Rising from the ashes of the Democratic loss on Tuesday will take psychological as well as political skill. The phrase “devastating loss” has never been more descriptive for those who now worry about the worst aspects of Project 2025 - or Agenda 47 - and how, if executed, they could affect their lives.
Successfully navigating grief such as this means you allow yourself to feel it, but not wallow in it. Honor the pain, but not indulge it. And above all, stop pretending that all of it was someone else’s fault. My video yesterday was a reflection on how the Democratic Party created a vacuity on which Trump’s campaign thrived, and anyone who didn’t see through it at the time helped enable their political malfeasance.
But that was then, and this now. I’m not trying to get you to stop crying, but please listen to me while you do. It’s an art of emotional multi-tasking to feel the pain of a loss and plan how you’re going to get over it at the same time. In a real way, we need to simultaneously do both.
We certainly don’t need to gloss over how serious this is, because the years ahead will require us to be very alert to threats that President Trump now has the power to carry out. Do not become desensitized to any of that. But at the same time, this is a democracy and he won fair and square; what we have to do is look deep into ourselves, and see how we might have been looking through rose colored glasses in our delusional belief that the DNC knew what it was doing. If there’s anything to be learned from this as citizens, it’s to never, never, never give up our capacity for critical thinking.
So where are we now? And like I said, you can keep reaching for the kleenex while you read this. Where we are now is that we have to mount a powerful, vital, loyal opposition to any forces within Trump’s second administration that violate our values or our democratic rights. Period. Full stop. And no, we cannot tarry. This is not a time to zone out, binge watching Cable TV with all its apologists for the Democratic party’s disastrous handling of this election. They have little to offer except the dissembling and disinformation at which they have become so adept. They’re simply trying to save their jobs.
We the People are in the power seat now. It might seem otherwise, I know, but remember that the word “disillusionment” means that you were under an illusion and you aren’t anymore! Let them fear the power of the people for a change, now that we’ve awakened from our stupor and find ourselves in a crotchety mood for having been so deceived for so long. We wish we could get our $30, or our $300, back now! I felt so many times over the last three months, “My Lord, he’s running a presidential campaign and she’s running a fundraising campaign.” Just as in 2016, they thought enough money could buy this thing.
Well, it didn’t, and it won’t. Nor should it. The only way to beat Big Lies is with Big Truth. And the only force capable of blocking any malevolent moves by a political strongman is organized righteousness and virtue. Yes, you heard me right. In cases like this, direct confrontation will not take down the threat of fascism. The only thing that will do that is the compelling, even more magnetic power of the heart when it knows it’s in the presence of love. Our loyal opposition will be powerful for that reason.
It will first and foremost be loyal to love. That’s where we will get our power of insistence - insistence that the children be fed, insistence that the earth be protected, insistence that justice be done, insistence that democracy be served, insistence that the vulnerable be seen and not forgotten. Franklin Roosevelt said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
We will insist on that.
Our loyal opposition will emerge, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., from a “coalition of conscience.” We will not be tied to our political silos, or our separate identities. We will be the product of a profound political alchemy, activated at just about the moment when any of us realized last night, “Oh no, he’s winning.” Something woke up, and something grew up, in each of us.
Don’t doubt the power of that. This isn’t the end. It’s just the beginning.
Love is about unity and trust. Why sow hate into a fresh field of hope?
Marianne, you were ahead of the nonsense and above the angry jabs. I wore my “Marianne for president” shirt to the polls. I see better because of you. Keep doing you! Albert Camus noted that, “real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” Despite the horrible treatment you received from the DNC you have remained generous, poised and forward thinking. Thank you peaceful warrior!