After Trump’s victory: How did Democrats lose and how can we fight back?

After Trump’s victory: how the Democrats lost and how we can resist

A racist and sexist far-right leader is heading to the White House. Donald Trump claimed an “incredible” victory in the US presidential election on Wednesday morning.

A Trump victory would be a boost for every fascist, far-right politician and racist thug. Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform UK party in the UK, was already celebrating at a party in Trump’s honor after Georgia was declared.

A stream of resistance on the streets, on campuses and in workplaces is needed in the United States, Britain and other countries. Hope lies in the mass movements that have shaken American society and the rise of labor strikes – but at a much higher level.

Trump’s victory is a searing indictment of Democrats whose genocidal, pro-corporate, anti-immigrant policies laid the groundwork for his comeback.

Harris’ support for Israeli genocide against Palestinians helped deny her victory in some key areas. In Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a Muslim and Arab majority, Trump received 47 percent of the vote. Harris received 27.5 percent of the vote, while the Green Party’s Jill Stein, running on the pro-Palestinian ticket, received 22 percent.

Trump’s rise has been bolstered by the death of the American Dream. He harbored pent-up anger and grievances from 30 years of neoliberalism, which had driven down working-class wages, destroyed decent jobs and increased inequality.

It touched on a social crisis facing millions of people. He seized on deep pain and turned it against migrants.

Trump and the far right are playing on nostalgia for the “American Dream” in the decades following World War II. It was an era of full employment, rising living standards and economic boom, and the height of US power in the world.

But this American dream is not coming back – it has always been a nightmare for black people, women and LGBT+ people.

Trump, a billionaire backed by much of big business, offers nothing to the working class, whether white, black or Hispanic.

But he injects racism and bigotry into people’s nostalgia for the American Dream and promises a return to US supremacy.

The lesson for Democrats will be to move further to the right to match Trump’s campaign policies and win over voters.

But that was the strategy Harris pursued, and it failed. As opinion polls trended head-to-head in the weeks leading up to the election, she leaned further to the right. The alternative is to fight in the streets against the far right and racism – and a real alternative to 30 years of neoliberal attacks. We saw a glimpse of this in the recent Boeing and dock workers strikes. And in the US, movements should not lag behind the Democrats.