So there are rumblings of a general strike by America’s unions if Donald Trump does not vacate the White House if he loses, in other words, if he attempts to pull off a coup to stay in power.

Although it’s a possibility that he would be so daft as to try to handcuff himself to the Resolute desk, while he keeps giving orders to his minions, it’s not likely that he would succeed. After all, there are at least some remnants of checks and balances left in the democracy that has been shredded to a whisper of itself over the past 40 years. Such talk as a general strike has been floated for some time among a smattering of union officials and leaders, but such a thing has never come to fruition.

Dan LaBotz, writing in the current issue of Jacobin magazine, said, “We can expect massive protests to follow the elections, probably mostly led by social movements. But unions will be taking a stand, workers will be mobilizing, and we could see strikes that paralyze some workplaces. Whether or not anything will come of talks of a political general strike, which is so contrary to the history and culture of the American labor movement, remains to be seen, but these discussions are worth our attention.”

The union movement in the U.S. has not reached a stage of maturity that its rank-and-file has been educated about the realities of the politics that determine their lives and their future. And, American workers are not going to be so educated in their schools, colleges, and universities, with a few exceptions. Throughout its history, the evidence is clear: American workers have been indoctrinated into the myth of individual achievement and that everyone must achieve success (however that is defined) on his or her own and individualism is the key to most things American.

That myth of the solitary individual that “makes it” on his or her own has been suffused throughout the populace and it means that, if you didn’t make it on your own, you didn’t deserve it. Every institution in the nation is filled with people who have had this idea pounded into their minds and that message comes from a profusion of sources. There are those who have fought out of the bubble of that myth and have tried to turn some of their fellows, including in unions, to understand that the idea of individual achievement is just that, a myth, and that solidarity among the people is what can bring about changes that benefit all.

There is the rub. With every generation, the same message of lift-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-or-you’re-a-loser comes at the young people from all sides. That idea is not just unique to the U.S., as evidenced by the comment by U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that “there is no such thing as society.” She was, of course, feeding off the ramblings of the late president, Ronald Reagan, who famously said not to look to the government for solutions to your problems, because “government is the problem.” His comment and his general attitude, along with Thatcher’s, was the beginning of the most recent effort by the ruling class to destroy any confidence by the masses of the people in their ability to influence the direction of their country by voting and becoming involved in a democratic-republic. Donald Trump is the culmination of the destruction of that confidence of the people in their institutions, however filled with frailties they may be. If he does attempt a coup, it would be the last gasp of Corporate America and the obscenely rich to consolidate their control over the people.

Every generation, therefore, needs to be taught that we’re all in this together, that this is not a nation of 325 million individuals who are all on their own and will either survive and thrive on their own or will fall by the wayside. Despite its many parts, the U.S. is a society and despite Trump and his Republicans, we will all need to join together to succeed as a nation.

Right now, the nation is not ready for a general strike, although many in the union movement may wish that there was that kind of solidarity in their ranks. It’s not there, yet. What it takes is education about how this democracy is supposed to work, how it works, and what it takes to make it a nation that is more equitable and egalitarian. That will take years and there is no better time to start than right now. The reality is that workers have taken on the nuts and bolts of organizing themselves into an effective effort and, in many cases, they are succeeding without the benefit of the experience and abilities of the union movement. They have achieved raises in the minimum wage in their cities, their counties, and elsewhere. As effective as they are, they are hit and miss and will not achieve the overall goals of moving politicians and governments to pass laws that spread the nation’s wealth around to the lowest-paid workers and those most vulnerable. For that, they need solidarity across their organizations in every state and a way to do that would be to use the institution that already exists to do that, unions.

Unfortunately, there has been a war on workers and their unions ever since the first time workers joined together to defend themselves and improve their lot. Since the end of World War II, however, that war was ramped up and has been quite effective in reducing unions to a shadow of their former selves and so their movement has been reduced as well. In recent years, young people and those on the lower end of the economic and wage scale have been proving themselves to be very effective in achieving some of their goals. Building on their successes could be the start of a rejuvenation of a union movement, if all of the disparate parts could be brought together. That will take a broad, long-term education effort.

Modern polling has consistently shown that a majority of workers would join unions if they weren’t thwarted in that effort by every kind of restriction and law, all of which have been promoted by Corporate America and its politicians at every level of government. Turning that around can only be achieved by education of the people, especially the working classes, who need to become involved in the political process. To secure their own future, workers need to become sophisticated politically and to become involved directly in the political processes. Although vital, education is not enough. Action is what is also needed.

Working men and women and their organizations, including unions, are always catching up in their efforts to ward off the attacks of the ruling class. Don’t think there isn’t a ruling class. One of the gurus of capitalism, Warren Buffett, admitted a few years ago that there is, indeed, a class war and “our side is winning.” This from a man who is not that hostile to the working masses and who pledged to give away most of his billions. He knows the game and its rules and that the gap in wealth and income is not going to get smaller between the top 10 percent and the rest of us, until wage workers and the so-called middle class organize to shape the country into some form of egalitarianism and equity and a wider dispersal of the wealth of the nation, without which there is no freedom and no democracy.

If there is a general strike, it likely will be spontaneous and will just spring up like Black Lives Matter did, not just in cities, but across the country. If it does, the question will be: Can a non-violent general strike be the basis of a new union movement, one based on equality and justice for all? One thing is certain and that is it cannot happen only in case Trump refuses to leave office, for once he is out of office, the problems of working people will still be there, just as they were there before Trump. The current president didn’t cause the problems, but he has left a field of chaos in his wake the likes of which the U.S.A. has never seen.