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.

The home stretch is here. So what does someone do who is in the last innings of their life, but cares about the kind of world they pass on to those who are in the first innings of theirs? The answer seems simple enough to me – canvass and phone bank for Hillary Clinton and other Democrats down the ticket every day over the next four days. And I would say the same thing even if I had the same concerns about Hillary that some others of my generation do.

For me the alternative – a Trump presidency – is so dangerous, so unpredictable, and so threatening to a livable future for younger generations here and elsewhere that I can’t sit on my hands and do nothing.

Nearly a half century ago I shared a vision with many others of my age. At its core was the transformation of our country and society into – to borrow a phrase from the incomparable Martin Luther King – “A Beloved Community.” We were obviously not successful. That I can live with, including all the mistakes we made along the way.

But what I can’t live with is fiddling over the next four days while the country, depending on the election’s outcome, could burn if Trump wins. What I can’t live with is doing nothing when someone who is so outside the norms of democratic governance could become the next president. And what I can’t live with is the thought that my inaction, if multiplied many times over by others, who just couldn’t find time in their busy lives or who are immobilized by the lack of a perfect candidate to get out the vote, might be the reason that younger generations – not least my two granddaughters, ages 4 and 6 – grow up with a thug in the White House who debases them and everything else that is sacred and beautiful in the world.

Time to go canvassing. Hope you’re doing the same.