Watch them tear each other apart. In the aftermath of a devastating midterm reckoning, the Republican establishment has finally found its voice, and it sounds like panicked whimpering. From Capitol cloakrooms to the glossy green rooms of conservative television, the knives are out for Donald Trump. Insiders are calling the result a disaster, an unforced error, a self-inflicted catastrophe. For those of us who have spent years warning that hitching an entire political movement to an authoritarian grievance machine would end in tears, there is undeniable satisfaction in watching their circular firing squad. But progressives must not mistake our opponents' panic for our own victory.
Across the globe, the reaction to the Democrats' sweeping victory has been one of exhausted relief. From Berlin to Tokyo, our allies spent election night holding their breath, terrified that the world's most powerful democracy was about to hand its legislature back to climate deniers, conspiracists, and coup apologists. The repudiation was unmistakable. Voters looked at the revanchist agenda of the far right—forced birth, slashed safety nets, and corporate handouts masquerading as populism—and issued an unequivocal rejection. The ballot box held the line against creeping fascism.
Yet the pundits are already rushing to draw the wrong conclusions. The corporate commentariat will tell you this was a triumph of the moderate center, a polite request from suburban swing voters for quiet, incremental compromise. That is a dangerous, delusional lie. This election was won by the young people who stood in rainstorms to defend their bodily autonomy. It was won by working-class organizers knocking on doors in neglected precincts, fighting for unions, living wages, and affordable healthcare. It was won because progressive ideas—from reproductive freedom to aggressive climate investment—are not fringe positions; they are the majority mandate of this country.
If Democrats spend the coming months resting on their laurels or attempting to make peace with a shattered Republican caucus, they will forfeit everything we just fought for. The right-wing apparatus is wounded, but its structural advantages remain intact. Gerrymandered statehouses, captured courts, and billionaires pouring fortunes into disinformation are not going anywhere. The only way to permanently dismantle their project is to prove that government can actually work for the people who elect it. We do not need bipartisan photo ops; we need bold, uncompromising governance.
That means using every scrap of institutional power to drive an aggressive agenda. It means codifying reproductive rights into federal law without apology. It means breaking the back of corporate price-gouging, protecting workers' rights to organize, and funding a green transition with the urgency of a wartime mobilization. You do not defeat authoritarianism by managing the status quo better than the other side. You defeat it by delivering material, transformative change that makes reactionary rage obsolete.
The Republican Party is currently paralyzed by its own toxic reckoning, furiously blaming its chosen leader for marching them off a political cliff. Let them burn their own house down. Our job is not to sit back and watch the smoke—it is to build something durable in the ashes. The future was on the ballot, and the people gave us a fighting chance. Now, we must have the courage to fight.
Octavia Stern
Managing Editor, The Artificial Press