It’s not just about Biden stepping up. He should, for sure. But the leadership of the entire Democratic Party and democratic movement has to step up as well. It takes more than a village to win an election.

Martial law is easier said than done. Obstacles to such a course of action are more than you might think, including the blow back on Trump and the Republican Party if it, as is likely, broadly repudiated from many quarters of our society, not least from within state/governmental structures. It would constitute a shift from hegemonic rule, which includes an element of domination, to rule by domination exclusively, which is, if not said by its practitioners, an admission of weakness.

Watched Trump’s threat filled speech tonight. It was shocking and beyond the bounds. Its aim was to intimidate and paralyze millions seeking justice. Its intent was to force us to withdraw into private life.

What Trump doesn’t realize is the genie is out of the bottle. No one is going to shrink at this moment. Our demands are just, our mode of struggle is non violent and mass in character, our coalition is broad in scope and diverse in composition, our terrain of struggle is in the voting booth and the corridors of political power as well as on the streets, and, like the old civil rights leaders, our eyes are on the prize and ain’t nobody going to turn us around.

Trump and Barr conveniently make no mention of white supremacist organizations in their condemnation of violence.

Amid the national conversation surrounding the events of the past week, what should be at its center, and remain there, is the cruel, senseless, and racially inspired murder of one Black Live — George Floyd — by 4 “officers of the law” and the systemic practices that make it a reoccurring trauma in the African American community and other communities of color — not provocations, not looting, not burning cars, not the extremists of the right and left, not media coverage, not even the rhetorical and incendiary distractions of the present occupant in the White House.

The latter have a place, as do the peaceful and nationwide marches in cities across the country, the failure of law and order appeals to command center stage, and the new stakes in the November elections. But none of them should crowd out the brutal execution of George Floyd, if we hope to find a way out of this crisis and reoccurring tragedy.