2016-11-28 – You said you wanted a revolution. You hated Hillary—or you didn’t. But you didn’t think voting for her was a great idea. So you voted for a third-party candidate. Or you stayed home. Maybe you even voted for Trump. You thought that things had to bottom out before they got better. And that is now about to come to pass.

What now?

Revolutions don’t fall from the sky. Bloody revolutions or political revolutions (I’m hoping for the latter) happen because people get together and work for them. Many of you were apparently unwilling to work for change before the election. Are you willing to do so now? Your parents won’t do it for you.

Well, maybe we will.

I’m joining up. But we can’t do it alone. Everyone who thought that the system needed to bottom out before meaningful change could happen needs to put their money where their former mouths were.

But let me say one thing before you run out and sign up. We are not going to win every battle overnight. We will lose some. We can’t get discouraged. And we can’t adopt the tactics of the other side—otherwise, what’s the point?

I know this sounds a little bit like politics, which you hate. Yeah, that’s what it is. You could have gotten off your ass a couple of months ago and we’d be ahead of the game. But you needed to bottom out. So here we are.

If you’ve read my blog before, you know that I believe in talking to, not belittling opponents. I believe that the Democratic Party has great ideas for the working class but needs to listen more to said working class. Calling people names and refusing to associate with them is not a way to win allies. We’ve got a lot of bitterness to undo before we can again work together to get things done.

The Republican Party went off the rails by embracing extremism. Yep, that includes racism, sexism, homophobia, and all that. But not all people who voted for Donald Trump are deplorable. Maybe some of them are like you and thought we needed to bottom out before meaningful change would happen. Maybe some of them are unemployed or sick and nothing has been happening for them for years. Maybe some of them are tired of you belittling them as stupid scum.

For years, their party has done nothing but obstruct. It is not an accident that Donald Trump beat 16 Republican candidates. They are not fans of the Republican Party either. If we can drop the elitism, there could be a common cause.

So, what do you say? It could be a real revolution if we stop demonizing the other side and listen to what they have to say.

For a change.