I first read this poem by W.H. Auden, titled “September 1, 1939,” nearly 50 years ago, while attending a small catholic college in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Those were pre-political years for me, but still it resonated. Since then I have dug it up now and then for a little enjoyment as well as inspiration. But today the poem touches me in a deeply existential way, and I’m sure that needs no explanation. Here is the last stanza:

“Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.”

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.

An amazing interview of Detroit Piston Basketball coach – Stan Van Gundy. Really worth listening to. Go Stan, Go Pistons.

If the elections and their results were a “working class revolt against the elites'” in Washington and Wall Street, as some of varied political dispositions are suggesting, it was a revolt that was poorly conceived, demographically limited, filled with millions of no shows, and came to a miserable end. Moreover, it will soon, unless resisted, exact an awful revenge against its protagonists and the many many more workers and people who had the good class and democratic sense to vote for the very courageous and resilient Hilary Clinton who offered a program of bottom-up economic renewal and fairness, equality, and decency. Indeed, unless a broad and ever expanding people’s coalition takes shape quickly, and includes every wing of the Democratic Party, this misbegotten revolt will bring in its train in the late winter and spring of next year, a nasty counterrevolution the likes of which we have NEVER seen – not even in the Reagan or George W Bush years. Calls for “a war in the Democratic Party” are a fool’s errand at this moment no matter the source or the intentions, no matter how radical sounding. Will post a longer comment on this as well as other aspects of the elections on my blog tomorrow.

As the broad democratic movement painfully absorbs this major defeat, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Hillary won the popular vote (nearly 60 million), nor the challenge of connecting with these same voters in the weeks and months ahead. Sober and big circle thinking with people of diverse views – not panic, not finger pointing, not despair, not score settling, not turning inward – should be the centerpiece of what we say and do now. There are dangers to be sure – big ones in fact – but there are institutional obstacles, historical traditions, and a potentially broad scale multi-class, multi-racial, people’s coalition in early formation that when taken together could offer substantial resistance to any sweeping swing to the right and authoritarian rule attempted by the Trump administration and his Republican allies.

Moreover, Trump’s mass constituency and coalition is beset with its own contradictions and incoherencies that may not surface and unravel immediately – and that’s a problem – but as things and time go forward.

This may all sound pollyannish to you, but at moments like this when it seems like night has completely overtaken day, it’s one beginning.