Black Lives Matter continued to force onto the national agenda the issue of police shootings of people of color and, more generally, the continued issues around White, male, straight, cis-gendered violence and exclusion. And they were able to get through to both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Despite the backlash of the Trump election, or perhaps because of it, there is a growing awareness that the issues and leadership of people of color must be central to progressive change.
4. We embraced a presidential campaign based on economic justiceThe surprising strength of Sanders' insurgent presidential campaign showed the passion of many Americans for authentic economic populism. While the Democratic Party establishment glossed over the hardships faced by low-wage workers, the underemployed, and unemployed, Sanders acknowledged the hardship.
Sanders showed that the grip of the oligarchy can be challenged.
Trump also acknowledged the hardships, but he touted policies based in xenophobia as the answers to middle-class fears. Sanders, on the other hand, showed that the systems that concentrate wealth and power can be changed and that everyone in the 99 percent could benefit.
By filling stadiums with tens of thousands, raising millions with average contributions of $27, and mounting a powerful campaign in the face of Democratic Party obstruction, Sanders showed that the grip of the oligarchy can be challenged. This authentic economic populism is an important step to countering Trump's form of ultra-right populism, which would quickly have collapsed into its own absurdity were it not for a compliant media and the continued legacy of racism in the United States.
Trump has chosen to surround himself with climate deniers. But actual climate scientists and others who believe in the reality of the climate crisis are not sitting still. Instead they are downloading research data on the changing climate from U.S. government servers and safeguarding them so they will remain available for further research no matter whom Trump appoints. Preserving these invaluable data sets will enable scientists to continue to refine their understanding of what is happening to the habitability of the planet, and that could be life-saving. Their moral courage in the face of possible retaliation is an example of the sort of quiet heroism that we'll need to make it through the Trump years.
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The acts of courage at the camps on a frozen plain at Standing Rock, in the nondescript offices of climate scientists, and among citizens in cities and towns throughout the country offer hope.
I was at Standing Rock on the day after the election, and I asked tribal leaders for their reactions. We're accustomed to living under bad presidents, they told me. We'll get through this, too.
By protecting the most vulnerable people and the Earth, supporting each other, and nurturing the seeds of healing and rebirth, we can use this time of disruption to transform our society. Even the children of Trump supporters might someday thank us.
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