Three alternatives are possible when we wake up on November 4, the day after the election:

• No substantial transfer of power
• Trumpsters substantially win
• Anti-Trumpsters substantially win

In the first scenario, we go on with the day-by-day fight to keep from sliding completely into autocracy. In the second, we’ll do the same thing, but with a tremendous handicap. In the third scenario, we can expect the electoral fight to spill over into the streets.

In other words, the Trumpsters will do everything they can to overturn elections — even to the point of overturning the system itself. As they did in 2020, they will use everything at hand — but this time they will have at hand a lot more than a bunch of lawyers and a gang of violent loonies.

In Any Scenario, We Have to Unify

We have less than four months to pull the anti-autocracy forces together. It is not just a good way to win, it is the only way.

Against our unity effort is the mighty obstacle of sectarianism. While opposing the Trumpsters is common to many organizations and ideologies, each of them exists within its silo of isolation. Hardly any of us is open to working with everybody.

The Democrats, or course, have the simplest solution: vote Democrat. But they may be the most sectarian of all. For example, look at the way they gang up against their more progressive (and amazingly successful) candidates for office!

Today’s (7/14/26) Dallas Morning News has a strong lead editorial warning against “extremists” from the Democratic Socialist camp. I wrote them a letter asking if they were comfortable in the “middle of the road” along with yellow stripes and dead armadillos. I’ve seen dozens of articles imploring the Democrats to denounce their progressives because, they say, the American people are so reactionary that denouncing progressives is the only way for Democrats to win.

Cut off your nose to spite your face!

Who’s a Sectarian?

Almost everybody in almost every organization. We were fragmented deliberately by those who rule us, whether Democrat or Republican. We remain fragmented and have never in our history overcome sectarianism completely.

Now, we must. We can because we have to. It’s the only way to win.

How Do We Overcome Our Sectarianism?

Patiently explain.

We find ways to put aside our differences for the common goal of not becoming an authoritarian state in 2026. Texans, especially Dallasites, have a tremendous opportunity for unity because the Trumpsters are planning a gigantic fund raising extravaganza at the American Airlines Center September 9-10.

As usual, of course, every organization in town is working on separate events, but I may have thought of a way to get everybody out of our silos and working together. It has to do with the President (I’m the VP) of the North Texas Area Labor Federation, Tevita Uhatafe.

Unions may not be perfectly aligned, even with one another, but they have a better understanding of winning through solidarity than anybody. Tevita, whose nickname is “Brother Solidarity,” is the most powerful, and the least sectarian, labor leader around.

Tevita has agreed to work with me on an all-encompassing, totally non-sectarian and open, approach to opposing the Trumpsters on September 9-10.

How?

We’re going to do it on-line.

With a lot of technical help from Travis Cantwell, who joined me to put on a successful “Labor Day Breakfast” during the pandemic, we’re planning to stream anti-autocracy speakers and Q&A sessions all the way through the Trumpster extravaganza. They are charging $5,000-$20,000 for a ticket. We’re charging nothing. Talk about democracy!

We will also post every speech on YouTube so people can watch them later.

Newspersons will be the first people invited. Next, we’ll invite spokespersons from every anti-Trumpster organization that has a following.

Who?

Why not get the most outstanding anti-Trumpster speakers? Since it’s on-line and free, we should be able to get Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of New York. We should be able to get dynamic labor leaders like Randi Weingarten of the AFT or Shawn Fain of the UAW.

We should be able to get the most critical candidates, but we shouldn’t stop at electoral politics. Let’s also invite the Palestinians, the peace movement, the communists, the retirees, the feminists, the gays, the church leaders — any single spokesperson for any single organization with a following against the Trumpsters.

That’s the way to unity! That’s the way to win!

–Gene Lantz

I’m on KNON.org radio 89.3FM at 9AM every Saturday. I post all over the internet. My personal web site is https://lilleskole.us.