The 2016 presidential election was, at best, a sobering experience for the Democratic Party. Not only did the Democrats lose the highest political office in the land, but they also underperformed in the House of Representatives and were painfully unable to attain the majority in the Senate. To see everything come crashing down was an event that led many to tears, and some to action. For millions, however, the action was to protest. The days proceeding the election saw protests erupt in multiple cities across the nation, all with one message: that Donald Trump was not the president the people of the United Sates wanted. Popular vote counts seem to back this, as Hillary Clinton has by all means won it. But what have we really achieved in a span of about a weeks worth of protests?

Of all of the quotes to remember from the Bernie Sanders campaign, there was one I took to heart, not spoken by the man himself, but rather by a campaign coordinator in the city I volunteered in. Indiana was, as we joked, importance in the primaries for both parties for once in it’s existence. Ted Cruz, due to his unimpressive string of second place finishes, was hedging his bets on the state in a last stand for the Republican ticket, and Bernie Sanders needed Indiana desperately to generate momentum in the California primary and to stay solvent as a legitimate contender to Hillary. Given that the members of the Sanders team knew this, the emotions were running high and our stress levels were understandably through the roof. It only got worse as candidate after candidate announced their coming to visit our city, and as we discussed protesting the Ted Cruz rally, the coordinator came to us with concern. He did not argue, he did not say we were immature; he simply said that to protest the rally he was holding would only reinforce the notion that we were not a serious campaign. This was a new concept to several of the people in our group, and as a result of what he said, we ended up halting the planning for the protest (I actually ended up going as a peaceful observer and not only got a front row seat due to a few polite Cruz supporters, but was able to shake his hand and have him thank me for coming). We acted civil, and in return we were treated as equals even though there were stark ideological differences in the Cruz and Sanders camps.

The Donald Trump rally was an entirely different ballgame. Though urged not to, an extremely large group of protestors arrived outside the location Donald was holding his rally. Though I was not there, there was one over riding thing I heard from people who went to see Trump: these protestors ruined their image of the overall Sanders campaign. People who had been yelled at and called racists and bigots only became more certain that they were on the right side due to the fact that the opposition they saw was crazed, accusation flinging, and most of all wrong about the people they were yelling at.

I saw something extremely similar in the protests as they erupted nation wide, except on a grander scale as people within them resorted to violence, giving the supporters of Donald Trump and the Republican Party more reasoning as to why they were right. That was a truly terrible mistake on behalf of Democrats nationwide. Our actions achieved nothing but giving the right anecdotal arguments they could easily use in their arguments against liberal ideology. With time, they claimed the Clinton campaign was full of hypocrites who admonished violence yet who resorted to it when they lost. The idea of being stronger together, it seemed, was dragged through the mud, and we instead adopted for a short time the same ethos we all hated about the Trump campaign. Donald Trump was even so emboldened to claim the media hired the protestors and rioters and as a result a large amount of his supporters are no closer to accepting the liberal philosophy. In fact, after the protesting and rioting it is very reasonable to say the right was further radicalized against the left, and vice versa. This cannot be allowed to be acceptable.

President Barrack Obama once said “Don’t boo, vote!”, and his suggestion is equally applicable today. When the Republicans lost in 2012, they complained and bickered, but they focused their energies on building up their local influence, and their pre election effort, though taken over by the man they least wanted as a party, worked. The Democratic Party is by no means at rock bottom, but if we act recklessly as if we are, then what more can we expect than to find it? The energy spent protesting is energy we do not spend reorganizing for 2018, which will not by any means be anything but an uphill battle, as more Democrats are defending seats in the senate than Republicans. We have much more to lose, and will continue to if we act recklessly. Without momentum in 2018, a presidential election will also be extremely difficult, and though we all like to think anyone can beat Trump, might I remind you that he managed to beat the most well oiled political machine in the history of the United States purely because he appealed to a single demographic in ways no candidate has in a very long time? That demographic, by the way, ignored all of the media that screamed Trump was terrible purely because he understood that his voters weren’t worried about what he said, but rather were fearful about an increasingly unfavorable economic situation for them, even if that is not necessarily true. The Clinton campaign did not try to fight to convince that demographic they could be helped, even though liberal philosophy today does help the very demographics Trump won. The Sanders campaign was the only other campaign to even remotely get that right, and the number of Trump supporters who have come to me saying they would’ve voted for him if he was the other option, to me, validates my claims. We must learn from this and reorganize, not waste what is an extremely valuable motivator and learning experience.

The most productive thing that we can do is not protest, but to volunteer and fight at the state and local levels. The Democrats of today have the ability to lay the foundation for the Democrats of tomorrow, and we must set the example to our own party and the Republicans that we will endure, we will not break, and we will come back from the defeats we have suffered.

Every second wasted protesting and bickering is a moment we should be spending preparing and organizing for a real counter attack in the elections that matter. So stop wasting time, and change the system in the most effective way possible: by calming down, taking a deep breath, and out thinking the opposition. We did it for eight years after all, what’s one setback to the party that legalized gay marriage? What is a single setback for the party that has fought for abortion rights and women’s health issues since they became politicized topics? What is a single setback to the party of labor unions who fought for their right to be paid a fair wage and work a fair amount of time? Though protests encompassed all of those triumphs, the only time victory was truly declared was when the law, and by extension the system, was changed. Learn from the lessons of those before you. Protest alone accomplishes nothing. It is only a catalyst for further action. We only win when we pass the laws that solve the protest’s issues, so I urge you all to simply put the pickets down, and pick up phone. Call your local Democratic Party office, and ask how you can help. That, I assure you, is the way to bring change to your world. That is the way to win.