In this election, I am a nihilist. I anticipate Trump will win. The odds are essentially even. Harris might pull through. But I would rather plan for tomorrow on the assumption of rain. Even on a fair day, an umbrella has its uses.
Standing at the end of an election season, what alarms me most is the willingness to plan for only one of two futures, and indeed, the marginally less likely. According to fivethirtyeight.com, at the time of writing, Trump now stands just north of a fifty percent chance of winning. The Harris campaign has just finally gotten around to calling him what he is—a fascist. For the duration of this political season, however, we had already been hearing about the consequences should he win. Just as we heard in 2016 and 2020. And just as in 2020, but more importantly, in 2016, we have heard how this election is the only way to stop him. Well, the only way, if we concede that claim, likely won’t.
The danger is now that, if Trump wins, the emphasis on the singularity of the election will stifle the thought of what must be done next. In this respect, the Democratic Party has been building a political Maginot Line. It is obviously flawed as a defensive strategy. Statistically, its chances of success are slightly worse than a coin flip. Historically, it has only worked the second out of two tries. Yet there is a stubborn refusal to consider layering the defenses. So, if and when the line fails, as it did in 2016 — a failure only retrieved from being terminal by Trump’s incompetence in seizing power on January 6 — the risk is surrendering like the French government in 1940.
It is better to think like the French resistance than the French government.
Here is my advice. Think of it more as a framework than as a concrete set of suggestions. You will know better what is possible for you than will I. But remember: agency is not yours alone. It is a collective product. So get with other people and do what you can.
Vote with the detachment of a recovering gambler and treat the outcome like the weather. Maybe there will be a hurricane. So be it. Evacuate if you need and are able. Forget about pride when considering to wait out the storm. Hunker down if you stay. Regardless, prepare in advance. Check your flood zone and anticipate the loss of water and power for prolonged periods. Acquire necessary supplies in advance, do not assume stores will open shortly. Consider that being more prepared than necessary creates the opportunity to help others in need. Mutual aid is a key to survival. But most importantly: do not build Maginot Lines in your mind. Reliance on static defenses is death.
This time, they may not come for gay marriage. Fascism and homonationalism are compatible ideologies, just as violent ethno-nationalism has paradoxically made itself a trap for the survivors of genocide. But they will go after trans kids. And they will mandate the teaching of racism in schools, while they further empower the police to enforce the same old new Jim Crow. And there will be mass deportations, and probably, to support them, more, and more horrific, camps—because the need for deportations and ICE camps is the violent, detestable two-party political consensus. They will also do what they can to more rapidly destroy the environment. They will support genocides and invasions. They may expand bans on abortions. None of this goes against the nature of the country. It is a return to form. This country was built on slavery and genocide. Those sins have not washed away. Yet you can still take action.
The need is to be brave. The election isn’t the end of it just like the invasion of France wasn’t the end of it. You must focus—materially—on what you can do. Survival is a game of staying active to prevent the paralysis that sets in the face of danger and fear. You must do what you can for the trans kids, the undocumented, the protestors attacked by the police and criminalized by the state, the people in Gaza. I don’t know what you can do, that’s for you to decide. If you can spot a kettle, protest, or else build a banned book library, help people get to their appointments, join, or start, a mutual aid distro, send letters to political and politicized prisoners, do jail support. Make noise. Be disruptive. Forget civility. Paul von Hindenburg and Neville Chamberlin were civil men. So too was Pétain. Go kicking and screaming. Whatever you can do, you have to do it. The fascists will not leave power voluntarily. They are already trying to destroy us.
Tonight, I find myself thinking of the flowers that grow in the burn shadow of the wildfire. Of grapes that become sweeter in bad soil. This may be the start of a difficult new time. We will have to rely upon ourselves and our alliances. It is revealing of our fundamental condition, in this country, where we were only legalized two decades ago.