Trumpism easily falls outside of the “bourgeois democratic” boundaries that governed U.S. politics for the past century and more. It is a reaction not only to the decline and crisis of the neoliberal order and the contradictions of the U.S. constructed global order, but also to the expansion of democracy since the 60s and the pressures to further expand it going forward. Led by an unstable, demagogic strongman sitting in the White House, Trump demonstrates every day by his words and actions his contempt (and MAGA’s) for existing democratic institutions and rights paired with an unconcealed ambition to construct an authoritarian, anti-democratic, revanchist, billionaire friendly order to replace (by any means necessary) it.

Will he be successful? It’s too early to tell. To no small degree, it will depend on what we do to resist this authoritarian takeover now in progress. To say that it isn’t is to allow formal markers, say a decision by Trump to ignore a Supreme Court ruling, to decide on the nature of this political moment and what is required to reverse course. We can’t do that!

With no time to spare, each of us has to become an author of our collective future.

The coalition opposing Trump’s power grab is still in formation and finding its legs. That isn’t surprising, given the novelty and nature of the challenge. However the overarching task is to rapidly scale up its actions and organizational capacity commensurate to the existential danger that Trump and MAGA present. While in every great movement there is a spontaneous element/dimension, one would make a mistake to turn that dimension of mass politics into a substitute for political organization and coordination. The latter are necessary to clarify what is at stake, what it will take to win, and to further grow and lend direction to the spontaneous surge.

The traditional wisdom that capitalists prefer democratic government to autocracy and fascism contains some truth, but it doesn’t mean that under certain conditions they won’t gravitate to the strongman leader who has the temerity to attack the working class and democratic movement, while establishing an anti-democratic regime of heightened exploitation and oppression.

The characterization of the Democratic Party as an institution sitting on its hands, like a modern day Nero, is neither accurate nor helpful. Implicit in the characterization is that the Democrats are of one mind and in the pockets of corporate America. There are, to be sure, corporate and conservative democrats.

But to leave matters here makes opaque a range of political tendencies and brands operating within the Democratic Party and opposing Trump and MAGA at various levels. Bernie and AOC are admirably and tirelessly resisting the authoritarian designs of the new administration, but they aren’t the only ones in Congress. In our zeal to heap praise on Bernie and the Squad, we forget that that the Progressive Caucus can count roughly 100 engaged members. Nor should we minimize the resistance of other Democrats in Congress. Nor the actions of governors and other elected Democrats at the state and local level. To this we could and should add that the Democratic Party provides a roof over the head of the main progressive organizations in the country, not least the labor movement.

Thus it would be a serious mistake to collapse the Democratic Party into a singular corporate shell. Indeed, I would argue that it is united in its opposition to Trumpism and the center of gravity in today’s Democratic Party is trending in a progressive direction. And at this moment when the future of U.S. democracy hangs in balance that is of crucial importance to repelling the push towards a U.S. variety of authoritarianism whose precise morphology and future are a story to still be written.

The sweeping criticism from the left of Congressional Democrats for their inaction in the face of the fierce, Trump directed assault on immigrants, government workers, and trans people, in the first place, suggests to me that these critics either follow politics from such a high altitude that it obscures from their sight what is actually happening on the ground. Or they are trapped in a worldview that operates on such a high level of abstraction that political categories and not live self acting people become their point of departure in their analysis of Democrats and much else.

In either case, it cripples the politics of those sections of the left and progressive movement who hope to make a difference in the developing struggles against Trump and MAGA across the country. It also reveals a misunderstanding of popular front/all people’s coalition.