Well, that was fun for a night. Now what? 

Before the vote, I had the opportunity to observe the US midterm election cycle from afar, having spent mid-September to mid-October in Europe, mostly in France. Of note, there was a palpable sense of something like pity for the poor Americans having to endure the Trump era. However, there was also a sense that lost Americans would find their way and rid the world of Trump and his acolytes. Once accomplished, everything would be “fine” again.

Since I don’t want to make too much of random conversations hindered by language barriers, available news coverage seemed likewise to focus on a hoped-for end to the Trump regency, with the midterm elections seen as an initial opportunity to slow the wayward train before a disastrous wreck. Moreover, the long-term impact of the Trump years on relations with European “allies” will remain difficult to fully measure until the Trump regency ends, still over two years away.

In this context, it is disheartening to say the least that the America of myth continues to be a powerful force on both sides of the Atlantic and remains a likely barrier to a long-delayed realignment that has America’s European allies finally understanding how badly they have been duped for at least the last 45 years. As American foreign policy and American-made weaponry continue their deadly assault in the name of the greater glory of the nation and American economic policy is singularly tied to the America First brand, it can only be hoped that international eyes will open to America’s historical reality and connect that reality to America’s international present.

With this backdrop in play, the midterm elections were just held, and American voters came to life long enough to signal a desire for change without any clear consensus on how best to define the desired change. The challenge for progressives will be to capture the electoral energy and provide a coherent vision for the transformative change that is so long overdue. This is in a nation whose citizens have shown a remarkable capacity to run from transformative change.

A Democratic majority, but limited power

The political reality after the votes have been counted is that the Democratic Party has a politically significant majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This brings with it the authority to control much of the agenda in each house of Congress and to set legislative, oversight and investigative priorities.

In the Senate, it should prevent the confirmation of a new parade of troglodytes to fill key governmental posts and add some senatorial heft to the legislative process. In the House, it should open the way to injecting some measure of liberal dogma into the budgetary process and impede President Donald Trump’s access to some of the funding necessary for war, vanity infrastructure projects, corralling and incarcerating immigrants, and implementing a host of his other wet dreams.

While there is some renewed hope for better governance and for some small measure of accountability in the two years left of the Trump regency, Trump will still control the executive branch of government and, therefore, much of the institutional machinery of governance. Further, he will still control the keys to the killing kingdom and its minions in uniform both at home and abroad.

Even with both houses of Congress in Democratic hands, neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives has anywhere near the two-thirds majority constitutionally required to override a presidential veto of majority-passed legislation. In addition, Senate rules still allow for a “filibuster,” or unlimited and prolonged debate, on legislative matters that can only be ended by a vote of 60 Senators (“cloture”). While the rules controlling the filibuster and cloture can theoretically be amended by a Senate majority, it remains an anti-democratic anachronism that is often used to impede the passage of progressive legislation.

So, between Trump’s ever-evolving control of the executive branch and the real potential for continued congressional gridlock, Democratic Party unity enforced by leadership will be critical to advancing any congressional action capable of reversing the nation’s downward spiral. To further complicate the way forward, expected congressional attempts to determine culpability for the lawless, corrupt and immoral actions of Trump and his acolytes likely will further divide the Democratic Party and surely will make any effort at bipartisan cooperation on legislative initiatives practically impossible to achieve.

As congressional priorities start to get sorted out, it will take real and sustained progressive focus to insist upon the type of transformative change that will move the Democratic Party to a new vision of a more equitable and just America and to channel renewed political vitality to ensure cohesive messaging. This will be impossible to achieve without new Democratic Party leadership. Two years of feckless meandering by existing party leadership should be more than enough to require major changes, but it likely will not be enough to do so.

The fight for the Democratic Party’s soul and vision

Since even a protracted leadership fight is essential for defining the soul of a revitalized Democratic Party, progressive Democrats will have to seize the moment to avoid rapid marginalization of their growing progressive block and its agenda. Aging and stubborn party centrists generally see “transformative” change as a direct threat to their continued power. Further, those always enchanted by the notion of bipartisan compromise will surely try to use that false promise to block the path forward.

Somehow, a Democratic Party that is largely leaderless, has no program to govern, and has two years behind it (ten years if you count the first Trump and the single Biden presidencies) of a directionless effort to hold Trump or any of his acolytes even remotely accountable for attributable corruption, lawlessness, chaos and institutional dysfunction must abruptly change course. For once, Congressional Democrats have to immediately recognize that they won and act like it. And that the other side lost. Make no preemptive concessions, grab the gavel, and take no prisoners. 

Democrats must immediately recognize that the biggest downside of winning politically is the urgent need to articulate a new vision for the nation’s future and to deliver at least some of the real, lasting change essential to reversing America’s decline. A good start would be an immediate embrace of “Medicare for All,” now favored by well over a majority of US adults in recent polling.

Moving forward, there will be a growing core of progressive Democrats in Congress, and in statehouses and local governments. They represent the future of the Democratic Party and will surely articulate a clarion call for transformative change. While compromise with Republicans will be tempting to the old guard and “incremental” change will be their collective mantra, it will look like little more than a flailing old guard fighting for its continued relevance at the expense of a new order.

So, the resistance to repeating past failures must continue unabated. But first there must be a fight for the soul and vision of the Democratic Party. Now is the time to seize the moment. The initial steps to transformational change depend on the outcome of this effort.

[Hard Left Turn first published this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.