By Arun Gupta (December 13, 2017)
It is a great relief that Roy Moore lost. If he had won that would have emboldened Bannon and Trump even more: “Hey, if they elected a child molester, who cares about a rapist president?”
Meanwhile, the opportunism of Kirsten Gillibrand is helping channel the energy from the Pussy March and #Metoo movement into the 2018 elections.That is what the “Resistance” amounts to: Ground troops to elect more power-hungry Democrats.
Those same Democrats are now maneuvering to throw Dreamers under the bus. Either there will be no deal or a shitty deal that gives Trump new powers and resources to hunt, imprison, and deport immigrants, destroying thousands of lives. Trump’s war on immigrants is just one among many reasons why he and his proto-fascist forces are so dangerous and must be stopped.
The only way to do that is through the electoral process. While the left should expose the Democrats’ shitty politics, most anti-Trump forces will ignore that message.
Anyone who equates the Democrats with Republicans, saying it doesn’t matter who wins, as many did last year, won’t just be ignored, they will be ridiculed and completely isolated.
Meanwhile, the movements that were making strides in 2016 — Black Lives Matter, Climate Justice and pipeline blockades, low-wage workers, and immigrant-rights activists — are all on the defensive.
This is the dilemma the left is in.
