My intent this afternoon was to watch NBA Today on ESPN – it’s playoff time – but accidentally I landed on MSNBC which was covering the proceedings of the TN legislature. That “august” body dominated by the Republican Party, thanks to gerrymandering, is voting to expel 3 Democratic legislators for the “crime” of joining a peaceful rally for common sense gun laws. And this in the wake of a mass shooting that left 3 nine year old children and 3 teachers dead. Their bodies were filled, as we know, with lethal bullets from an assault weapon wielded by a young man whose head and heart were filled with hate and whose access to such a weapon was sanctioned by law and advocated by the Republican Party in Tennessee and elsewhere.

It seems to me, albeit from afar, that to suggest the mayoral results in Chicago were simply a victory for the left and progressives undercuts the role, reach, and power of the expansive, diverse, and politically heterogeneous coalition that elected Brandon Johnson, the city’s new mayor. The role of the progressive movement was of great import for sure, but acknowledging that fact shouldn’t remove from view what was decisive, what brought Johnson over the finish line a winner in a fiercely contested race — a far larger and diverse assemblage of people and organizations as well as the candidate himself who gave voice to the sentiments and aspirations of the people of the Windy City.

Or, to paraphrase Marx, it was a coalition of the majority in the interests of the immense majority that left its stamp on the Chicago elections.I would only add that acknowledging this political dynamic is not only of significance to understanding the election’s outcome, but also in order to fully grasp the dialectics and requirements of governing going forward.

Once again we learn that elections matter. Thanks Chicago and Wisconsin!

I hear it said on the left that the political imperative of this moment is to build a united or people’s front (I prefer the term coalition; it’s more readily understood by people who aren’t conversant in the lingo of the left. But for the purposes of this article I will use the term front). This sounds like a timely and sound idea, but on closer inspection it’s flawed.

Here’s how.

A people’s front, unless we are a prisoner of formalism and preconceived ideas, is already a reality. It’s broad in reach, possees considerable power, and shares a common political objective.

Now don’t look for its 10 point program. It doesn’t have one, but in its desire to crush MAGA it is pretty singleminded.

Moreover, its formation, I would argue, goes back to 2016; others might say 2018; still others 2020. Whatever the case, the challenge at this moment isn’t to build or invent something new, as a new election cycle approaches. To the contrary, the challenge is to unite, extend, and strengthen this existing front and its each of its constituent parts in the context of the 2024 elections.

Not least in this front is the Democratic Party. Indeed, just as FDR and the Democratic Party were at the center of the popular front in the 1930’s, Biden and Democrats occupy that position today. Here’s the rub though. By themselves, they are no match for MAGA movement. But by the same token, neither are the other political-social constituencies and movements that makeup this front. Both need the help of the other.

In other words, the two sides of this tangled, and at times contentious, relationship are codependent and only when acting in concert do they possess the power capacity and political reach to decisively defeat the MAGA threat to democratic rule, economic justice, equality, and social progress. To believe otherwise ignores historical and contemporary experience. It’s wishful thinking, not reality based politics. And who needs that at this moment!