Markos Moulitsas - The Resistance Handbook: 45 Ways to Fight Trump

Those antiquated, built-in institutional advantages Republicans enjoy prove we arent living in a legitimate democracy. But even with those undemocratic structural flaws, Republicans still cant win elections in a fair voteand so they engage in systematic voter suppression efforts, designed to reduce voting by people of color, women, and young voters.

Its no accident that Trumps victory hinged on narrow margins in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. After GOP takeovers in the 2010 Republican wave, all four states systematically weakened organized labora key component of the Democratic electoral machine. They also made it harder for urban votersa key component of the Democratic electoral coalitionto cast their votes through such mechanisms as strict voter ID laws and the reduction of polling stations in communities of color and college towns. As giddy Wisconsin Republican state senator Mary Lazich crowed after the passage of that states voter ID law, Hey, weve got to think about what this would mean for the neighborhoods around Milwaukee and the college campuses.

And yet, those institutional and electoral advantages were still not enough. In the months leading up to the 2017 election, an entire ecosystem of fake news sites sprang up to distribute a special brand of crazy. Meanwhile, Republican officials reportedly met with the Russian intelligence agencies later accused of causing damage to Democratic campaigns. As we write this, more than a handful of high-level Trump administration officials and Republican operatives are under investigation for colluding with Russia during the election. Meanwhile, as if all this werent absurd enough, the FBI director leaked information on the bogus Hillary Clinton email investigation, while keeping mum about the FBIs investigations into the Trump campaigns Russian ties.

When the dust settled, after running the most hateful, xenophobic, racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic campaign in American history, and despite losing by any reasonable, democratic measure, were to accept that Donald Trump won?

Sorry, but no.

We cannot accept the results of an illegitimate election won by an illegitimate candidate by illegitimate means. And as such, Democrats and progressives cannot consider ourselves the opposition, opposite the petty tyrants and pennyweight dictators who rule todays GOP. Remember, opposition lends legitimacy to their illegitimate gains. An opposition crafts counterarguments in the hopes of gaining a seat at the negotiating table and rallies its supporters behind the idea that next time well get more votes.

We already got more votesand would have won even more had it not been for the Republican cheating. That makes us the majority. And yet, here we are, ruled by a tyranny of the minority that cheated us out of our deserved democratic victory.

We are not the opposition. We are the resistance .