Soon the two coalitions, albeit with some variations, that confronted each other in last year’s election will clash again, but this time with the MAGA movement occupying the commanding heights of the state – the Presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court. This is not the first time that a party has exercised such command over our main political institutions. But this is the first time that a party (and movement) in that position have expressed a willingness to employ their dominance over these institutions to lay waste to U.S democracy in order to impose their fascist like vision and project on our society.

Of course it won’t happen without meeting resistance. Indeed, these cross class coalitions will clash on various levels and fight on more than one terrain. On our side of the great divide, the struggle will be defensive in character for now. On the other, Trump and the MAGA movement will use their power and momentum to reshape the state and society in accord with their political aims. In the words of Project 25, Trump’s immediate objectives are:

*Secure the border, finish building the wall, and deport illegal immigrants

*De-weaponize the Federal Government by increasing accountability and oversight of the FBI and DOJ

*Unleash American energy production to reduce energy prices*

*Cut the growth of government spending to reduce inflation

*Make federal bureaucrats more accountable to the democratically elected President and Congress

*Improve education by moving control and funding of education from DC bureaucrats directly to parents and state and local governments

*Ban biological males from competing in women’ s sports

This plan of attack conveniently leaves out any mention of massive tax cuts to corporations and wealthy families, while backgrounding Trump’s desire to “radically” restructure the state and eviscerate democracy and democratic rights.

Not surprisingly, Trump and MAGA hope to move their agenda at great pace. After all, they are mindful that the next election is only two years away. And, unlike FDR, who gained Congressional support in the 1934 elections, thus setting the stage for the enactment of key pieces of New Deal legislation, Trump and MAGA worry that they could well lose the House to the Democrats in the midterm elections in 2026, and with it much of their political leverage.

In the face of this existential challenge, broadly constructed strategic and tactical concepts of struggle on the part of the democratic and progressives movements are in order. Simply squirreling away in political formations of the left makes little sense at all.

As one keen analyst wrote recently,

“With a few exceptions—mainly in the labor movement although this shouldn’t be exaggerated — progressives are not embedded enough in large organizations of working class that are membership-driven and tap into the energy and creativity of those who are exploited and oppressed. But for building durable power, there is no substitute for a political culture where radicals who are embedded in the workplaces, neighborhoods, and cultural and religious institutions of working-class life act as catalysts to unleash the energy, combativity, and all-around political leadership potential of their co-workers, neighbors, and others with whom they share the same conditions of life.”

This strikes me as good advice. One has to hope that progressive and left activists heed it.