1. I expected that Democrats would do well on election night, including winning the House and Senate, but I never imagined — few did — that the scope and depth of the victory would be so far reaching, so earthshaking, so consequential to the country’s future.  

To say that a political realignment occurred doesn’t capture what happened. Nowhere was this more striking than in the South. Historically a bulwark of slavery, Jim Crow, and political reaction and a drag on the democratic and progressive development of the country as a whole, the election results in Georgia, Mississipi, and Texas contain the makings of a new era in which justice, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, begins to flow down like a mighty stream. 

None of this happened on its own however. It took, among other things, the sheer determination of people to utilize the power of the vote to rebuke Trump and Trumpism. Even Trump, in the early hours after the election, had to acknowledge that fact. But true to form and type, he quickly did an about-face, naming Stephen Miller, the heartless and nazi-like architect of the MAGA onslaught against immigrants and democracy, as his new chief of staff. 

Two days later, Republicans in Congress, following the dictates of Trump, successfully opposed the impeachment of the warmonger Pete Hegseth and elected the fascistic Jim Jordan House leader of the Republican caucus. These actions signal that Trump and MAGA are digging in and preparing to resist the new political realities that issued from the elections.

This isn’t an argument for a defensive posture on the part of Democrats. To go forward they and the far-flung democratic movement have to go, well, forward! While Democrats must clean up the damage done by the Trump administration and resist any new assaults on democracy (and we should expect some), they also have a duty to press forward an ambitious agenda.

A point of departure, it strikes me, is to undo the “big beautiful bill” before its punishing effects go into effect at the beginning of the new year as well as bringing to an end the war with Iran. Other legislative measures, not least dealing with the affordability crisis, will surely and quickly follow.

2. The solid South is no more! A third reconstruction is underway, notwithstanding the Supreme Court and the MAGA movement. Florida and Louisiana with more assistance from the national Democratic Party and the entire anti-MAGA movement could have joined Georgia, Misssissippi and Texas in the winners column. Next time!

3. Dr. King characterized Mississippi in his “I Have a Dream” speech as “a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression.” But with the election of Scott Colom, I wonder how he might modify that characterization if he were alive.

4. The critical nature of the Latino vote to the political hopes of the larger democratic coalition was undeniable in this election, and not just in Texas. If it wasn’t obvious before, success at the ballot box as well as other sites of engagement pivot on Black, brown, and white unity.

5. The two main political currents — center and left — in the Democratic Party registered victories in last week’s election. While the progressive-left current impressively scored important successes, the centrist-liberal current registered even more. This new distribution of power should inform the tactics, if not the strategy of both currents, when the new Congress convenes.

6. Political commentators are saying that “social gospel politics” entered the political arena on the Democratic side for the first time in a long while, thanks to newly elected Senators Talarico in Texas and Hamilton in Kansas. But anybody acquainted with the Black political tradition knows full well that the social gospel has been a cornerstone of its politics since time immemorial. And while Dr. King was its peerless voice in the 20th century, he didn’t invent the social gospel nor did it die with him. It continues in the Black church and in the political and cultural life of Black people.

7. If one wants to know about the strategic and special role of Black people in class and democratic struggles in general and in electoral struggles in particular one has to look no further than their role in the South in this election.

For longer than we care to think, white racist domination of the South has not only been a drag on the fight for Black equality there, but also a brake on democratic, egalitarian, and working class progress in the rest of the country.

But thanks to the heroic efforts of the African American people, and African American women in particular, in the South in this election that brake has been greatly weakened. Whether it was registering new voters, organizing to overcome racist redistricting, mobilizing the vote, or electing progressive candidates in the South, the country as a whole will never be the same.

8. The fascist danger has eased for sure. Trump’s standing has taken a big hit. Even in the Republican Party his voice doesn’t carry the same force as it did. Moreover the MAGA movement is in disarray. But Trump remains in the White House and because of that he still wields enormous power. His control over the Pentagon, the Justice Department, the FBI and other institutional arms of repression make him anything but a paper tiger.

9. When I first joined the Communist Party I paid, along with my membership dues, an additional fee called “Southern Solidarity.” Its purpose was to set aside money for our work in the South. The Democrats would be wise to do the same, that is, allocate extra funding for the party’s work in this critical region of the country.

Think about the possibilities if the Democratic Party had allocated extra funds for the campaigns in Florida and Louisiana.

10. I hope DSA has more to say about the elections than it did in its recent statement. Political formations of the left should possess and employ a wide angled and dialectical lens to analyze political developments, especially when those developments add unexpected wrinkles and new possibilities to reshape the political landscape as this election did.

11. The election reminds me of the strategic imperative of passing the Pro Act. The accelerated growth of the labor movement would increase democratic as well as class power by an order of magnitude. New political and economic possibilities and dreams which seemed out of reach would come into view.