With so much at stake and the margin so thin between victory and defeat or, to put it differently, between political progress or severe political retrogression, one would think that the diverse coalition that elected President Biden and its movers and shakers would be engaged in massive joint actions in support of his domestic agenda. I said a few months ago that the present and future prospects of that coalition, not to mention the country, depend on the success of the Biden administration in legislating its domestic agenda – infrastructure renewal to voting rights to jobs to union rights to criminal justice and immigration reform to climate action and more – in the face of fierce Republican opposition. That is still true.

To paraphrase Marx, the weapon of criticism and insider lobbying at this moment should take a back seat to the weapon of joint and massive mobilizations in support of the legislative measures of the administration, which will, in turn, position Democrats to increase their congressional majorities in the elections next year.

Herein lies the core element of the “independent” role of the broader movement at this moment, not critiquing from the sideline, not each exclusively engaged in their own separate initiatives, as good as they may be.