There is no America B
On working for a Union more perfect
Yes, this is an election take. Sorry. Double sorry if it gets maudlin and/or speechifying. I’m as deep in anxiety as many of you surely are, and this is part of my catharsis. I promise to keep it at least tenuously connected to the broad theme of this Substack.
And yes, of course please do all you can for the next seven days to defeat Trump, whether that’s phone banking (I persuaded an undecided voter just the other day!) or door knocking or postcard writing or whatever else.
But that’s not what this post is about. This is about what we do afterwards, so it starts with the reminder that there will be hard work to do afterwards, no matter what happens next Tuesday. That’s a challenge to everyone to keep in mind, but it may also be a source of equanimity.
Because on the one hand, even if Harris wins a clear victory, Trump’s tens of millions of supporters will still be with us. And mitigating the damage they do to our institutions and our values will not be the task of a few months, or a few years, or a few Presidential terms. That task will require building a level of abundance that can open people’s hearts and minds to tolerance and progress and draw them away from a scarcity mindset, and that can only be a generational project.
And on the other hand, even if (all fates forbid) Trump wins a clear victory, the community that has today been built around the defense of civilized American values— the community of all those who are out there canvassing and phonebanking and so on right now— will still be there, tens of millions strong, in all its passion and solidarity and organization. And we can and must and will keep that passion and solidarity and organization together and use it to shore up what can be shored up, resist where resistance can do good, and carry the torch not only of a better American future, but of a better human future.
That’s the north star to keep in mind: a better human future. There’s been a lot of virtual ink spilled these past two days about Sunday’s hate rally at Madison Square Garden and the terrible slurs against Puerto Ricans and Latinos spewed there. Those slurs deserve all the condemnation they’ve gotten. But I don’t think they were the worst things said at that rally.
No, the worst thing said at the rally was Steven Miller’s line: “America is for Americans and Americans only.” I can hardly imagine a more un-American or unpatriotic thing to say. For our whole history, the occasions when America has been greatest, most exceptional, most worthy of pride are precisely those when it has not been for Americans only.
When in 1865 our Union forebears smashed the chains of Southern slavery, they didn’t do that for Americans only. They did it because they held the truth to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and they knew that truth was marching on.
When in 1945 our grandparents freed the captives of Europe from the Nazis, they didn’t do that for Americans only. They did it because they knew no human being could be secure, or securely free, as long as so great and aggressive an evil existed in the world.
And when in 1969 Neil Armstrong walked on the fucking moon, he and the untold thousands who made his feat possible didn’t do that for Americans only. They came in peace for all mankind.
This is the heritage we must build on in our generation, no matter what happens next week. For what other path is there to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity?
I can hear some of you muttering about Maltese golden visas or cottages in Nova Scotia. I’ve been known to mutter such things myself. But let’s put those fantasies aside— because they are fantasies unworthy of us. They rest on the assumption that the other stable liberal democracies of the world will mostly remain stable liberal democracies if America falls, and that’s ahistorical and unrealistic.
Throughout the 20th century America was not only the indispensable arsenal of democracy, but also an indispensable refuge for countless dissidents from around the world. Who will play those roles for us, if our America is gone? No one I can think of. Europe will not be safe from Putin, nor Asia from Xi Jinping, nor Canada and Mexico from whatever Trump-addled kleptocracy might have the effrontery to fly our flag. The few pleasant little redoubts that would likely stay safe— Switzerland, New Zealand— will fill up too fast, and do nothing to push back the authoritarian wave.
So, daunting as it may now seem, there’s nothing else for it but to keep working to save the refuge (and arsenal) we have. Do what you can this week. Take a rest over the holidays; care for yourself and your loved ones; there’s not much the vast majority of us will be able to do then anyway, regardless. And plan to show up January 20 ready to continue the struggle, in peace, for all mankind.