Episode 414 of RevolutionZ considers tasks ahead in light of the MIdterm results. The scariest moment in politics may be when authoritarians win. but a not too distant second may be when they lose and we all exhale. Do we then quietly slide back into the same system that produced Trumpism? Or do we go forward? After the 2026 election results, grateful for trouncing fascist expansion, we need to also consider a hard question. What will determine whether that victory turns into real, lasting change instead of another reset to business as usual? Electorally and extra-electorally, what ought people who want real, lasting change do next?
This episode considers how it is that huge surges like 2020’s mass protests and even decades-long waves of resistance like The Sixties can fade without achieving the deeper wins people risked everything for. Then we get specific about what a post-Trump agenda could actually immediately fight for: restoring social programs, expanding health care, repairing infrastructure, funding public education, abolishing ICE, re-elevating feminism, pursuing a national wealth tax, ending war, slashing the military budget, and prosecuting corruption. These aren’t abstract wishes. Many are widely popular, and they test whether electoral momentum can become ongoing movement pressure.
From there, the episode proposes two unavoidable tasks for any serious progressive much less revolutionary project, whether it’s a mayor like Zohran Mamdani or a hypothetical 2028 presidential run by AOC: win office and govern effectively but also build independent, extra-electoral organization and struggle to keep people mobilized, deepen political education, and push beyond reforms toward institutional transformations. We also consider the cautionary lessons of Hugo Chavez’s Venezuelan presidency and what they imply for a U.S. progressive administration facing entrenched power from within, whether with AOC or some other progressive candidate in the Oval Office.
In other words, this episode is about movement building. It is about under taking anti-authoritarian, anti racist, feminist, and labor organizing, to in time win a fundamentally new society. It asks how we can go from “stopping the worst” and recouping losses that the worst imposed on us, to winning new gains and ultimately the world we actually want. It focuses on how organizations like DSA, movements those like fighting ICE and for universal health care, and individuals like you and I, might best assess our situations and decide our own agendas as part of the unfolding project. What should we think about and weigh off to decide what to do? What answers might emerge?
Support the show