"I believe that it is important for all of us, regardless of party and regardless of political preferences to now come together, work together"- President Barack Obama, press conference with Donald Trump, November 10 2016.
(National Security Advisor Henry) Kissinger: "we’ve got to break the back of this generation of Democratic leaders.
(President Richard) Nixon: Yeah.
Kissinger: The [Cyrus] Vances, [Clark] Cliffords—
Nixon: That’s right.
Kissinger: —and company have to get out of public life. That is, the new ones, nowadays. We just don’t have all [unclear].
Nixon: Well, the other thing, too, we’ve got to break, we’ve got to destroy the confidence of people in the American establishment, too." -A segment of a private conversation between Nixon, Kissinger and H.R. Haldeman, April 17 1971.
Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States, Hillary Clinton will not. How does that make you feel? If it makes you feel good, if you voted for him, congratulations. This post is not for you. If you voted for someone else keep reading.
What is to Be Done? Lenin's centennial question is still with us. What is the Left doing to do now? Two days ago we thought we knew the answer, keep President Hillary's policies progressive, maintain the pressure. She couldn't possibly loose, I mean, look at the polling!
(Via) (Via)
Trump's coalition, such as it was, seemed filled with racists and sexists, laced with antisemitism and other bigotries. It couldn't possibly win in modern, multiracial America. But win it did. It won in part because the Republicans have always understood what liberals never have, politics is war by other means. Its not about coming together and compromising for the common good, its about maximizing your goals and forcing your ideology on the other side until you literally can't go any further. Its not raising money for the the party that nominated a fascistic serial rapist. Its not #WhenTheyGoLowWeGoHigh. The GOP didn't compromise with the Democrats in 2008 and 2012 when they got routed, instead, they identified the simplest path to victory, and did the things they needed to do to get there. While Obama was willing to surrender to social security and medicare cuts for just a few bits of revenue, endorse Chained CPI, and sacrifice other holy grails for the dream of a 'grand bargin' the Republicans laughed at him. They allowed Obama to push forward while they enveloped the Democratic Party from the side. Republicans now have total control (governorship, state house and senate) in at least 25 states, pending recounts, the Democrats have total control in only 5. For the first time since 1928 Republicans will be in control of the Senate, House, Presidency, Supreme Court, and the majority of the state legislatures. And now Trump can destroy Obama's legacy.
I titled this piece 'Verwüstung Krieg' which translates to 'Devastation War ' from the German. The Republicans have been waging one on us, its time to wage one on them. Just say no, don't negotiate, don't give give him a chance, don't poo poo the threat of fascism. When the autocrat says he'll do something, believe him. This is a man who ran on a platform on committing war crimes and instituting mass ethnic cleansing. He'll have the total power of the executive apparatus and the world's most powerful military at his fingertips. Even if he doesn't get everything he wants, millions will still suffer and die.
We can't let that happen. We need a campaign of massive civil disobedience. We need to stand up and speak our minds: LGBT rights are good. Abortion is good. Feminism and contraception are good. The social safety net and universal health care are good. I could go on, but you get the picture.
We also need a strategy that doesn't rely so much on the Democratic party establishment, Clinton didn't visit Wisconsin once during the general election, the first time a candidate hadn't done so since 1972. Those people are bad at their jobs. I live in Maine, in 2014 we had a good challenger for a Republican senate seat. Shenna Bellows was the real deal, former ACLU, a solid progressive. Her opponent, Susan Collins was a moderate Republican and very popular. Still, that would mean the Party would step up, right? Wrong, the Maine Democratic State Committee gave a total of 19,642 dollars to her campaign, or 0.008% of her total fundraising. Bellows got blown out.
A strategy outside the Democratic party means unions, and rebuilding them as a force to reckoned with. Not only do unions provide a 'union premium' on wages, they also provide greater racial and sexual equality for their members. Historically speaking unions have been on the progressive side of the fight. Unfortunately union membership has been on the decline. Here's a map of the percentage of workers in unions in 1964 by state:
(Via)
And 2014:
(Via)
Now undoubtably racism and sexism played a big deal in depressing Hillary's vote total. But the interaction between racism, sexism and voting behavior in more complex then one might imagine, there is evidence that membership in a union might be somewhat of a panacea: "in 2012 Barack Obama’s deficit among non-college whites in the top half of the racial-resentment scale was 26 percentage points smaller among those who belonged to unions than those in nonunion households." Furthermore, according to a 2012 study, although overall vote preferences among working class whites in unions versus non unions did not differ nationally between Obama and Romney those in Wisconsin and Ohio (and presumably the rest of the rust belt) did by 15+ points:
(Via)
But as you can see from the union density maps unions have been declining precipitously in the past 50 years, particularly in the rust belt. These were the states that killed Clinton if union membership had been where it once was, and not hollowed out Clinton probably would have won. (According to exit polling Trump beat Clinton among working class whites by a jaw dropping 39 points). Although we don't have that data on union effect and sexism (yet) its not a stretch to think its effect would be similar.
If we can build a multiracial, gender-equal union-based coalition we can put aside the tired debates of "race versus class" and create a better America, one which will see Trumpism annihilated. We can make America great for the first time, as we finally live up to her ideals!
And look, its already starting.
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