What is to be done?

Friends,

This is devastating. A Trump presidency, a Braun-Beckwith governor’s office, a Rokita empowered as Attorney General, and a statehouse that will give even more control to our one-party state and hand away public resources to the rich. Many people I know are despairing and mourning today.

Anxiety and sorrow, like all emotions, are not bad things in and of themselves. Feel your feelings. Experience your emotions. Sit with them and thank them. Trust me, I know from firsthand experience that you cannot outrun or deny them.

But when you’ve finished mourning (for now), it’s time to roll up our sleeves.

To me, last night served as the death knell to the corporatist leadership of the Democratic Party.

I strongly disagree with and reject the messaging I’ve seen this morning that “the country is simply racist and sexist” or “the people of this country are Bad People who cannot be reasoned with.”

I’m a socialist. That means that I believe that the working class of this country and of the world is the only force that can break the cycle of the rich getting richer, and create a world based on human need and justice. Right now, broad swathes of the working class have seen the message that the Biden-Harris wing of the Democratic Party has presented, and they don’t like it. But that’s not because they are irredeemably evil, it’s because they voted for their best interests as they understood them.

As I stood talking to voters in the Republican-leaning south side of Indianapolis and Johnson County for 30 hours over the last week, I did not hear people motivated mostly by racism, sexism, or militarism.

I heard people talking about how far their paychecks could go to support their families.

When Democrats lecture working class people about how the economy is actually great, all that does is hurt our credibility.

The facts are the facts: Democrats rebuilt the economy after COVID not to be safer for working people, not to be more just, but to give massive handouts to the very wealthy. Since 2020, the richest 1% captured two thirds of all new wealth creation across the planet. And the Democratic establishment has reacted to that by catering to the billionaires and soliciting their support.

Harris ran on technocratic solutions aimed at the policy wonks and elites rather than populist, easy-to-understand messaging. Her policy giveaways to the working class and middle class mostly focused on returning more money in taxes at the end of the year via a complex system of tax rebates - which is not a compelling framing for those struggling with weekly grocery bills and monthly rent payments. She put a lot of energy into explaining that all of her policies were better for the deficit than Trump’s, and that she had plans to pay for all of her ideas. These plans did not include substantially taxing the wealthy (her proposed increase on long-term capital gains taxes was merely a reversion to the supermajority-Republican Reagan era, not a progressive new vision).

Harris did not promise Medicare for All, paid sick leave, a higher minimum wage, legal marijuana on the federal level, public utilities including fast internet, massive investments in families via childcare and senior care, or any other massively popular public issues. She did not mention the word "abortion" in a positive light, using it only in the context of Trump's ban.

My analysis of this election is clear: voters want better lives and are unwilling to support the status quo that gives away our wealth to the already wealthy. Democrats cannot win without listening to, working for, and delivering results for everyday working class people.

The fact that the Republican platform was based in lies, misdirection, and scapegoating seems obvious to me - but it's an effective strategy that has been deployed successfully for centuries. If we are surprised by its sway over our neighbors, we should read more history books.

So what do we do from here? Several things.

JOIN DSA

1. Get organized.
   
   I’ve been advising everyone I know for as long as I can remember to do this, but please take me seriously now. Join a union, or form one at your work. Join DSA or any other organization that fits your values. Form phone trees of neighbors, family members, and friends. Join your neighborhood association or run for a leadership position if you’re already a member. Start a Strong Towns group in your neighborhood or district. Become a precinct committee person in your political party and set up political meetings. Insist that your local and state elected officials listen to the community and do the community's bidding, or start finding new candidates and get rid of the bums.
   
   

2. Get better.
   
   Figure out how you can improve your ability to organize. Start a debate club. Write essays and ask others for critiques. Ask strangers out to get a cup of coffee or a beer and learn from each other. Practice telling your own story and being vulnerable. Think about how you can more effectively use social media. Read books - especially ones from authors representing politics you disagree with. Get out of your comfort zone. Take the first step in establishing new friendships. Take care of your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Go to church if you’re a believer. Have coffee with friends. Meditate. Do yoga. Take long bike rides and walks. Keep yourself on a path to better health.
   
   

3. Get ready.
   
   Trump ran on a campaign of mass deportations. Beckwith threatened to fire State employees for having pronouns in their email signatures. Rokita has made it very clear that he intends to use his office to attack political opponents. We need to prepare ourselves to defend each other from attacks. The only defense is solidarity. Remember Martin Niemoller’s poem: we all have a self-interest in standing up for each other, because right-wing populist forces have proven for hundreds of years that they will turn on new enemies when they’ve finished with the first. We must be prepared to resist every inroad attacking the rights of our loved ones and neighbors.
   

Things are dark today for a number of reasons. Feel your feelings. I’ll be here alongside you every day, and we will survive this period and continue the struggle for a better world.

The way we get there is not by hating the people who have voted to usher in the dark period we are about to see. It is in reaching out in love and solidarity and insisting that a better world is possible.

In love and solidarity,
Jesse