On Jan. 5, 2021, tens of millions of Georgians did one thing extraordinary. We elected Reverend Raphael Warnock, the state’s first Black U.S. senator, and Jon Ossoff, the state’s first Jewish senator.
Together, these victories flipped management of the U.S. Senate and marked a generational shift in American politics. Ossoff’s election additionally marked the primary time a millennial was sworn into the Senate, as the vast majority of the chamber was born earlier than there have been 50 states.
The subsequent day, on Jan. 6, a mob whipped right into a frenzy by Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent try and overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election. They beat greater than 150 Capitol Police officers.
A girl died, and the US Capitol was desecrated in essentially the most literal sense. The Capitol rioters urinated, defecated, and smeared human waste throughout the halls of American democracy.
Five years later, Trump and his supporters are nonetheless smearing crap all around the individuals’s home. Memory is our superpower. But Republicans would really like us to neglect.
Republicans need us to neglect that Trump is the one president in U.S. historical past to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives. They would really like us to neglect that impeachment shouldn’t be a partisan parlor recreation however a constitutional accountability mechanism triggered by abuse of energy.
Republicans need us to neglect that no president has ever been eliminated by impeachment as a result of the Senate has repeatedly chosen social gathering loyalty over democratic precept. They would particularly like us to neglect that Trump resigned nothing. He apologized for nothing.
Forgetting shouldn’t be an choice—as a result of the risk by no means ended.
Despite the overwhelm of the present second, we can not neglect how we gained in Georgia. In 2020, the Democratic Party had largely deserted conventional, on-the-ground campaigning. Party management pivoted to digital occasions and risk-averse messaging, civic, labor, environmental, and civil rights organizations had been out within the streets.
These teams tailored to organizing within the pandemic, carrying masks and protecting gear that made them seem like beekeepers. Knocking doorways. Running telephone banks. Driving voters to the polls. Translating supplies. Answering questions. Calming fears. Curing ballots.
It was these teams who created the situations for Joe Biden to win Georgia by just below 12,000 votes. The identical coalition rapidly reset and did it once more 9 weeks later within the Senate runoffs.
Immediately after these wins, it was these teams who mentioned, clearly and accurately: the Republicans usually are not executed.
The voter suppression and outrage demonstrated after the victory in 2020 was not a one-off tactic however a governing technique. Trump’s telephone name to Georgia’s secretary of state asking him to “discover” extra votes was not an anomaly however a rehearsal.
Georgia organizers understood that our historic victory would elicit a violent backlash. Republicans in Georgia went on to make roughly 50 modifications to the state’s election legal guidelines, tightening entry to the poll and criminalizing extraordinary acts of voter help.
Our pro-democracy coalition insisted—once more accurately—that Congress wanted to behave as a result of it wouldn’t simply cease with Georgia. They demanded passage of federal protections, such because the Freedom to Vote Act, to shore up voting rights nationwide. They warned that with out robust federal requirements, each state would develop into a laboratory for election subversion.
They had been proper about that, too.
Today, all of America is the Deep South on the subject of the fitting to vote. Trump’s core instruments are chaos and overwhelm. It’s why, 5 years later, he and his MAGA buddies proceed to contest an election gained by way of the blood, sweat, and tears of grassroots volunteers and organizers.
They weren’t taking part in once they denied the outcomes of the 2020 election.
They weren’t taking part in once they tried a violent coup.
They weren’t taking part in once they unfold lies about voting machines.
They weren’t taking part in once they floated federal seizures of ballots and tools.
They weren’t taking part in once they threatened election staff.
They usually are not taking part in once they focus on deploying armed forces in opposition to peaceable protests.
This shouldn’t be rhetoric. It is the playbook.
There isn’t any motive—none—to imagine these ways will magically cease on the 2026 midterm election door. The quiet equipment—ballot staff, election directors, certification boards, canvassing processes—shouldn’t be attractive.
It doesn’t pattern on social media. But the system of election administrations is the backbone of democracy, and it’s below assault.
Winning in 2026 and past requires group and motion.
Turning the tide on this nation requires channeling the very actual frustrations Americans really feel – watching an administration drive us into poverty by way of disastrous financial, commerce, environmental, labor, well being, international, and safety insurance policies. It additionally requires that the teams that gained in 2020 function at full capability.
Resource them. Join them.
Members of Congress are going to wish individuals holding the road and organizing calls for for the America we really need. Just as a result of lawmakers had been as soon as pressured to take away their congressional pins, drop to their knees, and crawl to security whereas Trump supporters smashed home windows and smeared feces doesn’t imply they need to settle for that as the brand new regular.
Civic engagement and power-building teams are those who risked their lives to get out the vote. It was that severe then; it stays that severe now.
In Georgia, the margins informed the story. Tens of 1000’s of voters—a lot of them individuals of colour—who skipped the final election confirmed up for the runoff. Black Belt counties had been organizing miracles below relentless stress. With COVID-19 vaccines nonetheless largely unavailable on the finish of 2020, individuals nonetheless stood in strains. They voted anyway. They organized anyway.
Those victories price cash. More than a billion {dollars} flooded into Georgia as a result of the stakes had been clear: management of the Senate, and with it, the way forward for the nation. But cash alone didn’t win. Relationships did. Culture did. Trust did. Infrastructure did.
That infrastructure didn’t come from Washington consultants or nationwide social gathering committees. It got here from community-rooted organizations that had been constructing energy lengthy earlier than the cameras arrived—and that stayed lengthy after they left.
And but, right this moment, civic engagement and power-building organizations are handled as inconveniences or obstacles reasonably than the spine of democratic participation.
That is not only fallacious. It is harmful.
Because Trump and his supporters are nonetheless smearing crapover our democracy, and the mess shouldn’t be metaphorical. It is institutional. It is authorized. It is violent. It is strategic.
Beating it again requires each democratic infrastructure and a robustly funded, culturally related, community-rooted, unbiased political infrastructure. You can not substitute one for the opposite. You can not outsource braveness. You can not virtualize resistance.
Memory is our superpower. It tells us who confirmed up when it mattered. It tells us who sounded the alarm early. It tells us what really works.
As we head into the 2026 midterms, 5 years after January 6, the lesson shouldn’t be refined: get energetic, get severe, and get organized.
Nsé Ufot is an organizer, strategist, and public thinker centered on democracy, expertise, and power-building within the U.S. South. She leads Solidarity Analytics & Media, and advises organizations and leaders on find out how to mix knowledge, tradition, and organizing to win sturdy energy for working-class communities and communities of colour.
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