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Things are both bleak and electric

How are things looking from your vantage point?

Things are both bleak and electric. Not since the lead-up to the War in Iraq have we seen the activist base so awake and outraged. It’s been inspiring to see the majority of Americans stand up for Muslims, immigrants and refugees. I would bet that Trump is surprised by the strength of the opposition. He made a critical error in issuing that executive order his first week. It will cripple his ability to do anything else. There seemed to be the possibility that he would focus on infrastructure and jobs, and if he had, he’d even have Bernie Sanders on his side. But he and Bannon grossly miscalculated, and this has taken his presidency into the weeds from the start. Maybe that’s for the best: it will expedite his exit.

How do you feel about what’s coming in 2017?

The main thing standing in the way of Trump and Bannon are the courts, which he would dismiss if he could. That very well might be his downfall. He will question more judges, he will try to crush the judicial branch, and ultimately he’ll question its existence entirely. Sometime in 2017, I guarantee, there will be a tweet, sent at 3am, that asks “What’s so great about the Constitution? Lots of problems, not keeping US safe. BAD!”

What can we do about it? (Practical advice is especially useful).

The lawyers are beating Trump, and badly, at the moment. So we need to continue to support the ACLU, the National Immigrant Justice Center, and CAIR. I would like to see an immigrants’ march on Washington, where everyone who is an immigrant, or whose ancestors were immigrants, shows up and doesn’t leave. That would be about 315 million people.