Portside

In 2005 after John Roberts was confirmed, Howard Zinn wrote: It would be naive to depend on the Supreme Court to defend the rights of poor people, women, people of color, dissenters of all kinds.

We won’t hold anyone accountable, not even former leftists, unless the mass movements on the grass roots level continue to grow and organize. They won’t grow through elections.

Rebuilding the democratic infrastructure is too important to leave up to the consultocracy. Mobilizers only turn out people with whom they agree. Organizers engage these people in reaching out to other people with whom they don’t agree.

The women's marches in Washington DC and around the country were stunning, inspiring and the first of a million steps that will be needed to build the resistance to Trump. It might not have been as black, brown or working class as many might have liked. But criticizing it from the sidelines doesn't help anyone.

The biggest question for Bernie Sanders and his supporters is whether they'll transform his presidential campaign into a permanent organization that can carry his political revolution forward in the long-term; or whether, like Occupy Wall Street, it will quickly disappear.

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