On Saturday, like many Americans all over the country, I felt like I could finally exhale after four hard years of fighting Trump. I started my job as national program director at the Sierra Club a month before Trump was elected, and as I sat at Lake Merritt watching the celebrations I felt profound pride in having worked side by side with so many in fighting back every step of the way. From the Women’s March to the protests at the airports over the Muslim Ban, to protecting the Arctic, stopping the Keystone XL pipeline and billions of dollars of other misguided fossil fuel projects, we proved resistance was not futile. And then we turned that resistance into an electoral force that took back the House in 2018 and helped propel Joe Biden and Kamala Harris into the White House this week with a decisive mandate to tackle racism, inequality, and climate change. We did this. And we should feel proud.
Like it is for so many across the country, this victory is deeply personal for me. As I reflect, I can’t help but think back to my experience with addiction. To me, it feels as though kicking Trump out of the White House is like flushing that last bottle of whiskey down the toilet. We have taken the first crucial step, but the bills aren’t paid, our relationships are in tatters, and our friends and family are still using. The first step in my healing process was admitting I had a problem. While the US has voted out Donald Trump, we as a country are far from doing the same.
The forces that allowed someone like Trump to get elected in the first place still exist today. Seventy million of our fellow Americans voted for Trump despite, and in many cases because of, his racism and xenophobia. This is not new. This country was founded on the twin sins of slavery and genocide. White supremacy and institutional racism have been used to divide working families from the one percent since long before our nation’s founding. Trump didn’t create any of this, and his departure doesn’t fix it.
And yet, while we’ve only begun to make the real lasting change necessary, I remain hopeful. I’m hopeful because of the work we have accomplished together, I’m hopeful because we have defeated Donald Trump, and I’m hopeful that we will listen to our Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) coworkers, friends, and co-conspirators who led the way. For too long, many people who consider themselves progressive and vote for Democrats have asked the most of our Black and Brown friends, colleagues, and neighbors at the voting booth while ignoring them every day in between. The people who rebuilt the “blue wall” in the northern battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were the Black communities in Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. As votes are still being counted in Arizona, we’ve already seen that the Navajo Nation’s votes for Biden are what drove much of his victory. And while the Sierra Club was proud to partner in these efforts, it was groups like Mijente and Lucha in Arizona,Fair Fight in Georgia, and Tribes who paved the way and led the charge in creating this moment.
So as we look to developing priorities for the next four years, as the hand-wringing starts around whether Democrats should tack to the political center, let’s remember who made these victories possible, honor their leadership and their brilliance, and recognize that they should always be at the forefront of our work. Bold policies that build a more just and equitable future are not only what we need to save our democracy and our planet but also what won us the election. Resisting Trump is thankfully behind us. But resisting white supremacy, racism, sexism, and inequality is what we need to do to truly get our life as a nation back on track. Together we are powerful. Together, we can do this.