Those are not mutually exclusive. I’m so tired of this nihilistic view.
Community and activism can only go so far, and since human decency is not something you can rely on, if you want things to get better you need actual laws that will protect you. The only way to have those is to actually elect people who at least have a chance to do something about it. That holds true both at the state level and federal level.

So yeah, strengthen your community, but for crying out loud vote for the right people as well.