Much work lies ahead for Americans seeking to end the damage wrought by decades of GOP misrule. But the grand coalition uniting those who rely on the rule of law to deliver freedom, justice, domestic tranquility, and global security prevailed. Tuesday’s election set the pattern for how progressives will heal the wounds inflicted by cruel, greedy oligarchs.
Corporate campaign fund donors who Trump has shaken down for both legitimate electioneering expenses and brazenly corrupt kickbacks to MAGA slush funds now will seek to ingratiate themselves with the Democratic Party.
Hundreds of elected Democrats have gained and retained office by abandoning progressive policies. They can and must be recruited to a winning progressive agenda.
Democrats nationwide can build on Tuesday’s successes by moving fast to recruit viable candidates for seats long held by Republicans. In 2024, 19 House Republicans faced no Democratic Party opponent, or only a token independent challenger.
For example, House Speaker Mike Johnson reaped 85.8% of the vote in Louisiana’s 4th District. His only opponent was — wait for it — another Republican. Louisiana’s version of a jungle primary (also known as a blanket, open, or top two primary) is held concurrently with the general election.
Trump has demanded that GOP legislatures gerrymander Congressional district maps in red states even more grotesquely. Typically, doing so involves reducing the predicted winning margins in currently safe red seats to create new, reddish-purple districts. That jeopardizes the job security of Congressional republicans.
GOP gerrymandering relies on stable voting patterns as well as complicit courts willing to pretend that, in Chief Justice John Robert’s farcical term, the US is a “post-racial” society.
Global corporations that have reliably funded extremist GOP lawmakers have done so, in many cases, to ward off expensive regulations or intrusive safety checks. They’re on notice now that the MAGA ark has sprung a leak, and the venomous right-wing Congresscritter menagerie might be jettisoned.
Huge corporations held privately by oligarchs can continue to waste money on MAGA campaign donations, and keep their giving secret, until Democrats enact comprehensive electioneering finance reform. But publicly-held companies will revise the political donation strategies immediately.
There are many battles ahead to rebuild the national consensus shattered by decades of Fox News lies and shrewd, MBA-inspired “greed is good” propaganda.
But nothing succeeds like success. Trump’s grip on power is cemented by many lies, chief among them his arrogant proclamation of his own eventual victory.
Progressives like New York City’s Zohran Mamdani can and will deliver early wins by implementing sensible policies to improve voters’ lives.
MAGA race-baiting, hatemongering, and other distractions will continue. But the triumphs on Tuesday’s election have given decisive notice that Donald Trump’s lawless regime will collapse sooner rather than later.
Voters told Congress decisively that they’ll hold the Republican Party responsible for the government shutdown. They also rejected GOP lies about the Affordable Care Act and SNAP.
Conservative political doom has arrived the same way Ernest Hemingway said financial bankruptcy happened: very gradually, then all at once.
