Why did Trump win? Because Democrats stayed home. Donald Trump's presidential victory was only the most visible loss for Democrats last week: The party is now in full command of only 13 state legislatures (meaning state senates, houses or assemblies, and governorships). The Republicans gained full control of 33 state legislatures, two more than before. (http://www.attn.com/stories/12765/democrats-lose-control-of-state-legislatures) Clinton lost not because of a Trump surge, but because she will end up with several million fewer votes than President Obama got in 2012. It rings true that Republicans fall in line while Democrats (Liberals, Progressives) fall in love. We keep waiting for the "perfect" candidate, but if and when we find him/her, the record of our prior lackluster civic engagement scorches earth and sets a candidate like Obama up for failure. We robbed him of meaningful majorities. We have undermined our own agenda by not persistently voting the party line. And here lies the rub. Be it's due to difficulty in motivating higher IQ individuals who don't want to be seen as part of a "mob", or the very fact that the left does not follow a single dogma or profess some stingy religious praxis, we're terrible at consistency. But it's the consistency, organization and focus that wins elections and develops reputation it the eyes of others, not the utopic goals of pure egalitarianism. We have failed at motivating each other. We have failed at showing up to our civic job day after day after day. We will be unable to succeed and will be delegated backseat to the future of this country if we continue with our beautiful unique snowflake approach to civic engagement. At the end of the day, we either become a unified force, marching on the same ticket, day in and day out, no matter how impersonal that looks and sounds, or resign to withering on the vine and watching this country turn into a veritable right wing shithole oligopoly through the screens of our TVs.

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