Joe Biden didn't beat Trump. It was grassroots resistance from anti-fascists, anarchists, abolitionists, and—above all—courageous members of targeted communities that stopped Trump.

Permit us to make our case in this thread—one small step towards a history of the Trump era.

When Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, it wasn’t Biden that blockaded the parade route and left a burning limousine as an emergency flare summoning people to action.

http://cwc.im/j20analysis 

When Richard Spencer showed up at Trump’s inauguration to do media interviews—as if he was accepting power on behalf of the white supremacist movement in the US—it wasn’t Biden who made it absolutely clear that people wouldn't stand for it.

https://crimethinc.com/2017/01/20/j20-live-updates#thank-you-for-punching-richard-spencer

It wasn’t Joe Biden who led the umbrella charge in which a hundred black bloc anarchists escaped from the kettle during Trump’s inauguration.

https://crimethinc.com/2017/01/20/j20-live-updates#black-bloc-courage

how it started how it’s going

When Trump announced his #MuslimBan, it wasn’t Biden who shut down airports countrywide in protest. The judges’ rulings blocking Trump’s policy only came after that—and Trump eventually got around them because people were waiting for Biden to fix things.

https://cwc.im/airportblockades

When Trump supporter Milo Yiannopoulos toured the country recruiting fascists and teaching them to doxx trans and undocumented students, it wasn’t Biden who braved their bullets to confront Milo in Seattle and shut him down in Berkeley.

https://cwc.im/milo 

When a thousand fascists gathered in Charlottesville, it wasn’t Biden who confronted them. Biden used the footage from Charlottesville in the first announcement of his 2020 campaign—but he was nowhere to be seen that day.

https://cwc.im/whycharlottesville

Rest in power, Heather Heyer.

When fascists tried to rally in Berkeley, it wasn’t Biden that chased them out of the park along with the cops who were there to protect them. It wasn’t Biden who risked his life and his freedom to stop them from building a violent street movement.

https://cwc.im/Berkeley 

When the Trump administration ramped up deportations and separated children from their parents, it wasn’t Biden who occupied ICE facilities around the country, acting immediately rather than waiting for the courts or legislation.

https://cwc.im/iceage 

It wasn’t Biden who pulled down Confederate monuments around the country in defiance of Trump's insistence that they should remain a respected part of our society, honoring the history of white supremacy.

https://cwc.im/monuments 

#UntilTheyAllFall

When Trump announced a nationwide round of ICE raids, it wasn’t Biden who lost his life attacking a detention facility to deter ICE from going forward with it.

Rest in power, Willem van Spronsen.

https://cwc.im/Willem 

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020 along with an economic crisis, it wasn’t Biden who organized mutual aid networks around the country to supply those in need with food and protective equipment.

https://cwc.im/threadthatbinds 

When landlords demanded rent from tenants who had lost their jobs, it wasn’t Biden who organized to defend them. He wasn't the one who smashed the windows of the courthouse in Richmond, Virginia, delaying the eviction proceedings.

https://cwc.im/ImmunityforAll 

When police murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis, it wasn’t Biden who brought this tragedy to everyone’s attention by chasing away the police and and burning down the police precinct. If not for the courage of those who did, we might not know his name.

https://cwc.im/thirdprecinct 

It wasn't Biden who spread the #GeorgeFloydUprising around the United States, forcing a reckoning with racism and police violence. Liberal Biden supporters tried to co-opt a movement that was necessarily confrontational from the very beginning.

https://cwc.im/uprising2020 

When Trump sent federal forces to Portland in a test run to see if the DHS officers who were loyal to him would be enough to back him in seizing power, it wasn’t Biden who mobilized to defend demonstrators from them.

https://cwc.im//fedsoutofportland

All summer, Biden supporters alleged that confrontational protests would bring Trump back into power, but the fact is that Trump's popularity plunged after the George Floyd rebellion began and only began to recover when it died down.

https://cwc.im/theratchet 

Liberal centrists always try to discredit direct action. They'll say anything they can to discourage us from acting for ourselves against our oppressors. But passivity will not keep us safe. Trump has taken everything we have not outright defended. https://twitter.com/HKrassenstein/status/1300082366581559301

We've survived a terrifying fight against an administration that aims to rule us by brute force. If we had not stood by each other so boldly, even worse things would have happened, and the Democrats would have let them happen.

This is why we say it wasn’t Biden that beat Trump.

Staying power is important. We fought Trump's predecessors 20 years ago—and we’ll be fighting their successors in 20 years. From one struggle to the next, we aim to build solidarity and a vision of collective liberation.

Keep your heads up, friends. https://twitter.com/MollieTov/status/1323023617580539904