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 it.

Will he be successful? It’s too early to tell. To no small degree, it will depend on what a diverse coalition of class and social forces do to resist this authoritarian takeover now in progress. With no time to spare, each of us has to become an author of our collective future.