OhOn election night, I found myself among a crowd at the Harlem Tavern, a New York City restaurant, at the campaign party of Darializa Avila Chevalier, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and congresswoman-elect from New York’s 13th Congressional District. The crowd cheered as what became known as the “blunami” arrived: Iowa blue, Kansas blue, Talarico in Texas, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, House, Senate, gubernatorial races overwhelmingly Democratic.
These victories constitute a clear indictment of Trump’s policies, but also a referendum on the Democratic Party’s own centrism, complicit in the violence of masked men stalking immigrants, the financing of genocide and the denial of health care to citizens of the richest country in the world.
Constants do not produce change. It’s a Democratic party committed to “centrism” that lost the House in 2022. A promise to maintain the status quo didn’t get Kamala Harris into the 2024 presidency. And while some want to point to centrist victories in this blue wave, what’s newsworthy is how Democratic politics has, over the past two years, shifted toward progressives and socialists, in grassroots-fueled campaigns. and their small donations rather than by big companies and their money.
Take for example the victory of eight card-carrying democratic socialists entering the House of Representatives, three of whom—Avila Chevalier, Melat Kiros, and Donavan McKinney—unseating establishment candidates to do so. Avila Chevalier, who was an immigration organizer and part of the student camp, showed up because her opponent, Adriano Espaillat, refused to meet with Mahmoud Khalil’s family when he was kidnapped by ICE and refused to call for its abolition.
Their victories were aided by Zohran Mamdani’s victory for mayor of New York last year. But what paved the way for him, and them, I supported was the pro-Palestinian movement that put its body on the line and made most Democrats sympathize with the Palestinian cause.
This is a change that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) itself acknowledged when it declared that it would no longer support candidates or make campaign contributions; that their money was now toxic and serving as a flag to Democratic voters not to support their candidates.
Senators-elect Troy Jackson and El-Sayed – who are progressives but not members of the DSA – have also called what is happening in Palestine a “genocide” and won controversial contests doing so in Maine and Michigan, respectively. James Talarico of Texas said: “God is shouting at us in Gaza as we speak.”
A similar situation occurred with other social movements. Today, 77% of Democrats (and half of all Americans) support abolishing ICE, an incredibly unpopular position over the past two decades that activists have championed.
Democrats, who have long been in bed with technology, have been fighting against AI data centers, egged on by organizers who have highlighted their destruction of the environment, the water supply, and their social effects on everything from student learning, to the theft of intellectual property, to the creation of nonconsensual porn.
But these issues, even as they shape candidates’ platforms, have remained secondary to economic issues for most voters. A Gallup poll just before the election showed health care (68%) as the number one issue that registered Democrats considered “extremely important.” A previous You-Gov poll indicates what they want: 85% of Democrats support Medicare for All.
The same Gallup poll showed that for Democratic voters, it is not just the economy that is the top concern in their vote, but specifically “the distribution of income and wealth” (65%), beyond gas prices (53%). In other words, it’s not just “affordability” that people want, it’s affordability through justice and social programs – it’s redistribution, that is, socialist politics.
The blue wave is cause for celebration – the Democratic Party is in a two-party system, the only alternative we currently have to a Republican Party that has become incredibly brutal, which wears white supremacy like a crown.
However, the Democratic Party is also part of the same political machine that funded ICE administration after administration. This financed the genocide in Gaza. It failed to guarantee health care for all or cancel student debt. It has not brought us the progressive, socialist politics that Americans dream of. And it is not certain, despite pressure from voters, that the party will do differently this time.
House Speaker candidate Hakeem Jeffries won’t commit to holding a vote on abolishing ICE. He opposes Medicare for All. He said he would not hold Trump responsible for human rights violations committed, describing the issue as one of “getting revenge” rather than getting justice where it has been denied. Chuck Schumer, who holds similar positions, has an extraordinarily low approval rating – yet is considering a run for Senate majority leader. Elected officials wonder if these men should hold these positions.
But dissent must also come from us, as it has. We must demand an end to the rapid violence of guns in our streets pointed at our neighbors, bombs dropped from the sky, and the slow violence of people dying because their health care was denied or their food stamps terminated.
We must organize and mobilize to demand the multiracial democracy we were promised – not a playground where the rich could get rich off the time, labor and lives of the poor.
Gn usa
