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.