Forget Recriminations. Let’s Organize!

Waking up to the shock of almost every swing state going for Trump, crying the first tears I’ve ever shed over an election result, it would be very easy to join the hair-pulling and overanalyzing that will be sure to follow.

I have lots of ideas about that–but I’m not going to play that game. The past is past. The future is at stake.

The Left needs to ask itself two questions:

1. What will effective nonviolent resistance to the expected aktions (I deliberately use the German word) around immigrant rights, freedom of the press, etc. (as well as the day-to-day policy struggles around the 1%, climate change, and other issues) look like?
2. How do we most successfully organize that resistance?

On #2, I finally signed up for (and sent money to) Bernie Sanders’ Our Revolution movement today. I think it has the best chance of bringing this movement forward through electoral channels. But of course, we need a lot more than electoral channels. We need to challenge this new and ugly reality at every turn. The resistance must be strong, rooted in the power of nonviolence, and willing to use every tactic of other successful nonviolent struggles like the US Civil Rights and women’s suffrage movements, the Gandhian struggle for Indian independence, and yes, Occupy.