If we lose the next election the left still will define the debate for the next ten years.

As a lifelong activist, one thing I learned there is power in numbers. A single snowflake may be fragile, but a snowstorm is a powerful force of nature. In my early childhood I was a victim of some pretty intense bullying, both by other children and adults. In my High School years, I realized that bullies traveled in packs. As a single individual you did not stand a chance against a gang. If the bullied formed their own gang, we had such numbers that all bullying stopped. That is what happened. I soon learned that bullying was a historical and institutional problem with victims being the victims of past history. Sometimes even absurd, for example in the early 1960’s homosexuality had little to do with sexual orientation as were women who used their minds, men not good in sports. Other victims included native peoples, Asians, African Americans, people with a different sexual orientation and just about everyone not fitting the narrowly defined rolls passed down to us. Black Lives Matter because of a very long history of slavery, lynching, segregation, police violence, and currently established institutions that have never really addressed that history. LGBTQ+ just because of no really rational reason. Women because so many men and even other women do not know how to act appropriately around women. Indigenous peoples everywhere because our proud settler states were founded on stolen lands.

We are part of history that is built on past social movements that is fully embracing the future. The green new deal and climate change, universal health care, both a guaranteed income and a living wage, universal housing guaranteed, doing right by indigenous people, people of color, women, LGBTQ+, special needs people, and especially Black Lives Matter.