I’ve been mulling a lot how to react to all this Trump lunacy, and while the emotional rollercoaster has been exhausting and exhilarating, I am starting to draw some important lessons I wanted to bounce off of anyone interested. My guess is that, like many of you, the election of Trump has been an absolute game changer. The danger posed by his presidency, as well as the GOP win, is terrifying.
At the same time, when I feel a bit more lucid, I am not really that scared at all. I think that, actually, they are really amateurish and are severely overplaying their hand. Barring a dictatorship or severe crisis, Trump should be seen as a gift to the Democrats. He is an incompetent disaster, and has energized our side to a degree I have never witnessed, way beyond the buildup to Iraq, the aftermath of Katrina, or the emergence of Obama. Things that should have been minor blips on the national consciousness — the crowd size thing could have been dismissed as “well, people from Trumpland don’t want to go to DC”, the dance with Mexico over wall payment should have been slow and methodical, and the immigration ban should have been vetted and rolled out slowly and carefully — were done in such a ham fisted way that they have galvanized our side and drawn the nation to join us. We have a tremendous opportunity.
But we need to act fast. Yes, protesting is great and it is heartening, but that is not what will get our agendas enacted and give us the power we need to roll back the last 20 years of slow Republican ascendancy. We need to build our party infrastructure like crazy. Yes, it is great that we are already pushing aggressively in all the special elections to replace people joining the administration — I happily gave to Jon Ossoff (who just broke $500K — AMAZING!!), but I want to know where I sign up to support the effort in red states. Like most of you, by definition, I live in a blue state (bluest of blue: Manhattan NY). I think the key will be getting taking action in purple/red states. We need to actively be able to threaten the Joe Manchins etc. of the world with getting primaried so they tow the line.
Most importantly, I just cannot bear the thought of the stupid DNC election dragging out until the end of March. Are these people for real? We know who the candidates are, we should call our congressmen and women to 1) call a vote ASAP and 2) encourage them to vote for the person who will most advance a structural agenda — my preference is Ellison, but the lack of excitement in that race has frankly been depressing. We need to get to work now. Not in two months.