It’s official now, much as it pains me to admit it. Donald Trump is the president. His supporters are sitting back in smug victory believing they have started on the path to making America great again. A curious symptom of this smugness is taking to social media to gloat over liberals while telling them to stop their complaining and protesting. Just accept that Trump won and quit whining about it.

Now, they’re right. Trump is indeed the president and no amount of protesting will change the outcome. Baring an impeachment trial, Trump will be the president for the next four years. But what they fail to understand is that is no longer the point.

Trump is no longer the target of these protests; he’s the cause of them, but not the audience. Trump’s head is so far up his rectum that I doubt every man, woman, and child in this country combined could pull it out. Not to mention his monstrous ego and gaggle of cronies serve to further insulate him from the real world. With the president so lost to the world, he is beyond our reach until November 8, 2020.

In the meantime we must focus on other, more vulnerable targets.

Targets such as a very, very, Republican congress. As anyone with a basic knowledge of American government knows, the entirety of the House and 1/3^rd of the Senate will be up for reelection in 2018. In two years they are going to have to answer for what they have done under President Trump. Protests let them know that people are paying attention to what’s going on and that people are motivated. If there’s one thing motivated people do in an election year its vote and you can bet they are going to motivate plenty of others to join them. If the sole intent of an elected official is to be re-elected (and there are many of them) then it stands to reason that listening to the protesters is in their best interest.

However, beyond simple promises of electoral retribution or symbolic actions, the protests serve a much deeper purpose for many on the left. Protesting is about showing solidarity, its about turning the fact that we won the popular vote from data on a screen to actual bodies occupying a physical space, it’s about letting people know where you stand and giving them the courage to stand with you, and above all it’s about not going gentle into that good night.

Imagine for a moment if other nations that faced our current predicament had resisted when danger came to call. What if the Italians had resisted when Mussolini marched into Rome? What if the Germans had protested when Hitler was made chancellor? What if South Africans had said no to apartheid? Would the world not be a better place for it? All for the price of people making a fuss rather than staying quiet.

Some of you reading this may not think Trump is especially dangerous, although by now that sentiment should be starting to wane. Trump may very well never reach his full potential for harm, but it won’t be because he suddenly saw the light and mended his ways nor will it be because some august Republican politicians decided to stand on principles and oppose him. No his end will come about because, while you were sitting and telling us to be quiet, we went out and marched. Our marching and complaining and whining, as you call it, frightened the gutless politicians in Washington into actually resisting Trump with more than just rhetoric. That resisting is ultimately what did Trump in and saved you from the worst of him. And you’ll be oblivious to this process and think that all we did was needlessly complicate things. But that’s ok because history will come along one day and vindicate one of us. I wonder whom?