To Win A Ceasefire, We Have To Beat Trump First

It’s crunch time for staving off MAGA and stepping up protests against Israel’s genocidal war, which is escalating daily with US government backing. We must do both.

Preventing the US presidency from being captured by a racist authoritarian whose inner circle includes outright fascists depends on the “margin of effort” in the next 20 days.

Gaining the strength to translate an electoral win into a new progressive cycle in US politics requires that our all-out effort—from now through Election Day and long beyond —includes immediate action to embed internationalism into the entire social justice movement’s vision and practice.

There is no room for complacency on either point.

Donald Trump looking smug standing at a podium

Biden passing the torch to Kamala Harris energized the anti-MAGA coalition, but the laws of political gravity have since made themselves felt. The billionaires who aim to shape a second Trump administration have financed a powerful organizing and fear-mongering apparatus. Tens of millions of voters believe that a racist authoritarian narcissist can and should be President. This election will still come down to a few thousand votes in six or seven battleground states—and then the capacity to protect a winning outcome.

And Washington’s might-makes-right policies designed to maintain US global power—so vividly on display today in its backing for Israeli genocide and regional escalation—have consequences even beyond the carnage inflicted on oppressed peoples across the globe. The US commitment to militarism undermines every component of a progressive agenda, and its consequences fall hardest on the communities of color and working-class communities essential to winning the fight against the Right.

Militarism sucks resources away from human needs, exacerbates climate change, and is linked with and strengthens racist stereotypes. It generates constant threats to the right to protest, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. Commitment to worldwide hegemony via militarism brings the spectacle of Biden giving Netanyahu a green light for mass murder even as Netanyahu persists in war-making at least in part to help Trump win the 2024 election.

Our “margin of effort” needs to be greater than ever.