Regaining democracy's people power -- after the Right's 40-year game plan has brought us today's Trumpster fire -- takes work, but we know how to do it. James Mumm of People's Action walks us through the plan to "move from grievance to governance, and from protest to power." It's a plan that works in large part because it doesn't depend on the 1%'s money but the 99%'s mobilization, starting at the local and state level in the pattern followed by Progressive Maryland and the other state affiliates of People's Action.

/By James Mumm<>People’s Action/ We are sharing our big secret with you. It is called the Long-Term Agenda. It’s only fair. Your support has allowed us to play fierce defense and bold offense since Trump’s election. Thank you.

We know that we can move from grievance to governance, and from protest to power. We are not just hopeful idealists. We have a plan.

Before the final push toward the midterms and then (gulp) gearing up for the 2020 Presidential election we want to share a message of hope.

The Right had a plan too. You could go back 400 or 4,000 years, but we took a hard look at the past 40 years and saw patterns. Big corporations and the very wealthy started to take power seriously half a century ago. It was not enough to make lots of money. They wanted the power to shape the landscape of our lives.

The Right followed four pathways. Deregulation. Privatization. Money in politics. Attacks on us. These four pathways led the 1% to gain power in the majority of U.S. states and capture Congress and the Presidency.

We can beat the Right this year and secure our rights against the Right over the long term, but we need your participation in the next round of the fight.

We asked thousands of everyday people about their ideas for change. We looked at the relationship between capitalism, structural racism and sexism and the commodification of our planet. We dug into the historical development of these interrelated systems. We talked about how they have manifested over the last forty years in particular. We looked both at how these systems have developed inside the United States and on a global scale.

Then we talked about moving beyond incremental reforms to fighting for structural reforms. We talked about the importance of the battle of big ideas. We dug into the need for broader progressive alignments. We talked about how we can play a leadership role in society as whole. Then we dug into the importance and the limits of “outside” protest-based organizing and of “inside” civic organizing. This added up to an integrated approach to winning governing power.

What you see above is our big secret. Well, it’s more of a secret sauce. We know that if we build power and act, we will win. You are critical to this work. Thank you for everything that you do.

James Mumm is innovation officer at People's Action, which seeks your support as the national affiliate of Progressive Maryland.