Progressives will necessarily find themselves embattled on many fronts. Deportations will ramp up. Anti-Muslim rhetoric will fuel increased surveillance and restriction. Law-and-order rhetoric and brutal stop-and-frisk policies will unleash harsh reprisal against Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Voter-suppression efforts will find a home in the Department of Justice. Unions -- particularly public-employee unions -- will be assailed from the start.
Solidarity will be vital for activists who are targeted, communities threatened, families torn apart by deportations or worse.
To expose the bait-and-switch on the economy, it will be vital to follow the money, and expose the corruptions and the lies. Challenging Trump's appointments will provide the first opportunity to pierce the veil.
Fierce opposition is needed, not simply defense. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi claimed, "I don't think people want a new direction." That is wrong. The question is: What side are you on? Who will fight for changes that make this economy work for working people? More of the same is not an answer.
Defending Barack Obama's trade policy against Trump's "protectionism" won't get the job done. Criticizing Trump for running up deficits, in contrast to Obama's austerity, is a sucker's game. Progressives can't defer to cautious leaders calling for least-common-denominator unity. They have to put forth bold reform ideas to contrast with Trump's depredations. Bernie Sanders offered a decent example, calling Trump out on outsourcing, while putting forth a bill that would punish companies for moving jobs abroad, not allowing them to extort subsidies for staying here.
But ultimately this debate won't be decided in Washington but across the country among mobilized citizens.
For example, Fight for $15 can drive reform at the state and local level. People will swarm congressional meetings to protect Social Security or Medicare. They must do the same to stop another round of tax giveaways to corporations and the rich that drain the public purse and add to inequality.
Trump can fool many of the people for some of time. He inherits an economy with low unemployment and wages beginning to stir. If he manages to get a major infrastructure program out of this Congress, the jobs created could help tighten labor markets enough to begin to lift wages. He can stoke his base with race-baiting politics and by taunting the establishment's delicacies (such as taking the call from the prime minister of Taiwan).
But his show will get stale over time, particularly if the rip-offs are exposed, the divisive racial and gender politics are confronted, and working families learn that the crony capitalists on the inside are cleaning up while they are getting stiffed. Trump is a wily and experienced confidence man, but selling his remedy won't be easy once people realize it's the same old failed brew.
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