth is taxed less than labor — a structure that has concentrated power in fewer and fewer hands for decades. The Patriotic Millionaires praised the bill, calling the current tax code “democracy-destabilizing.” (Common Dreams)
Why it matters for democracy: Tax policy is democracy policy. When billionaires pay lower rates than nurses and teachers, they accumulate not just money — but political power, influence, and control over our elections. Extreme inequality is how oligarchy takes root. Senator Markey is naming that threat directly, and we need to amplify it.
🌍 Democratic Voters Are Shifting on Israel — and Candidates Are Listening
Heading into the 2026 midterms, Democratic candidates are facing voters who are increasingly critical of unconditional U.S. military support for Israel. In California, candidates for Nancy Pelosi’s open House seat were asked publicly whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza — two said yes. Meanwhile, AIPAC and its affiliates have spent nearly $14 million targeting Democratic candidates in just four Illinois House races — running ads focused on immigration and affordability to obscure their real goal: punishing any Democrat who would consider conditioning military aid to Israel. Governor Gavin Newsom has used the word “apartheid” to describe Israeli policies in the West Bank. (NPR)
Why it matters for democracy: When billions in outside money flood primaries to silence dissent, voters lose representation and elected officials stop answering to the people. Grassroots accountability is the antidote — and Democratic voters are making their views impossible to ignore.
🔍 The Broader Pattern for Defending and Protecting Democracy: This Is the Blueprint.
This week’s stories look different on the surface — Epstein files buried, oil profits soaring, billionaire tax loopholes intact, outside money flooding primaries. They are all the same fight. The Trump DOJ is suppressing investigations to protect the powerful. Big Oil is pocketing billions from a war Americans are funding at the pump. The tax code rewards wealth over work. And special-interest money targets any candidate who dares challenge it. This is not coincidence — it is the Project 2025 playbook: concentrate economic and political power at the top, dismantle every mechanism of accountability, and keep ordinary people from connecting the dots.
But we are connecting them. Democratic voters are demanding honest answers and honest representation. Fascism thrives when people feel isolated and powerless. People Power United exists to make sure that never happens. When we see each other and stand together, no playbook can hold us back.
🔥 What Comes Next: The Work Is Ours
American democracy was never handed down — it was built and defended by ordinary people. Not kings. Not billionaires. Us. And right now, that lineage is being tested by every buried file, every war profiteer, and every dark-money ad designed to drown out your voice.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. When we demand a windfall tax on Big Oil, when we stand with Senator Wyden and Senator Whitehouse calling out a DOJ cover-up, when we back candidates who actually represent us — we are not just reacting. We are governing. That is people power in action, and no blueprint for authoritarianism survives it.
Now that you know the truth, do not let it end with you. Share this post with someone who needs to read it, show up for the next action, and stay in this movement long after the news cycle moves on. Use what you know to challenge silence, fear, and lies. Real change does not come from one click, one petition, or one day of outrage. It comes when ordinary people refuse to look away, refuse to back down, and refuse to surrender their power. That is how we turn truth into action, action into strength, and strength into a movement no billionaire, bully, or authoritarian can stop. Freedom over fascism. Progress over fear. Power to the people — all of us.
Together, we can champion our rights, freedoms, and democracy, hold our leaders accountable to the people’s will, and inspire voters to make a meaningful difference.
Laurie Woodward Garcia (paid with hugs and kisses, not bought by special interests) Leader, People Power United
People Power United | In this community, we will always speak out against racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, misogyny, sexism, ageism, ableism, sizeism, elitism, transphobia, misogynoir, and bigotry!
This is our moment to rise, resist, and reclaim our rights, freedoms, rule of law, and democracy. Millions of Americans are already refusing to back down — in the streets, at the ballot box, and in their communities.
Every movement that was ever won started with people who refused to quit. We are those people.
The future is not lost. It is being built — by us, right now.