(ThyBlackMan.com) In the past, I have metaphorically referred to America’s current body politic as a blue hand holding a red gun to our progressive heads. To be explicit, I’m referring to a situation in which the Democratic Party could rely on gaining the support of progressive people because the alternative selection in the form of the Republican Party is without a doubt; repugnant. That quandary has been further heighted by the election of Donald Trump. The truth is that the blue hand actually pulled the trigger. The fraudulent coronation of Hillary Rodham Clinton performed the metaphoric squeeze. The red Republican gun was fully loaded with crazy and the blue hand fired a headshot into the American body politic. The body politic is now on life support, though it is not yet dead.
The progressive body politic managed to grab the gun just in time to stave off an instantly fatal wound. We grabbed the gun and now we’re pointing it back at the blue dog that tried to kill us. The 
hostage situation has reversed on itself. The corporate Democrats are now aware that enough progressives stayed home in the 2016 election to allow Donald Trump to win. Some progressives even voted for the dolt. I personally did not encourage that behavior. I personally did not have the courage to not try to stave off the Trump presidency, but it arrived nonetheless.
Now that the Trump presidency is a reality and now that progressives have lived in this long national nightmare for some eight months, the progressive will has not weakened. Progressive will has only become stronger because the corporate Democrats have made it clear that they intend to grab the gun back in order to once again place it firmly at progressive heads. Progressives must now be willing to fire the gun at the corporate Democrats in 2018 and 2020 in self-defense or they will surely wrestle it back from us and we will once again find ourselves where we were a year ago; living in fear.
If the Democratic Party in its current formation must die in order to bring about change, then so be it. If it is not clear that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer no longer lead progressives, then progressives must make it so clear. Progressives now have to think in terms of long-term progress and sacrifice. The DNC has all but assured a right-leaning Supreme Court for the remainder of most of our lives. The DNC has already allowed a fascist petty tyrant to seize control of the nation. The progressive agenda has been lost on them and will continue to be as long as progressives are led by unprincipled corporatists. The progressive’s worst fears have already been realized. The corporatists fired the red gun, progressives survived it, and now progressives are holding the gun.
Progressives have to vote en masse for progressive candidates in congressional primary races and in the national Democratic primary and if they should lose, then progressives should stay home for those elections. They should stay home in 2018 and 2020 if the DNC has not yet learned its lesson. The time for voting for the lesser of two evils has to end as the end result is still evil. If progressives sincerely wish to achieve a more perfect union, then it is time to stand on principle in the face of tremendous suffering.
Donald Trump will surely damage America. He may very well trigger the end of humanity, but if progressives don’t stand up for the climate now, for the end of mass incarceration now, for social and economic justice now, and if progressives don’t stand up against income inequality now; then progressives are merely delaying the inevitable by supporting a corporate sponsored Democratic Party who tows the corporate line in lockstep. We all know where that leads us. The rich will continue to privatize the gains and socialize the losses of every system that I mentioned. It is time to pull the trigger.
Staff Writer; Asani Akida
