I will certainly understand if you do not choose to answer this, but as someone who is deeply afraid of the direction the United States appears to be lurching in, I wanted to ask if you had any particular organizations, politicians, or other entities that you believe have a chance of bringing the country back to a society where (small “d” and “r”) democratic and republican values are under less of an assault. I frequently feel lost and bewildered trying to make sense of who is actually useful, and who is merely marketing themselves in a way designed to appeal to us.

I wish I had a useful answer to your question, but so far as I’ve been able to discover, a great many of the organizations (I say a “great many” because there’s no way I can look into all of them) fall into one of several groups: those who are idealistically trying to find a solution, but clearly don’t understand the current system; those who are merely trying to cash in (as you mentioned): those who endorse a single issue as “the solution,” worthy as that cause may be; those who are essentially hate groups, ranging from thinly disguised to avowedly hate-mongering. There are also groups which attempt realistic analyses and present alternatives and who do understand the political sphere, such as Resources for the Future, but avoid getting involved in the political process.