Stop the Finger Pointing. THIS Is What We Need. NOW!

People are hurting. Feeling even worse than in 2016. I have been too. After getting knocked down whether literally or figurately over time it gets harder to get back  up. This is one of those times, those knockdowns that are so painful it feels debilitating. Hell, on Wednesday I felt I couldn’t get up and questioned (hard) whether to bother even trying. That was a bad place to be in and I’m not all the way out of it. But I’ve reached out for the kind of help I need and it’s in the works.  For now that’s enough and I’ve done what happens sometimes when, due to my disability I have a particularly bad fall. I crawl to my bed and slowly work my way onto it. And summon the will to sit up and then stand back up.

That’s where I am right now. Unsteadily standing back up.  I’m fighting the urge to just lay back down on the bed. But mentally I know almost half the country is like me in a similar place. Banged the hell up and wondering whether to stay down or get up, and in the latter case figuring out what the next step(s) will be once back on our feet. Some, too many in fact are busy little beavers assigning blame for what has transpired and what’s to come from Trump’s return to the WH.  I’ll get to that in a second.

I just want to remind everyone of one thing: Almost HALF of us fought to make it be Kamala Harris and Tim Walz being sworn in come January. Right now we’re slightly outnumbered. I emphasize slightly because even though it looks like Trump could win the popular vote too (we’ll see once weeks of counting in California are done) it won’t be by anything close to the margins Hillary Clinton (almost three million votes) or Joe Biden (almost eight million) beat Trump by. So, there are a LOT of us and we by god have to keep reminding ourselves of that FACT.

More importantly is to start changing the narrative Trump and his minions are painting of this being a conservative country that wants what Trump will ‘provide.’ Large majorities of Americans want a return to the kind of reproductive rights (including birth control and family planning in addition to abortion rights) that existed prior to the Dobbs decision. They want basic, practical and meaningful gun control by an even greater margin. The want decent jobs with good pay and benefits, to see their work rewarded and to have safe workplaces. They want to have clean water and clean air. I could go on and on.  Even those who voted for Trump want those things. The problem is they got suckered into thinking Trump would lift a finger to provide ANY of that.

With his pushing through that first “supply side” tax cut Ronald Reagan promised America it could have something for nothing, despite his and other conservatives worship of Milton Friedman who’s signature line was there was no such thing as a free lunch. But no one likes paying taxes, even when the public services they get aren’t just what they want but DEMAND. It’s a seductive thing however and Trump has proven better at selling it that even Reagan.

It sucks that those of us who know better will have to suffer along with the true ‘suckers and losers” who’ve bought into Trumpism but giving up, complaining about it and especially wasting time blaming Harris or Biden and the campaign Democratic candidates ran is wasted time and effort. We simply CAN’T afford to waste that time and energy. Later, when we’ve gotten organized enough to mount an actual resistance we can look back and figure out the lessons of 2024 to apply to future campaigns/elections. LATER. Right now, the whole finger pointing and blame game is worse than wasted time and effort. It’s counter-productive to the point of being destructive!

I have limited graphics skills but managed to create the title picture by merging two different moments in history together. The black & white part is what every recruiting office in the United States looked like the day after Pearl Harbor. There were lines around the blocks that day, and long afterwards at recruiting office and induction centers. My dad signed up the day after Pearl Harbor. My aunt, his sister would become a WAC when that option became available. My grandfather didn’t approve and Granny was beside herself with worry I was told but so were so many tens of millions of loved ones of those who didn’t give a second thought to signing up to go to literal WAR. Against a clearly capable and conquering set of enemies, and even though our own military capability was laughable at the time. They had faith that we’d figure it out, and that no amount of effort and sacrifice was too small because a critical task HAD to be done.

