Many will debate how we got here: the decisions made and not made, the candidates chosen and not chosen, the issues left ignored, the roads not taken. All that deserves to be discussed. But for now the point is, we’re here. A narcissistic bully is going to be president, and he will be backed up by an extremist, reality-denying right-wing Congress.

For many of us in the labor movement the burning question now is, “What is to be done?” When union folks ask this question, we often have in mind a specific plan, a set of tactics, or a strategic direction. But in this political moment something else is required. More important than a roadmap is for those of us in the labor movement who want to do something to resist Trumpism — from rank-and-file members to national leaders and everyone in between — to talk honestly and urgently about the need to build greater human capacity to carry out our goals and build more power.

The threats Trump’s victory and the Republican sweep pose to unions are numerous and have already been articulated by labor experts. Anti-union politicians like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell will now be in a position to pass far-right legislation that Republicans serving during the George W. Bush administration could only dream of implementing: national right-to-work, defanging the Fair Labor Standards Act, weakening the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission even more than it already has been. The fledgling graduate employee union movement will likely be imperiled, and Obama’s overtime protections will be fair game.