Note to a friend of mine: The struggle against what appears to be the GOP’s deep dive into white nationalist authoritarianism should include positive initiatives and actions to deepen and extend democracy and democratic rights, especially voting rights. It can’t be only resistance to their authoritarian turn. Such initiatives from our side can force this nasty, anti-democratic juggernaut into a defensive posture.

Any retreat into small circle thinking should be resisted. Perhaps you think that such a warning is unnecessary, given what occurred during the election and since election day. I hope you’re right, but I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand.

One lesson we can learn from our history is that expansive coalitions of diverse social constituencies and movements are the midwife of transformative changes of a democratic and progressive nature. Militant minorities, to use the term of some of my friends on the left, have a crucial place and function, but they can’t substitute for the movement and organization of the “immense majority,” to use a term from the Communist Manifesto. Indeed, militant minorities will grow and gain in stature and size to the degree that they assist in the expansion, congealing, and, above all, uniting of the “immense majority.”

When I first joined the Communist Party decades ago, I was told that the “key link” at that time to social progress, to moving the chain of struggle forward on a whole range of issues and struggles, was to end U.S. war making in Vietnam. Over the years I have found that term useful time and time again. In today’s circumstances, the key link in the political chain is to secure the results of the election against the sustained anti-democratic actions of Trump and his Republican supporters who in broad daylight are attempting to undo the will of tens of millions who cast their ballot for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Upon a successful resolution of that task (which I am confident will be favorably resolved) the Inauguration of Biden will happen as planned and momentum will gather to address interlocking crises generated by a out of control pandemic.

I understand the frustration with the anti-crisis legislation under discussion in the Congress now. It is far short – roughly a trillion and a half short – of what Pelosi and Shumer earlier proposed. But I also find hard it to understand, given the balance of forces in Congress and the threadbare existence of millions, why progressive Democrats wouldn’t support this bill, even with its severe limitations. Posturing, when there is no good immediate alternative, is neither prudent nor progressive. What is more, the passage of the current relief bill doesn’t prevent Biden, once he’s president, from proposing another round of stimulus and relief. He said as much today.

I hear people exclaim what we need is a popular front against Trump and Trumpism. What I find striking here is that it suggests that such a front doesn’t yet exist. But it does, unless you have a bookish understanding of the term. And it is broad in character and scope. So the challenge isn’t to “build a popular front,” but to deepen and extend it further for the purpose of defending, first of all, the results of the election, but also addressing other sides of an unfolding crisis. But again, the immediate task on which everything else turns, is to assure that the election results are secured and that the Inauguration of a new president and vice president takes place on Jan 20.