"Hey all you people who couldn't be bothered to put forth the absolute least possible effort to vote against this guy... here's a list of a ton of much more intensive things you should do to try to stop him from doing what he's going to end up getting done anyway."

I mean, I hope people resist Trump, but judging from history, I sure as hell wouldn't bet on it.

Some of these ideas are not bad. Not sure if I have the spoons to see any of it through, though. It's hard, I have to say, to not conclude from this election that any nation that could put a man like Trump into power simply isn't worth saving. Time for both parties to die, time for the country to start over. If it wasn't for young people and the devastation it would bring to their futures, I for one, would dance on its grave.

But given that Trump's constituency and those on the left who played a role in building it will be part of that new nation, anything that comes out of a reconstruction probably wouldn't be worth it either.

Good luck.

The Democratic Party is much earlier in the process you describe than the Republicans were. Those Tea Partiers had people in Congress ready to push the obstructionist agenda from the inside. Where are the organized leftist Democrats who will do the same? They don't exist in any numbers or positions of consequence. We've already begun to see how Democrats will respond to Trump... by looking for ways to work with him.

The Democrats are a Neoliberal party. And that means they are right wing. Not as right wing as the lunatics in the other party, but right wing by literally every measure outside of identity. Asking for left wing activities from a right wing group is planning for failure.

The battle really starts in 2 years, with district to district fights to replace right wing Neoliberal Democrats with leftists. Then you can start to make 'progress' resisting the far right.

The left is dead and buried in this country. The establishment has utterly failed the populace, and the only people with any organization or plan are the lunatic right wing. It's going to be a long loooooooooonnnnng road to sanity, if we ever even make it there.

Fighting regression follows neglecting progression. #lesson

@5,
Bravo!!

Shoulda run Bernie, ya doofus.

The big problem is the Democratic base doesn't vote consistently. They did twice, for Obama, and that's how he won, but they returned to their ordinary levels for Hillary and she lost, despite this base having the most to lose under a Trump Presidency. What the Democrats have to do is focus on increasing turnout. In winning every state, local, and federal election. Stop being "strategic" and ignoring most of the country. There needs to be left-wing crazy people in prominent positions running. Right-wing crazy people make the mainstream GOP seem sane and electable, while still motivating the fringe. The left has no fringe and all that potential energy goes to idiocy like pretending Jill Stein is a real candidate and accusing allies of secret racism. We need people like Howard Dean, Bernie Sanders, Michael Moore.

Also, Democrats need to be smart and disciplined with their message. Not everyone's opinion is valuable. How you present yourself matters. If you look stupid on CNN, you will be dismissed no matter how valuable your message is. Everyone agreed with the goals of OWS, but they went nowhere because they antagonized people on their side and looked like hipster douchebags on TV. White supremacists wear suits and know pop culture and the media gets an erection and can't wait to slobber all over them. The left needs to refine their message and stop making sure every voice is heard. There's a reason most people aren't leaders.

@7,
Bernie did run. And he lost. To Hillary.

Bernie's supporters were obnoxiously loud in internet rants, but they must have been locked in their houses during the primaries and caucuses because they sure didn't come out and vote for him.

We'll never know what would have happened if he'd been the nominee, but it does seem fair to say that if he couldn't beat Hillary, who lost to Trump, how was he going to beat Trump?

It's interesting. Bernie lost the primary because Hillary's campaign strategy was to paint him as racist. They used shitty purity politics, of the kind the left loves to use to tear each other down, to paint an image of Bernie as racist. Not for anything he said, not for anything he did, but because he wasn't up on the latest slang. He didn't have black friends (?!) Silly superficial bullshit that destroyed his character not for anything he actually did, but because he presented as an old white guy and not as cool.

That strategy was successful in defeating Bernie, but failed in defeating Trump. That tells you the left's stupid tactics only work against the left.

@11: Don't forget that Hillary's camp attacked Obama on the basis of his race and falsely tried to paint him as a dangerous Muslim "other" back in 2008. She has never been above race-baiting and trying to use racial animus to her advantage.

Yeah, that's part of what I don't get. Obama ran on hope and change and it turned out that's what the country was ready for, not for McCain and more of the same. People are talking right now about how Trump won because he was also a "change" candidate and this was a "change" election and Hillary just represented more of the same (which is true). If that's the case though, how come Bernie didn't get the votes? He appeared to be a change candidate.

This is what I hope history will say about the first week of 2017:

President-elect Donald Trump and sitting President Barak Obama met for a private lunch on the afternoon of January 4th, 2017 in a small, private dining room just off the Oval Office. It was to be a personal and not a policy meeting and no others were present in the room. And despite the many congressional and criminal investigations into what happened that day, many feel that the truth will never be known.

In his testimony before congress, President Obama said that it had been a pleasant lunch and that they mostly talked about golf, favorite movie stars, professional wrestling and cars. After desert was served the conversation turned to hair, and Mr. Trump commented on how much the president's hair had grayed over his eight years in office, making a reference to black beans and rice. The President responded by saying how pleased he was that Mr. Trump was reviving the powdered wig tradition of our founders, although they would no doubt find his version hideous and laughable, and would be horrified that the piece of shit it sits on top of was about to become President of United States, a statement he later claimed to regret. Mr. Trump was irate and charged at the President, lunged and missed, tumbled forward and snapped his neck on the back of the president's chair, killing Mr. Trump instantly.

The autopsy was inconclusive and couldn't rule out the president's version of events. The hearings were highly partisan and acrimonious. Those in favor of indicting the President presented evidence that the injury could have been caused a single karate-like blow from the strong and athletic President, and endlessly mocked "the killer chair" theory. The President's supporters argued that Mr. Trump was obese, out of shape, elderly and reckless, and that people die from those types of falls and accidents everyday. And although the president was ultimately exonerated and now lives somewhere in Indonesia, many still believe in his guilt, and refuse to accept the idea that a mere chair could have caused such tragic event.

Nice circular firing squad, guys. I like @14's scenario.

This "Practical Guide..." seems just that: practical. Also do-able. Not very dramatic, but we don't need grand gestures to impress our Members of Congress. We just need them to know that we are here, watching them, and then voting.
The tip to include just one "ask" per email/letter/call is a good reminder for me; I tend to include the kitchen sink, sometimes.
One thing the Guide doesn't really address is how not to get caught up in the "I'm more progressive than you" game. Right now, if folks aren't trying to tear down science, the social safety net, education, the arts, or basic human rights, then I don't have to fight them. I don't have to worry that they're not progressive enough.
Which is good because I'll be busy fighting to keep things we thought we'd won for good years ago. Sigh. I had a lot more energy in the 1970s.

**HRC 2020**
It's durr turn! Again!