Trump won with a tsunami of ads full of transphobic fear-mongering. Some liberals are asking, “are trans rights worth it?” Similarly, the Harris campaign decided to discard their immigrant base to appeal to xenophobia by literally adopting a GOP immigration policy, and of course, the Democrats won’t even let a Palestinian speak about the genocide in Gaza.

In the past, we’ve heard similar nonsense about deserting the queer community and the Black community. There will always be something for right-wingers to fear-monger about. If there isn’t, they’ll invent something.

We need to counter the hate and fear narrative, not throw whoever they target under the bus. Fighting oppression until the right-wingers target a group isn't fighting oppression. It's a performative exercise in convenience. There needs to be a new version of that poem, “They came for the trans people, and I did nothing, because Republicans ran attack ads against trans people”.

We say, “people need to be able to afford food and housing”, and they say, “blah, blah, blah, blah trans people”, and then we get pulled into a bad faith argument about trans rights where they ignore everything we say because it was never about trans rights for them - it is about dominance and using fear to gain power.

Republicans are the ones obsessing about people’s genitals and obsessing about what consenting adults do in private, but through their constant legal and social attacks on the trans community, they somehow make it look like the left is obsessed with trans issues. In truth, liberals are slow and over-cautious in standing up for queer and trans rights. But now, liberals are asking if their limited support for trans people is too much.

What do we do?

We need to stand against all forms of oppression and authoritarianism, building mutual support amongst oppressed groups. Our adversaries work to divide us. We need to do better, and we need to organize around solidarity against oppression.

We need to learn to argue effectively, or to simply not argue, with bad faith right-wingers. They want to get you stuck in the minutia to make themselves look dominant. Don’t let them. Go watch some Alt-Right Playbook videos if you need understanding on how right-wingers manipulate online communication.

When conservative shills try to take over the conversation, aggressively redirect back to the topic: “We're talking about poverty here. Why are you bringing up trans people. Why won't you talk about poverty? Because you're policies only help the rich?”

The Democratic party needs to embrace a more progressive platform that improves the lives of workers and farmers and is broadly anti-oppression. Or the Democratic party needs to die, choking on the phlegm of its pitiful pandering to the rich and conservatives. We can’t just make that happen, but we can harass politicians broadly and make it clear that we will no longer take this shit. As we have been telling the Democrats through 40 years of their failure to take this country back from Reagan’s disaster, they need to shift to the left, not to the right.

We get leverage through local organizing, and that is done through unions and orgs - grassroots orgs and not big non-profits that are just shills for the Democratic party. We grow our organized base, we protest, we push progressive candidates, we harass the do-nothing politicians, we create disruptions, we educate people, we grow the broader movement, we practice solidarity, we network nationally and internationally, and we support community through mutual aid.

Until this election, Democrats could pretend that “shifting to the right to appeal to swing-voters and more liberal conservatives” was a valid strategy. They shifted so far right they were palling around with fucking Chenneys and they still lost to an inept, corrupt, convicted felon who is a want-to-be fascist. And they want to stick to their ridiculous strategy. We need to make it absolutely clear this is no longer acceptable, and we need to quit waiting for the Democrats. We need to apply leverage outside of the political arena through strikes and other disruptions.

Realize that many organizing spaces are filled with people whose job it is to stifle real change. They will try to sabotage your work if you try to go against the status quo. Don’t work with them, and don’t let them stop you. Go around them. Maybe you can’t organize with an org or a neighborhood group that’s filled with reps for centrist non-profits. That’s fine. Go organize your own stuff and let the change we make show them for what they are: useless, reactionary, lazy, and/or corrupt.

We are fighting for peoples’ rights and lives. We need to act with urgency and commitment. There is no middle ground with hate, violence, discrimination, and oppression. You can't let them ruin the lives of half as many people and call it a victory. That just makes you complicit in the half that were killed. Trans rights are human rights. Immigrant rights are human rights. Palestine is a genocide.

When someone suggests we cancel trans rights, or any other groups rights, for electoral appeal, say “hell no!”. Tell them it’s time to cancel corporate welfare and imperialism. Or just tell them to fuck off. But quit pretending this center-right bullshit is acceptable or even a good strategy.