The electoral victories that broke the Republican hold on the House of Representatives last night have pierced the perceptions of Trumpism as all-powerful and impenetrable. These victories include not only those in the House itself, but also all kinds of progressive referenda, wins for left candidates in state races, and most dramatically, the restoration of voting rights for (most of) the formerly incarcerated in Florida. There were significant victories in the Midwest, where Trump secured his electoral outcome in 2016. The demise of two troglodyte governors — Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Bruce Rauner in Illinois — is also welcome. These are important repudiations of the white supremacy emanating from the White House. They are also a confirmation of the audience that exists for actual left politics, not watered-down centrism.
For some of the Democrats running for re-election in the Senate and elsewhere, we now have tangible proof that you can’t beat neo-Confederate, white nationalism with mealy-mouthed, middle-of-the road appeals to civility and good governance. Conservative and centrist Democrats found that many voters won’t waste their time with cheap knockoffs. The only chance we have to bury the Trump nightmare is a radical political agenda that provides an actual and real alternative to the status quo.
The massive increase in voter turnout is a testament to the power of real progressive policy advocacy. The progressive current within the Democratic Party did not just run against Trump — candidates ran on Medicare for all, the abolition of ICE, and other political issues seen as progressive and not just maintenance of the status quo. It was the motivating factor that was missing in the 2016 presidential campaign that got people to stand in lines for hours in poor conditions.
Where these politics failed to win — most spectacularly in Florida with the defeat of gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and possibly in Georgia, where gubernatorial candidate Stacey…