A core feature of any successful political strategy is a policy of alliances that draws together various social and political constituencies around a shared political objective. Going it alone, experience teaches us, is a fool’s errand. It’s the playbook of suckers. Nothing good will come from it.

This is the case today. The trifecta of a deadly pandemic, a consequent economic implosion, and an upcoming election where the fate of democratic rule (and much else) will be decided will only find a humane, democratic and just resolution if an expansive, multi-class, people’s coalition of tens of millions further congeals and acts with great resolve in the weeks and months ahead.

I learned the value of alliances not only through observation and participation in one or another social struggle over many years in which the breadth of the coalition made the difference between victory and defeat, but also in my reading of Marxism.

Take one example. and I could cite many more. Lenin, the leader of the Russian revolution in 1917, insisted that the only path to democratic rule and socialism in Russia rested on a durable and deep strategic alliance of the Russian working class with the peasantry of that country. Stalin, who succeeded Lenin, wasn’t of like mind and went on to bludgeon this core principle of Lenin. The resulting costs to the Soviet people and socialism due to this violent and bloody rupture in alliance relations between the Russian workers and peasants are incalculable and long lasting.

Nearly a century later, and in circumstances that are vastly different, a policy and practice of broad social and political alliances has lost none of its resonance. Indeed, they are more, not less imperative. They have become, in fact, an existential necessity if we hope to arrive on the other side of our current challenges with our humanity elevated, our democracy expanded, and our fragile planet able to sustain itself.

If you are like me and missing the NBA playoffs that would have begun about now, I recommend watching,”The Last Dance.” It is the final year of the Bulls championship run. It features Michael Jordan, as you would expect, but there is much more too.  You won’t be disappointed.

Nearly 75 and decided to write my first poem

Life crashes in
Leaves us stranded
Unexpectedly, with no warning
The future fades
Friends die
Hopes wither
Dreams dim
Forever, but hopefully not
The future is still to be written
Each of us can be an author
If we break the fever
If we only try
Take one step.
Just one
And then another
Toward each other
And that distant star
Even if it’s dim
Flickering capriciously in the night sky
Testing our resolve
Our love for self and each other
Our belief in the King’s Beloved Community
Specks of light may be all we see
For now anyway
But who knows
Life surprises
As do people, you and me

“It may be too much to hope that Biden,” Michelle Goldberg wrote, “could equal the achievements of Roosevelt or Johnson. But should he become president, he will, like both of them, inherit a country deep in crisis, where once inconceivable political interventions suddenly appear possible. We can’t know whether he will rise to the opportunity — only that presidencies are shaped by far more than the ideology of the person who achieves the office.” How true!

And yet, the go to position of too many people is to evaluate Biden statically and disconnected from the flow and flux of everyday life, the exigencies of interlocking crises, and the larger political shifts crisscrossing and shaping our politics and culture. Neither Biden nor any politician for that matter live a hermetic existence. They reflect and absorb the wider environment in different and contradictory ways.

Polls so far suggest the most people are for a prudent, not reckless approach to opening up the economy and country. Thus, we shouldn’t give the handful of protest actions demanding an end to social distancing last week undue significance. Let’s see if they continue and, more to the point, grow in size and scope.

The best way to cut the grown from underneath this thoroughly reactionary movement is to press Congress to pass a series of stimulus packages that forcefully address the financial needs of states, cities, and tens of millions of Americans who are social distancing, not to mention provide the necessary resources to combat the virus.