So, it happened. The racist, reactionary fool Donald Trump is returning to the White House, and Republicans will dominate Congress. The polarization of American political life is sharpening and deepening. Revolutionaries and progressives have some heavy lifting ahead of us.

There is going to be plenty of time to analyze what happened in the election, but on the morning after, some things are clear. The leadership and wealthy backers of the Democratic Party have only themselves to blame for the outcome. The Harris/Walz campaign was tone-deaf to the needs and aspirations of working people. In fact, the two words that they seemed unable to work into any of their speeches were “working class.” Instead, they offered a sad mixture of genocide in Palestine, combined with an appeal to college-educated, “never Trump” Republicans. And they failed.

This election was not about good choices. From the viewpoint of FRSO and the anti-war movement, it was a referendum on genocide in Palestine and a broader war in the Middle East. For many, the economy was the main issue. At day’s end, the rotten choices available to us stand as an indictment of the capitalist system.

We need to understand that major attacks are coming. The labor movement will come under fire and there will be attempts to erode our standard of living. The bigots in DC will do what they can to promote inequality and there will be attacks on oppressed nationalities, including Black people, Chicanos and Latinos, Asian Americans, Arab Americans and others. The rights of immigrants are going to be a special target. There is a crude women-hating misogyny in Trump-world, and we can expect further moves to restrict our reproductive rights. Likewise, we can expect attacks against LGBTQ people. And the genocide in Palestine will continue under Trump.

The good news is that this war on the people is not going to be one-sided. It is entirely possible and necessary to build strong popular movements that are capable of serious resistance. This is not the time to keep our heads down. It’s time to unite all who can be united to defeat Trump’s reactionary agenda. The test is not how many bad things we can say about him—he is a reactionary piece of garbage, so we will say plenty. But the real challenge in front of us is how many people we can put into the streets. To those who feel a little down or demoralized, we can offer the hope of resistance. We have the capacity to fight and win.

The U.S. empire is in decline and Trump is a symptom. We are going to build the struggle. We are going to strengthen the people’s organizations and show some backbone in the trade unions. We are not going back. We are going forward, and we are going to do that with as many people as possible. Together, we can make this country ungovernable!

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