November 5, 2026

Let’s take a few minutes to enjoy the smashing rejection at the polls of the MAGA administration and its leader. And the squawking among its political heads as they hunt for someone to blame. And the massive feeling that some of the most blatant political criminals and most outspoken racists, xenophobes, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes and openly corrupt officials have been handed a humiliating electoral defeat.

The corporate media is calling the MAGA defeat an earthquake, a hurricane, a landslide, a tsunami. But to figure out the next steps, the working class must still analyze what has really changed and what to do to stop wars, disband the ICE stormtroopers, win back benefits for all workers and poor people that the MAGA crowd has stolen, and defend the rights of all sectors of society that have recently lost them.

That the Democratic Party now has a significant majority in both houses of Congress does not in itself guarantee that it will deliver any of these potential gains.

It is a fundamental Marxist concept that elections held under the rule of a capitalist state cannot by themselves ever put real state power in the hands of the working class and other oppressed sectors of capitalist society. With capitalism in decline, these electoral victories don’t guarantee reforms that benefit “the 99%,” that is, the vast majority of the population who are not rich.

The election does show changes in the political understanding of the working class and how closely the workers understand their class interests. In this case the election demonstrated the disgust of the voting population with the reactionary policies and words of the second MAGA administration and the anger at the results of these policies.

A key issue is the U.S. war of aggression against Iran. Not only is this an extremely expensive war, the Iranian (and later the Yemeni) response turned it into a defeat of U.S. and Israeli military power. The Iranian response destroyed the extensive ring of U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf, creating a problem for the U.S. ruling class. Stopping shipments through the Strait of Hormuz brought the cost of war home by immediately raising gas, diesel and food prices.

This added to already inflationary prices.

Then Trump called his economic policies a victory. He minimized the problems from high oil prices. Then he boasted that he and his rich cronies, including the owners of oil monopolies, got rich on their investments. It was impossible to miss the lesson that the MAGA administration was anti-worker.

The war and its consequences might have been the top issue, but it wasn’t the only one, as the electoral successes of the anti-Trump, anti-MAGA forces revealed. Opposition to the brutality of ICE has grown. Despair at accessing affordable healthcare has increased.

African Americans organized to defeat the MAGA candidates throughout the former Confederacy, and as a result elected Keisha Lance Bottoms Georgia’s first-ever female governor and the U.S.’s first-ever Black female governor. Black women won eight key positions in the state.

Rep. Gina Hinojosa became the first Latina governor of Texas, defeating Trump-clone Gov. Greg Abbott. In New Mexico, Deb Haaland will be the first Native American woman to serve as governor. Eight trans candidates won their elections.

Dr. Abdulrahman Mohammad el-Sayed, born in Michigan of Egyptian immigrant parents, faced the financial opposition of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rants of Vance, Trump, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and various other MAGA trashtalkers. That he has now become the first Muslim U.S. senator illustrates that the growing opposition to Israel in the U.S. is making it a negative to accept major contributions from AIPAC, as Dr. El-Sayed’s opponent did.

Struggle far from being over

As encouraging as the diversity of the elected officials is, it leaves them and their voters working through a pro-imperialist, pro-capitalist party. The Democratic Party leadership made it clear again by raising Sen. Chuck Schumer — always a key supporter of Israeli and U.S. wars of aggression — and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries — who also backs U.S. militarism — as the party’s Congressional leaders.

That Schumer and Jeffries are whom the Democratic Party looks to is a clear sign that its leadership has no intention of ending the war threats in West Asia against Iran or the hostility to People’s China. If anything they will act even more aggressively toward Russia, pushing NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine. Removing deadly sanctions and war threats against Cuba aren’t on their agenda either.

What this means is that if the political understanding of the mass of voters, as shown in the election, is to be expressed, it will have to be by mobilizations for actions that confront both Trump and Congress with the demands:

No war with Iran!
Abolish ICE!
End the blockade of Cuba!
Free Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores!
Restore and expand accessible healthcare!
Restore food subsidies!
And other such demands to be decided by the popular organizations participating in the mobilizations.

The elections showed a change in the mood of the population focused on defeating MAGA. Now it needs to be mobilized into a popular movement that is independent of the Democratic Party and operates outside the electoral arena.

The setback for reactionary forces in the U.S. has only begun.