By Ben Riggleman

Are you worried? Angry? Disgusted? Good. If you’re an American who’s been paying attention, that’s what’s called for. There’s no excuse for apathy.

Let’s recap. Here’s some of what the 45th president has been up to at the time of writing (Jan. 30):

• With an executive order, slamming the door on Syrian refugees indefinitely, cutting overall refugee admission by more than half, freezing the refugee-admission program for 120 days, and banning people from seven arbitrarily chosen Muslim countries from setting foot in America. “Extreme vetting” is the buzzword of the hour — never mind that the old refugee-vetting system is a tortuous, 20-step process including two background checks, three fingerprint screenings, and an “extensive, in-person interview with [a] Homeland Security officer.” (Source: New York Times, Jan. 29.)

(And if you think the travel ban will help stop terrorism, remember that natural-born citizens are responsible for the vast majority of terror attacks on U.S. soil. What’s more, out of all the high-profile American Islamist terrorists of the last 20 years, I count only one — last year’s Ohio State gunman — with ties to a country on the ban-list. The list does not target radical hotbeds Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or Afghanistan — or, tellingly, any country where The Trump Organization has done business (Source: Washington Post, Jan. 28.) It does target Iraq, though, despite Iraq being one of our biggest allies in fighting ISIS. Finally, consider the order’s propaganda value to jihadi recruiters. They sell the line that America hates Muslims.)

• Imposing a “blackout” on the Environmental Protection Agency by executive memo. Social media and blog posts, website updates, and press releases are all verboten for now. In addition, all business activity by the EPA has been put on temporary hold; the agency cannot award any grants or contracts. Similar orders have gone out to two other environment-focused departments, Agriculture and Interior. (Source: Los Angeles Times, Jan. 24.)

• Packing his cabinet with a lineup of swampy characters: a secretary of state with business interests in Russia (Tillerson); a treasury secretary whose banking corporation is under investigation for foreclosing on thousands of homes, and who stashes his millions in offshore tax havens (Mnuchin); a climate-skeptic EPA chief who did the bidding of oil companies while serving as Oklahoma attorney general (Pruitt); and a labor secretary who’s praised the advantages of replacing human workers with robots (Puzder). Did I mention that none of these people have any experience in government? That many of Trump’s other picks (DeVos, Carson, Perry) are fantastically unqualified? That several (Sessions, Bannon) are bigots? Or that Trump’s cabinet is the wealthiest in history?

• Dangerously reordering the National Security Council. President Trump’s second national security memo demoted the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the highest-ranking officer in the armed forces!) to part-time membership. At the same time, it made a spot on the Council for alt-right-hand-man Steve Bannon. As head of Breitbart News, Bannon signed off on headlines like “The Confederate Flag Proclaims a Glorious Heritage”; now he’ll be weighing in on diplomacy and drone strikes.

There’s much more cause for concern: the blizzard of unhinged Tweets, the standoff with Mexico, the fate of the Affordable Care Act, and the other ominous campaign promises. I can’t cover everything here.

The bottom line is that President Trump deserves to be met with resistance.

Marches and demonstrations are important. They grow visibility, solidarity and morale. But we can’t neglect the old, unexciting political channels: we must fire on all cylinders. Call your legislators! (You may get a pre-recorded message, but don’t be discouraged. It just means their lines are flooded.)

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) is a critical swing vote in the battle over Trump’s cabinet. Rejecting any of the nominees will require peeling off three Republicans, and she could well be one. She needs to hear from us.

We’ve also got to be thinking ahead. Like them or not, Democrats are our best hope for holding back Trump’s agenda. We must work to get them elected in as many House districts as possible in 2018. All 435 seats will be up for grabs, and whoever holds them at the time of the 2020 U.S. census gets to fortify their incumbent advantage by redistricting. (AKA gerrymandering — it’s one reason for the present Republican stranglehold on the House.) Thirty-three Senate seats will also be open. I haven’t researched important races yet, but I know I’ll be phone-banking when the time comes.