The Democrats swept the United States on Tuesday and the celebrations are euphoric, but they are far from being out of the woods. Democracy is an on-going project, not a state of being.
Trump is still president, after all, for another two years. He has the power of the pardon and he has never been afraid to use it. Many of the 1500 people he pardoned on day one for their part in his 2021 coup attempt, and those who would be inclined to take that message, are still standing by waiting for their next instructions.
More importantly, many establishment Democrats are afraid of losing access to the corporate money that powers their campaigns and keeps them in office.
We saw it with the Haley Stevens, the Michigan Congresswoman who ran against Abdul El-Sayed in the Senate primary for that state. She was recruited by Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer and AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, spent $30 million backing her campaign. A third party organisation with a specific agenda spent more on just the failed nomination of a single candidate than any party could spend nationally in the 2025 federal election in Canada. Just two days before the election, she endorsed the Republican Senate candidate for Michigan — who also benefitted from about $9 million in assistance from AIPAC — in a last ditch effort to block El-Sayed.
The establishment was also far more concerned about a Muslim winning a Senate seat than they were about the Republicans holding onto power.
Old school Democrats will be concerned about playing nice, about not irritating their sponsors, while appearing to be progressive, but they will need to remember who inspired their win, not who paid for it. That inspiration certainly wasn’t Chuck Schumer, it was people like New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani following in the footsteps of his own congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in turn through the principled footsteps of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
The great risk is that this all becomes a wasted opportunity.
They will have to wield their new-found majority in both chambers and the governorships to undo Citizens United, fix the electoral college through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and impeach every illegal act by every impeachable government official, even if they do not result in Senate convictions — let Republicans vote on the record for those acts!
They will have to impose real, significant taxes on the wealthiest, so that the effective tax rates no longer drop as income rises, so that active income is no longer taxed more heavily than passive income. They will need to reset and restore the nation’s social programs, bring in universal health care, and fund social security by removing the contribution cap.
They will have to dismantle and prosecute ICE and reject presidential nominations for any role where a properly qualified candidate is not on offer. They will have to reclaim control of food safety, rein in the tech and AI giants, and restore the science and research institutions that have been devastated by an anti-science administration.
They will have to show their old allies in Canada and across the world that the United States will apply their own laws against their own leaders, rebuild international bridges, and force the end to the hot wars and trade wars waged by an unhinged government.
And they will have only two years to do enough of it that the American people are convinced that their vote did, in fact, matter.
The support the Democrats enjoyed this week cannot be taken for granted. The anger of the people cannot be ignored for it will not go away.
Trumpism is not a flash in the pan. Millions of people still took the time out of their day to go out and vote MAGA this week. The president is not the cause of the country’s problems, he is very much the result of them. The realisation that the middle class is being abolished because its very existence no longer serves the interests of the oligarchs is generalised across the population, even if most cannot yet identify the source of the problem.
If things do not tangibly, measurably, and quickly improve, they will blame democracy itself and the result will be a more intelligent, capable, suave saviour with dictatorial ambition — and the corporate sponsors that establishment Democrats rely on will suddenly be the least of their problems.
Love this take!!
The Democrats will not undo Citizens United. They want the money.