It is no surprise that people are stunned and outraged by the assault on the federal government and its pace. And its no surprise that these same people are getting their bearings and only now finding their legs in a situation that has no precedent in our country’s history. 

It is fair, I would argue, to call it an attempt at counterrevolution. After all, its aim is to impose a new political-authoritarian order at the national and global level. In these circumstances the strategic task is to assemble an expansive coalition that stretches from Never Trumpers to Angela Davis and everything in between, not least the Democratic Party at every site and level of struggle. 

Such won’t materialize overnight, but who ever thought so. In these circumstances, the immediate aim of the broad left is to assist in building and uniting the many layered and many leveled popular coalition to battle authoritarian rule, not the other way around. It probably needs no saying that it will take creativity, initiative, humility, and sweated labor. The process will be concrete as well as dialectical. In the course of meeting this challenge, its future as a formidable force in US politics will be secured. 

Wasn’t that the case in the 1930s and 1960s?