Portside

Billed as the Peoples Climate March, the demonstration here in Washington, and hundreds of smaller events like it across the country, had long been planned to mark the 100th day of the new president’s term. What organizers did not know, at least initially, was that that president would be Mr. Trump.

We have entered a period of deep political crisis in the US, and both dominant parties stand on treacherously shifting sand. They are confronted by the exhaustion of the campaign models that brought them success since 1948. Hints of Trump's victory can be found in Nixon's "silent majority" as well as the subsequent Reagan Revolution, the current circumstances represent a sharp break from "business as usual."

“We should have the right to distribute information to our co-workers without intimidation,” said Michael Sanchez, who works on door panels at the factory and has joined the unionizing effort. “You can’t fix problems if you’re not allowed to talk about them.”

A new book urges activists to avoid insularity and purism--and to focus on winning.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ arrogant dismissal of a federal district judge’s ruling against the Trump Administration’s ban on refugees and certain Muslim travelers, because he presides on an “island in the Pacific,” is a reminder of how islands in the Pacific have been colonized, commodified, and militarized. From Hawaii to Okinawa, Pacific islanders are demeaned and their islands relegated to vacation getaways and military outposts for the U.S. empire.

In fact, they've been doing scientific research since the days of Florence Nightingale

The numbers will be clear: downscale whites are a big pool of untapped votes. Yet if a cordon sanitaire is placed around that demographic territory and hung with the notorious label, “Trump Vote,” the Democrats will be even more likely to let the party system drift down its current path: into the culture-war politics of the reactionary Tammany-versus-Klan 1920s, rather than the class-based politics that followed.

Assuming that not even Donald Trump can destroy American democracy, the real challenge begins for whoever is sworn in as president on January 20 2017. Americans need more economic security for their enlightened sides to shine through again. This means more good jobs at living wages for men as well as women. Only then can the country begin to close the social chasms revealed and fueled by Trump’s campaign.

What to expect if Trump loses? More attempts at gridlock, and more anger, and an ever-widening opening for the extremist right to dig their heels further into the GOP.

Trump’s rigged election lies distract from the real threat to American democracy. You’re more likely to be struck by lightning than impersonate another voter at the polls. The real danger to American democracy stems from GOP efforts to make it harder to vote.