President-elect Donald Trump will be our leader for the next four years. Yes, he’s our president.
Step 2 – Admit why we lost.
Many of us feel like outsiders in our own country right now. Perhaps we can empathize with all those that felt like this for the past few years. The truth is that many have felt disenfranchised by the Democratic party. While some of us had one priority in mind – defeat Donald trump, a majority of us had other priorities. We didn’t lose this election because half of America are racist, sexist, homophobic bigots who can’t have a female president. Over half of the country did vote for her, in fact. The reasons we lost this election are more complicated than that.
We lost this election when the Democratic National Convention and major media outlets like CNN worked secretly with a campaign, giving that campaign advanced knowledge of questions that would be asked at debates and consorted with that campaign to produce favorable stories in the media for that campaign and negative stories for the opposing campaign.
We lost this election when blue collar workers across America expressed their frustration with politics, as usual, the status quo, the political elite, and income inequality and the Democratic party proceeded to tip the scales for a candidate who represented all those things.
We lost the election when the candidate the DNC chose for us was polling with the second lowest favorable ratings in the history of polling, when she consistently showed weakness in the electoral college against every single Republican opponent, and they installed her anyways.
We lost when the candidate the DNC selected failed to provide reasons to vote FOR her and simply provided reasons to vote against her opponent.
We lost this election when the DNC chose the less electable candidate to represent the Democratic party.
Step 3 – Take Action
The Democratic Party has failed us. The results of this election, ultimately, lie squarely on the shoulders of the Democratic party establishment. It is of utmost importance that the party elite will relinquish the reigns. It is time for the Sanders/Warren Democrats – the millennials and the socialists, the future of our nation, to take control of the direction of the party.
In 2008, after the election of President Obama, the Republican party began to be seized by a people-powered movement called the Tea Party. In 2016, the Democrats should see the very same type of reaction from their constituency. A rebuke of the party establishment and a seizing of control by the voters, rather than the party elite, should take place.
Socialist, populist, progressives all across America need to take up service to their country and run for election to local, state, and federal offices. This is of dire importance to securing our future.
Finally: All Democrats in Congress should meet President Trump and the Republican held House and Senate with the very same opposition that President Obama and the Democrats met with. It is very important that we extend this message to our representatives: We do not want you to work with the President. We do not want you to work across the aisle. We want progressive legislation or nothing. When one party refuses to play by the rules, we are left with no choice but to do the same. We can not get progressive legislation through by trying to play nice. We must learn from the Republican precedent and meet obstruction with obstruction.
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Before last night I had felt disillusioned with the Democratic Party. I felt betrayed when I saw the DNC tip the scales of the election and then saw what I already knew to be true, validated through the Wikileaks email hacks. I was entirely prepared to leave politics behind.
But seeing a misogynistic, racist, bigot rise to the most powerful station on Earth has moved me. Knowing that my daughters will have to grow up STILL without having known a female leader of the free world breaks my heart.
My friend told me today that when she woke her daughter up for school, her daughter asked her “Mommy, are we going to be deported?”
My sister and her wife watched the election results with fear and anticipation, as they wondered if what became an increasingly likely President Trump would install a Supreme Court Justice that would repeal marriage equality.
On campus, I saw two black women embrace each other in front of me, one in tears, as they asked each other where they go from here.
The results of yesterday’s election affect each and every one of us deeply and profoundly – whether we know it yet or not. And I have never been more resolved to work my ass off to elect PROGRESSIVE, honest, liberal, Democrats to local, state, and federal offices. 2018 starts today. Are you in?
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