It has not yet even been two weeks since Donald Trump swept all seven battleground states and cruised to a popular vote victory. Yet, two months out from his inauguration and the beginning of his term, we are already getting a glimpse of the sort of chaos Trump’s second term has in store for our country.

Trump has gotten a headstart on his presidency by naming a handful of unnerving appointments to key positions in his administration. The most egregious of them point rather flagrantly toward a complete disregard for political norms. All Americans, even those who voted for and support Trump, should be startled.

The most alarming pick of the bunch is Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general. For those unfamiliar with Gaetz, he is one of Trump’s most devout attack dogs — and also the subject of a probe from the Department of Justice surrounding allegations of a federal sex trafficking investigation involving a minor, which was concluded without charges in 2023, and an ongoing Congressional ethics investigation on sexual misconduct and drug allegations.

It beggars belief that someone who was so recently the subject of a federal investigation involving a minor could suddenly be catapulted to lead the very department that was scrutinizing him. Though, there is hope that Gaetz will fail to be appointed by the Senate.

Gaetz was far from being the only bizarre appointment. Trump has also announced vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (who has also had brushes with the law) as his pick to lead the Department of Health and billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as leaders of something called the Department of Efficiency. Pointing out that the Department of Efficiency, which is in theory designed to make the government more efficient, has two leaders when every other federal department only has one seems trite at this point. The joke is on us.

Rounding out the unease, Trump has announced a bevy of hardline immigration officials and staunchly pro-Israel appointments, including Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. And Tulsi Gabbard, a former lawmaker known for her sympathetic views toward Vladimir Putin, has been tapped to lead the intelligence community.

The list goes troublingly on. If Trump’s early appointments are any indication of what lies ahead, the next four years are going to be norm-shattering and a real test of the foundation of our political system and Constitutional checks and balances.

Closer to home, things are similarly dispiriting.

To start, Colorado is already wrestling with the fact that Trump announced that our state is set to be the starting point for “Operation Aurora,” a mass deportation of noncitizens convicted of violent crimes that is sure to be deeply tumultuous and divisive.

Trump’s victory has also emboldened some individuals to unleash their darkest racist impulses. Shortly after the election, Black Coloradans were among those who received text messages ordering them to report to “pick cotton” on a plantation.

It’s hard to stomach hearing such bigotry in this day and age when we as individuals and as a country have no excuse to not know better. That children and teenagers were the targets of these messages is all the more appalling.

For those opposed to this version of America, it can be easy to feel powerless. The election is over. We voted, but in vain.

Before the election, we made a plea for Boulderites to get out and vote and offered the reminder that “we cannot have the attitude that our vote does not matter. It is easy to believe that a vote here or there would not have swayed a result, but results are the accumulation of single votes. Every vote, here and there, makes a difference.”

We return to this plea because it still holds true — every vote, and now every action, still has the power to make a difference.

This is by no means a call to resist Trump’s appointment. He won the election fair and square. Our job is not to contest that reality, but to protest the appointments, policies, actions and rhetoric we disagree with.

The best way to do this is to redouble our efforts to make our community the inclusive and equitable place we aspire to be.

As we noted last week, while the rest of the country took a demoralizing step backward, the citizens of Boulder and Colorado continued striding into the future. We elected strong leaders and passed amendments and propositions that will improve the well-being of all of our community members.

Post-election, we have to build on this progress. An obvious place to start is for our community to uplift our struggling nonprofit safety net. After Boulder County’s recent announcement that it was cutting $4 million in grants for local nonprofits, these service providers put out a call for help as they approach a “critical moment.” Donating to and volunteering with these organizations could go a long way toward uplifting the whole of our community.

Of course, helping out our local nonprofits is not going to counteract an extremist immigration policy or put a stop to the bigotry that has been unleashed, but it is a great way to remember that we do have agency in our community and we really and truly can make Boulder a better place for those living here — even if the country around us is not living up to her ideals.

There are many other ways to get involved and make positive changes. We can get civically engaged and attend City Council meetings or any of the meetings of our local boards and commissions, which benefit from citizen input and oversight; we can subscribe to and support local media to help bolster the resources available to them to hold those in power to account; and we can do our part to ensure the next generation is civically minded, media literate and prepared to take on the challenges of the future.

The point here is not to view the upcoming Trump administration with rose-colored glasses, but rather to serve as a reminder of the fact that despondency is of no more use in uncertain times than apathy. This election may not have gone the way the vast majority of Boulderites would have hoped, but we as a community are not powerless. We can keep making Boulder a better place for everyone here.

— Gary Garrison for the Editorial Board