Krugman on what lies ahead

Krugman gives a pretty gloomy picture of what this election has wrought. And it strikes me as pretty much on the money, as he usually is. I would quickly add, as I wrote in an earlier post, that only a broad and expanding coalition, including the Democratic Party at all levels (this, by the way, shouldn’t prevent a CONTINUATION of the debate in the Democratic Party over the its direction and character) stands any chance to muster the power to block this impending and far reaching right wing surge. If history is any guide, the forms of resistance will be many, varied, and mass, and not everyone in this diverse coalition will sing the same song or make the same demands or employ the same forms of struggle. But regardless of where we find ourselves and what song we sing in this discordant chorus of resistance, it seems obvious to me anyway that each of us should realize maximum unity is imperative if we are to see some light at the other end of what looks like a very dark and long tunnel we are entering. Our vision can reach for the stars, and it should. Big dreams and high hopes are essential to every human endeavor. But we also have to realize that we are on the defensive for the foreseeable future and that the seemingly stuffy and unsexy halls of Congress will be the site in the late winter and spring – the first 100 days – where this counterrevolution of the right (no exaggeration here) will begin at accelerated speed and take on flesh in the form of enacted laws that strip tens of millions in red and blue states alike of their rights and freedoms, gut the social safety net, and scale back living standards of all but the wealthiest. Not everyone will be affected the same way; some, and especially people of color, immigrants, the poor, women, and LBGQT will disproportionately feel the harshness of this assault. But few will escape its reach and the pain it inflicts. Again only a coalition that has the capacity to find common ground as well as reach out to the nearly 60 million people who voted for Hillary Clinton, and, in time, to a section of Trump supporters whose illusions and hopes crumble in the face of a harsh reality, can hope to bend back the arc of history towards justice, democracy, and human decency.