Remember this photo? This man decided that it was OK to keep mowing his lawn even while there was a tornado on the ground about a mile away from him. Apparently he had some knowledge about storms, and he must have kept an eye on it each time he was mowing in its direction, so he was able to see that it wasn’t going to hit him. But other people are not so lucky. Every year, tornadoes do hit homes and communities; some years are off years, other years see devastating storms.
This story reminds me of a debate going on within the Democratic base: To what extent should our party platform include simply opposing Trump and restoring checks and balances, vs. what should we claim to stand for? I think the answer is, that opposition should be front and center. Right at the top of the list.
When I hear people on the Left claim that we should spend time not just claiming what we’re against, but what we’re for, I think of that photo and imagine someone saying, “OK, I know there’s a tornado nearby, but what we really need to be talking about is what kind of flowers to plant in the backyard, what kind of paint to use on the outside wall, whether it’s time to clean the gutters, etc.”
Um, hello? Are you kidding me? There. Is. A. Tornado. In the words of the famous Metallica song, nothing else matters. Nothing. If that tornado had been on course to hit that house, then the best paint in the world wouldn’t have mattered at that point in time.
Such it is with the state of our country right now. But unlike in this story, where the tornado passed harmlessly by, this one is headed right for some people. This one’s picking up steam. And unlike what some of us had been hoping for, it is showing no signs of going away any time soon. If anything, a better analogy would be the May 20, 2013 Moore, OK tornado. Right now we’re in the early stages of this storm, but human lives are in the way, and they are in imminent danger.
There’s another divergence from the analogy: This tornado can be stopped. And it needs to be stopped. And stopping the tornado is the single greatest priority right now. Our base feels it, deeply. It consummates many of our thoughts and feelings in a way that has not happened in a long time, maybe in none of our lifetimes. It’s one of the core beliefs that bridges the centrist and populist wings of the party.
But wait a minute: Once the tornado is gone—if it does go—what then? We’ll need to focus on rebuilding the middle class, creating a strong climate policy, improve voting rights, and so forth. But that assumes that we can even get that far. Stop the disaster, clean up from it, and build better in its place, in that order. Stop Trump, clean up his mess, and build a better America, in that order. The order is everything. We cannot return to the task of improving this nation until Trump is stopped.
So let’s refocus on stopping Trump’s agenda as a core part of the Democratic platform. Remember how well it worked for Republicans to do the same to Obama? In just two years, they took away the Democratic majority in the House; four years later, they did the same to the Senate; and two years after that, they took the White House. So there is precedent for doing this sort of thing. Let’s do it. Let’s stop Trump, clean up his mess, and build a better America, in that order.