There’s been lots of discussion about who should have done what this year and in the past. Too late and not useful.

What seems important and worth doing now is creating an organization devoted to fighting Trump and Trumpism now, in 2018, and in 2020. Alas, the DNC - dominated by political professionals with their own ambitions, hamstrung by faction-fighting, and focused on fundraising seemingly to the exclusion of all other forms of citizen enagement - doesn’t seem to be the right vehicle for that. What we need is an organization that can harness now the sort of energy that goes into the last two months of a Presidential campaign. That would usually be fool’s errand, but there’s a deep well of anger and despair out there that could be tapped and turned to good purpose.

I imagine a group of with monthly dues, constant activities, and a social dimension: it’s hard to keep people engaged unless they see others so engaged face-to-face and share meals with them.

No, I don’t know who’s going to lead that organization; the obvious candidate seems to be Barack Obama, with his huge net positive job rating, but if anyone knows his plans I haven’t been let in on the secret.

But it strikes me that I can get a start, and so can anyone with a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, an email address book, or just a group of friends. We can ask everyone we know to sign up in advance for the Democratic Resistance when it comes into existence, and keep a list of the people who say yes.

Those with more imagination than I can probably figure out useful things we can have people do even before there’s a formal group. (I don’t count marching as a “useful thing;” your mileage may vary.) But it doesn’t take any imagination at all to suggest making the process snowball: everyone who signs up should ask everyone else he or she knows to sign up.

If this idea appeals to you - if you’re willing to devote time, energy, and money to creating a 2010-in-reverse in 2018, and throwing the rest of the rascals out in 2020, and in the meantime resisting the stream of outrages sure to flow from Washington, D.C. - please send me an email: markarkleiman (at) gmail (dot) com, and start working your own networks.

Update Twenty responses so far, only four of them from people I know. That seems like a good sign. Now, if each of those people signs up 20 friends who in turn sign up 20 new people each, in six iterations the group will include more people than voted for Clinton this year. Math is easier than politics.

Second update One possible early focus for such a group: electing state legislators in 2018 pledged to embracing the National Popular Vote compact for the 2020 election, eliminating the madness of the Electoral College.

Third update Now up to forty responses, still mostly previously strangers to me. In the spirit of biparisanship, I’d like to extend my warmest thanks to the President-Elect for appointing the chief of a hate-oriented media website to co-equal status with the White House Chief of Staff. That should help keep us focused.