When Trump slithered into the Presidency in 2016 there were serious fears about what would ensue and it was worse than we thought. It’s even cost a lot of Americans their very lives, between the hundreds of thousands who died directly from or as a secondary result of his mismanagement of COVID. Women are dying every day or at least winding up affected negatively for life (including being unable to ever again have a child) because of Trump created abortion bans. So, if not at least yet on the scale of what people faced at the outset of WWII the stakes are that high. I could write a series of articles about events overseas and the moment when if Trump is unchecked NATO will have to invoke Article V again. And the fact that if Trump and his people prevent us from honoring our obligation Europe, the Atlantic and America will belong to Putin. And the Pacific will belong to China. That it will take American troops and blood like it did during WWII to prevent Putin (and XI) from doing what Hitler could not.

And before that, here at home in the U.S. women will die in increasing numbers, and more rights will be stripped away from all Americans. Health care as we know it is likely to be rolled back to the times when insurance companies ruled. Worker’s rights to organize for better pay and safer workplaces will be crushed. Our air and water will see a big spike in pollution.  All that and more. Given that the LAST thing we have time for is not just Democratic pundits/political consultants and our elected leaders including icons like Nancy Pelosi taking potshots!

No what we need is what’s shown in the title picture, Tens of millions upon tens of millions of Americans just getting their butts to places to sign up and show everyone both at home and abroad we wouldn’t back away from a long, hard fight. Trump’s inauguration was poorly attended as you know. The very next day the streets were packed in DC, and cities around not just the U.S. and the world with women and even men saying in one voice we were NOT going to bow down to Trump and Trumpism.

That’s what we need right now. If Nancy freaking Pelosi and others want to be useful instead of criticizing Biden, or Harris or both she and her fellow leaders need to be calling for a repeat of the kinds of marches we saw in 2016. Only bigger and that they be repeated. Trump was furious that his crowd was puny in comparison to what showed up to protest him the next day. Still, he and the GOP blew it off. But in addition to the march serious organizing started. And that’s why in 2018 Trump and the GOP got their asses handed to them, and Biden was able to win in 2020.

The night he won Obama tried to warn everyone. By all means he said ‘enjoy the moment but the real work is just starting.’ He went on to make the point as he kept trying to do ever after that EVERY election needed to be a full effort because if we let up just a little the other side would pounce. Well, folks got pissy about the price of eggs or gas, distracted by visions of a hellscape created by immigrants that isn’t there and opened the door to the rabid animal’s cage.

From where I sit 2026 is our ONE chance to herd it back into the cage. Locking it and doing so securely will take more than a successful midterm. But if we don’t at least do that the America that has just died will never have a chance at a quick rebirth. So call up the offices of Democratic leader and give them HELL!  Tell them to STFU with all the blame stuff and not only start calling for what so quickly got organized after the 2016 election but get the right people together, knock heads and create and implement a plan to let Trump and MAGA know we ARE going to fight them every step of the way, just like we did before. Make GOP legislators in swing states/districts afraid about 2026.

For that to happen, us rank and file folks have to do our part and flood the offices of Democrats still in power with phone calls and emails, and for those adept at use of social media (I’m not, at least yet) that of the pundit class too.  And without pointing fingers which would make fellow Democrats and Independents that think like us defensive point out a difficult truth – we assumed America was a better, or at least less gullible country than it actually is these days.  And 2026 is a year in which it will be our last chance to do what we did in 2018, 2020 and to an extent in 2022. That despite the GOP taking beat-downs THEY didn’t quit. Now, NEITHER SHOULD WE!

As I said last night, by all means grieve for what’s been lost. However there isn’t time to work all the way through it before filling the hole in our democracy in the same way we learn to fill the hole in our hearts when a loved one dies. There is simply too much to be done and there’s little time in which to do it. We have to ‘walk and chew gum’ at the same time. But what we CAN’T do is waste time and energy assigning blame for what went wrong. The ONLY thing that matters is that what happened has happened and we HAVE to start figuring out how to make sure the country (and the world) knows that half of us aren’t going to sit back and take what Trump intends to dish out.  Then prove it.

Support the site with a subscription today and see no more ads!

Go Ad-free Now!