It will take humility and sweated labor

Most democratic minded people expected an assault, organized by Trump and his closest advisors, on the federal government and democratic rights — immigrant rights in the first place. What stuns, and increasingly outrages them, is the fast pace and broad sweep of this assault.  

It is fair to say it has many of the markings of a coup d’etat. After all, its aim is to impose without public consent or legislative debate a new political-authoritarian order. In the face of this assault, albeit one with no historical precedent, the strategic task of democracy’s defenders is to assemble an expansive coalition that stretches from Never Trumpers to Angela Davis and everything in between, not least the Democratic Party, for the purpose of blocking this coup. 

In these circumstances, the role of the broad, nonsectarian left is to assist this process, practically and ideologically. It probably needs no saying that it will take creativity, initiative, modesty, sweated labor, and breadth of approach on its part. Building one’s political silo is one thing; exclusively hanging out in that silo is a no no! The future of the broad, nonsectarian left as a consequential force in US politics will turn on its ability to meet this challenge. 

Wasn’t that the case in the 1930s and 1960s?