Democrats, don’t mess this up.

For two years, Donald Trump’s Republican Party has been committed to pushing the United States further into a state of fascist rule. The Trump administration has pitted the federal government against ideological enemies, enriched and consolidated the power of billionaire allies, and done everything it can to destroy checks and balances on the behavior of the authoritarian leader and his loyalists.

It is therefore an extraordinary and belated moment of relief to see that democratic processes – however flawed our representative systems – offer an opportunity to break away from fascism supported by technocapital. Nationally, Democrats scored historic victories. Even in Republican strongholds such as Texas, Georgia and South Carolina, voters have denounced Trump’s Republican Party.

Democrats in Congress now have two tasks: stop Trump and improve the welfare of the American working class. This should be understood as a moral imperative to act immediately to curb the regime’s fascism by all possible means.

Americans are first and foremost angry about the dire economic conditions in which they will struggle. The midterm results reflect the limits of Trumpian false consciousness: People know when they are poor, and they can see when billionaires, federal armed forces, genocidal governments and members of the president’s family are profiting.

Democrats now have two tasks: stop Trump and improve the welfare of the American working class.

Although Democrats have secured a majority in Congress, they now face an uphill battle to pass legislation to improve people’s material conditions. But that doesn’t excuse inaction, weak gestures, or endorsement of bipartisanship. Democrats must push forward legislation that Republicans cannot block and that Trump is almost certain to veto.

For one, Democrats must immediately reverse cuts to programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Program. They must also go further and deliver on campaign promises to deliver robust health care, entitlement spending and curbs on Big Tech’s destructive plunder.

Trump bypassed Congress and launched the illegal war of his choice against Iran, which has cost more than $47 billion to date. But Congress has the power to limit military spending. Democrats must pass further resolutions to end the war, and they must halt the military budget and redirect funds to urgent priorities such as health care, housing and green infrastructure investments. While a distraught Trump finally announced that he would end military aid to Israel on Monday, Democrats must pass further legislation to end all U.S. complicity in Israel’s apartheid regime and genocide.

Democrats must also introduce laws to defund and abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is not an outlandish suggestion. The impunity militia was only founded in 2003 and now receives more funding than any other federal law enforcement agency thanks only to congressional support. Congress has the power to dismantle the agency and pass legislation to eliminate the more than $170 billion earmarked for border authorities in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Act.”

Democrats should do everything possible to reverse and end political prosecution and the Trump administration’s brazen efforts to criminalize dissent.

In short, the Democratic plan must reject the austerity logic that has dominated the party for four decades. As sociologist Melinda Cooper has pointed out, and Trump’s Republicans have proven time and time again, this austerity is no austerity at all: Since the Nixon administration in the 1970s, pro-austerity governments have overseen vast amounts of public spending in the form of tax cuts and subsidies to holders of financial wealth that do not trickle down, and have funded policing, border enforcement, prisons, and the war machine. These are choices, and Democrats are empowered to make choices that benefit the many, not the few—a revival classic.

Democrats such as Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., have emphasized that their focus will be on the party’s governing “affordability agenda.” This must include swift action to investigate and impeach the most serious offenders in the President and his Cabinet, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Insisting on Trump and his aides being held accountable for their wrongdoings will in no way distract from the economic focus. The affordability agenda is impossible to achieve without an autocratic executive in place. Challenging Trump’s tyranny and self-dealing with every tool possible goes hand in hand with legislating to address so-called kitchen table problems.

Can Democrats in Congress, many of whom continue to reject the progressive and left-wing energy that helped fuel the blue wave, succeed in an anti-fascist political and economic agenda? No doubt they will be thwarted at every turn by desperate and dangerous leaders and a beleaguered Republican minority. This is no reason to compromise, and pressure must be maintained on Democrats who pretend to be intransigent. As tonight’s millions of votes show, Americans know who to blame.

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