Long term structural conditions in the African American community and the larger society, themselves the result and manifestation of racism, combine with a pandemic to produce disproportionately high death rates among Black Americans. Racism never sleeps.

The idea that if there is no floor fight over the rules and platform, the Democratic Party convention will be hollow and no more than a vanity project showcasing the likely nominee Joe Biden is about as egregious an example of small circle thinking as I can think of. It misses the overarching importance of Democrats — President Obama, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, and Joe Biden and his Vice Presidential running mate to name a few — laying out their case against Trump and the Republican Party, while making a case for Biden and other Democrats down the ticket to a television audience of tens of millions.

I joined a video conference recently, discussing strategy in a global pandemic. It included some prominent people on the left. The conversation was insightful in many ways, revealing some dimensions of the pandemic that don’t find their way into most discussions.

But missing in this dialogue were three things. One was an articulation of the political-social constituencies that have to be assembled and the main democratic tasks that have to be addressed, if the country is to escape this pandemic and move to higher ground. Another was the urgency of the fall elections. Only one speaker gave this existential struggle the kind of attention that it deserves. Four more years of Trump would be a catastrophe of a higher order of magnitude than what we are experiencing now. Finally, the necessity of unity of an expansive and diverse movement didn’t find itself at the core of the conversation. I would like to say I’m surprised, but these silences are more common than I care to think.

This isn’t a socialist moment in a strategic sense, but it is a moment in which out of the interlocking crises, disrupting our lives, sometimes in deadly ways, our society can emerge more inclusive, our economy more just and sustainable, and our government, as it was in the Depression years, more attuned to the needs of the overwhelming majority.

Of course, it won’t happen on its own. It will take the the sustained, organized, and broad scale intervention of people and their elected representatives and social organizations as well as a good deal of fresh thinking and, of uppermost importance, the decisive defeat of Trump and the rest of the Republicans in the upcoming election.

Some things that immediately come to mind are:

1. The provision of whatever states and cities need to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, save the lives of infected people, and protect the health and lives of front line workers and communities that are feeling the heaviest impacts of this deadly pandemic.

2. The passage of another stimulus packages that is weighted to assist people in this time of grave need and restructure the economy in a more equitable and climate friendly direction.

3. The expansion of voter participation at the state and national level, as we resist the concerted campaign of Trump and the GOP to suppress the vote. Voting by mail should figure at the top of this effort.

I would add that sheltering in place and social distancing make broad participation more difficult. But, at the same time, there remain many things that we can do with the present messaging tools at hand. Moreover, with a little imagination much more is possible.

Usually lies contain a small grain of truth. But Trump’s lies in the midst of this pandemic fail that test. There’s no truth to be found in them. Nothing but pure lies. Up to now his allergy to the truth hasn’t come back to bite him too much. But here’s the problem for Trump and his supporters. In this time of a pandemic, his lies barely escape his mouth when they run headlong into people’s daily experience, say with the availability of testing, tells a different story. He can’t spin the present crises as he, Barr and others spun the Mueller report or the impeachment inquiry. And tens of millions understand this.