Safeguarding the Progressive Movement in a Trump Presidency

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!"  We are all familiar with this announcement from the Sergeant-at-Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives.  It is the last thing we hear before the leader of the free world enters the House chamber to give the State of the Union speech each January.  When we hear it in January of 2016, it will be the last time that the person who walks down the center aisle of the chamber will be Barack Obama.

Traditionally, a newly inaugurated President does address a joint session of Congress a few weeks after the inauguration, even though it is not considered an official State of the Union speech.  So when we hear those words again in 2017, who will be the person walking down the center aisle?

What if that person is Donald Trump?

There are no limits to the speculation of media pundits as to the possibility of this scenario.  "A ridiculous distraction" has morphed, in succession, into "another meaningless front-runner status"; "nothing more than the groundwork for a third party run"; "a lead in the polls that will soon evaporate"; and finally "a legitimate candidacy with a real chance at victory."  As I write, the most recent CNN/ORC poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump among registered voters by only 6 percentage points, 51% to 45%.  And unfortunately for us Progressives, Secretary Clinton is facing a barrage of political attacks that are weakening her image and viability among "The Great Undecided" center-center-right and narrow issue voters: namely, Benghazi, emails, and an increasingly powerful grass-roots challenge from Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who has given Progressives a legitimate alternative to Clinton.

Counterbalancing this precarious situation is the idea that Trump would stand no chance of becoming the Republican nominee, and that he would (as he, by his own admission during the Fox debate, would be more than happy to do) run as a third-party candidate, effectively handing the White House to the Democrats by splitting the Republican vote between the corporate shills and the whackadoodles.  But in the days since the Fox debate, poll after poll has indicated that Donald Trump's positions are, in fact, the shared views of the majority of the Republican Party, the rank-and-file of which is substantially more conservative than at least 15 of the current 17 candidates.  (Neither of the two exceptions, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, will never be the Republican nominee, for reals.)   So the stage is set for an actual Trump matchup, be it with Clinton, Sanders, or even Vice President Joe Biden, who is still contemplating getting into the race.

And that lands us squarely inside the worst of all possible nightmares: that mental picture of President Trump, walking down the center aisle to deliver his first speech to a Joint Session, one hand on the nuclear button, the other signing deportation orders for 11 million undocumented immigrants.

So, what will we Progressives do for those four years?  What will be our priorities?  In a world where we can no longer count on a presidential veto to prevent regressive, damaging or bigoted legislation, we need to get as much accomplished as possible in these next few months.  These should be our priorities:

• LGBTI rights.  Marriage equality is not the end of our fight--it's the beginning. Our goal for 2016 should be the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.  This is the federal law that extends equal employment protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  We need to make sure that every candidate we support would be willing to vote in favor of this legislation, and write/call the Democratic leadership of both the House and the Senate to encourage bringing the law to the floor.  The nation currently has a hodge-podge of state and local ordinances, which means that LGBTI workers who change jobs and move may lose their protection.  Only a federal law can fix this.  

• Black Lives Matter.  The Black Lives Matter agenda, which includes important items such as sensitivity training for officers, deescalation of lethal force and new standards of engagement, should become the standard in every community.  Progressive voters need to make sure that every candidate we support for city councils and elected police department positions are aware of this agenda and support it.  Protests at campaign rallies are valuable, but they should be expanded to include the Republican candidates, who really need to hear the BLM message.  The recent disruption of a Jeb Bush rally was a good start.

• Immigration.  The 2016 House and Senate races will be crucial to this issue.  We must use every means at our disposal to get out the Progressive vote, not only for President, but for Congress as well.  "President Trump" has already made it clear that he fully intends to deport as many immigrants as possible, even children who are legal citizens of the United States under the 14th Amendment.  The only way to effectively oppose this is to have enough leverage in Congress to counteract any potential executive order that would lead to mass round ups and deportations.  This is perhaps the most serious threat of all.  Trump has decided to focus all of his self-loathing on this particular, vulnerable group, and he has persuaded his followers to do likewise.  

Clearly, this is the most important election of the century so far.  We Progressives lost the opportunity to steer the country in the right direction in 2000--we cannot afford to lose that opportunity this time.  The stakes are too high.  A nation can recover from the dithering of a George W. Bush, but the vindictiveness, the cruelty of a Trump presidency could ruin the United States forever.  We cannot let that happen.