Movements and Parties

Between November 3rd, 2020 and January 20th 2021, the United States experienced a combination of events that will be remembered as a tragic episode in American history. In the midst of a devastating pandemic, one President was soundly defeated and another sworn in; the first one refused to accept the results of the election while the second calmly took the reins of a government that was struggling to cope with the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis. In the midst of all this, the country was shaken by an attempted coup and by an attendant riot.1 Although it may not turn out that this political and institutional shock changed everything," it certainly marked the peak -or the nadir - of what will surely be remembered as a "critical juncture"2 in American history. But another "critical connection" that was exposed by the events of those two months was the enduring, but ever changing, and often overlooked juncture between political parties and social movements"--