A mature movement of the left not only gives people space to change their political positions that life has proved mistaken, but welcomes such changes by them. Assembling a movement of the majority in the interests of the immense majority becomes a sisyphean task without such an attitude.

Know your adversary is an ABC of politics and political struggle. In picking a fight with Pope Leo, Trump obviously forgot, if he ever learned, this rule. The support for the Pope and his message of peace has been overwhelming and from nearly every quarter, save the Republican Party, Fox News, and the MAGA movement.

With each passing day, the fall elections gain in political importance — and not only to the people of our country. It’s not wishful thinking to say that Democrats, notwithstanding the recent decision of the Roberts Court allowing the creation of new Jim Crow maps in the South, could end up controlling the House and the Senate in November. Such an outcome would strategically strengthen the hand of the larger anti-Trump, anti-Maga, anti-billionaire coalition going forward. Not everyone will see it that way. But what else is new?

The rest of us on the democratic, liberal, progressive, and left end of the political spectrum, it seems to me, should embrace the challenge of turning Election Day into a day of popular mass mobilization to the voting booth, with every bit of the political heft as the days of mass actions that preceded it.

It is never a good idea in politics to engage an opponent without any allies. Going it alone seldom works. And yet Trump, apart from Israel and a few Gulf States, has taken the country into a war against Iran with few supporters internationally, not to mention growing opposition here at home. Even his MAGA movement is riven with splits over the war. And there is no reason to think things will get better in this regard.

Moreover, while winning some tactical victories on the battlefield, the same can’t be said regarding his strategic objectives — displacing Iran’s leadership, opening up the Strait of Hormuz, expanding the war coalition — haven’t been achieved. So where are we? We are left with a beleaugued president, clearly on the defensive, but also unpredictable. And therein lies the danger of this moment.

The danger of this moment is an escalation of the current war against Iran. The argument heard in the media is that Trump botched the war against Iran and the subsequent negotiations. As a result the Iranians still have nuclear material and capability, the cease fire has failed, and, above all, the Strait of Homuz is still closed. And only, so goes the the argument, a resumption and escalation of the war can clean up the mess that Trump created and left behind.