This week Republicans gather in Wisconsin for their National Convention. On Monday, Iowa’s own Jeff Kaufmann nominated the convicted criminal for president. Readers may ask, “Why would I care about that?” Here are things you could do instead of engaging in the RNC clown show:

Get ready to vote. This is easy. Go to https://iwillvote.com and check to see if you are registered to vote. Then register if you are not or if your information changed.

Educate yourself. Learn about the Iowa Democratic Party at https://iowademocrats.org/. In particular, go to the about page and learn who is in party leadership, who represents us on the Democratic National Committee and on the State Central Committee. There is also information about the various constituency caucuses. The IDP constitution, party platform, by-laws and other party documents are linked here. The state party maintains an events calendar here. A number of events are held on Zoom, so you can participate from where you are. Mid summer is a perfect time to get acquainted with the IDP.

Contact candidates for state house and state senate in your district. More than anything, we Democrats need to pick up seats in both chambers of the legislature. Helping your Iowa House or State Senate candidate is as grassroots as it gets. They can use a helping hand. The IDP website has a list of candidates here. You may need to work to find your candidates, but getting involved with a candidate at the district level can be rewarding.

Engage with your county Democratic Party. The level of engagement among county parties varies throughout the state. While Republicans are bloviating from a podium in Wisconsin, look up your county party and get involved. The IDP website has a list of the county party chairs here. Contact the chair and I’m confident they can plug you into their activities as a volunteer.

Talk to friends and neighbors about voting. Ask people in your social circle (as differentiated from social media) to make sure they are registered to vote at https://iwillvote.com. Same goes for family members. It is unlikely a hard sell will work with friends and family. Just take the initiative and start a conversation about any topic you usually discuss. I believe you will quickly find these discussions will go toward political topics and you will discover whether politics can be added to the list of topics discussed with that person. Democrats do more when they take the initiative in social situations. We need to listen to those closest to us.

Figure a way to stay current with the national scene. Whatever you do, don’t sit in front of a screen and consume national news. Find authors who break things down for you and if they have a newsletter or substack, subscribe. Two I recommend are Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American on substack, and Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, also on substack. There are literally thousands of newsletters, substacks, and podcasts. Find the authors to whom you relate, and subscribe. Take the initiative to become your own editor.

Long-form learning. What better time than when Republicans are bowing down to their leader for reading a good book. Check out my post, A Progressive Summer Reading Program here for some recommendations.

Our corporate media will be super focused on the Republicans. A good defense to this is to have an alternative plan like the one in this post.