A turning point for Trump and the Left
By Carl Davidson / The Rag Blog / January 16, 2026
Carl Davidson is the editor of Carl’s Left Links Newsletter, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers. Carl is a former leader of the American New Left and a past Vice President and National Secretary of SDS (the Students for a Democratic Society). Carl was a guest on Rag Radio with Thorne Dreyer and Alice Embree on Jan. 16, 2026, discussing this article and its implications.
We opened the year 2025 with a stark assessment of the political terrain. Trump and the far-right clique around him were taking the Oval Office and key cabinet positions. We made a point, correctly, of defining this clique as fascist, but reminded everyone that taking high offices was not the same as consolidating fascist rule across all 50 states and 100 major cities.
We went further than simply using “fascism” as a nasty label. Our current fascism was not a carbon copy of Hitler’s Germany or Mussolini’s Italy. It was something more important, a “fascism with American characteristics.” We followed that up with a summary of the counter-revolution of 1876, the Jim Crow years of lynching and terror in the South and Southwest, the hidden stories of plots to overthrow FDR, the sizable pro-Nazi “America First” campaign, and postwar McCarthyism. We described how a Second Reconstruction reversed much of that, with the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, followed up with a strong antiwar movement and Black Power election campaigns. Then the 1970s ended with violent repression, and the careful organization of the ‘New Right’ that led, step-by-step, to Trump’s MAGA bloc.
In brief, we took the first step in Sun Tzu’s Art of War: Know your enemy. The next step was to know ourselves. Again, we had a brief summary, we were a small left represented by AOC’s Justice Democrats, but operating within a wider anti-MAGA progressive trend. We also pointed out that progressives were still a large minority — but so was Trump’s MAGA bloc. In addition to the White House, Trump held the Supreme Court and both Houses of Congress, but with very thin margins.
We thus had a good assessment of the terrain. But the future is always open and full of surprises. Trump immediately had Elon Musk take center stage, with his DOGE unit slashing away at critical government programs. But on Feb. 5, 2025, Team Trump (and the rest of us, to be frank) faced a big surprise, the first “50501” elemental rising of anti-Trump millions emerged across the country. “50501” initially meant fifty anti-MAGA protest actions at fifty state capitols on one day. It turned out much larger than anyone had expected, including those who did much of the local organizing, Indivisible, Working Families Party, and Bernie’s “Our Revolution” people.
The second 50501 elemental rising arrived in June as “No Kings Day.” It drew even more millions and knocked the wind out of Trump’s ridiculous military parade for himself in D.C., which was sparsely attended. In this No Kings round, local progressive Democrats and some of the socialist left joined together to build turnout and shape sets of demands.
Trump was unfazed. At the beginning of July, Trump and his anti-immigrant henchman Stephen Miller announced a major upgrade of ICE, from a relatively small arm of the Department of Homeland Security with a $9 billion budget, to a paramilitary force with a $170 billion budget, larger than most standing armies in the developed world. Trump’s “Brown Shirts” proved to be an accurate label for the new ICE project.
A national opposition voice emerged within two weeks, the “Good Trouble” protests set for July 18 in memory of Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) on his birthday. Mass rallies took place in 1200 cities, but with subdued media coverage. ICE ran rampant for months, and Trump tried to get the National Guard and the U.S. Army into the fray as well. But the second “No Kings Day” arrived on Oct 18, with even more millions turning up everywhere, aiming for a “Blue Wave” in whatever elections are taking place in November. Thus, Election Day saw the incredible victories of Zohran Mamdani in New York City and Katie Wilson as mayor of Seattle, both of them democratic socialists, as well as other regular Dems taking down MAGA people elsewhere.
We can thus fairly say that 2025 was a turning point year. Trump still has his MAGA bloc of about one-third of the electorate, but the luster has worn off. Even his MAGA base is troubled by what they are seeing with MAGA dragging teachers out of schools and seizing workers at Home Depots. They were expecting roundups of “the worst of the worst,” but saw Latino neighbors and friends in hiding or being mistreated. Reality didn’t match the political advertisements. Mass resistance in a wide common front, moreover, forced the military out of Los Angeles and has held them at bay elsewhere.
Trump now has power but not respect. Once a commanding force in both the Republican Party and the broader arena of American life, Trump’s grip loosened amid mounting legal challenges, rising scandals around the Epstein files, waning support from party leaders, and a shift in the electorate’s priorities. Rather than guiding the national conversation, Trump’s voice was increasingly sidelined. This has opened space for new debates and a realignment of party power. It also signals exhaustion from MAGA’s polarizations and spectacles.
Amidst this power shift, the intensification of ICE raids in 2025 cast a long shadow over communities nationwide. With stories of abrupt detainments and families torn apart, the raids underscored the enduring complexities of America’s immigration debate. Add on the debacle in Gaza and threats of war in Venezuela, and these actions reignited public discourse on civil rights and government accountability, galvanizing both criticism and calls for reform.
The unexpected emergence of the No Kings Risings, alongside the leadership of Mamdani, AOC, Bernie and other Justice Democrats, offers us a beacon for future progress in 2026. Mass action campaigns captured the imagination of a new generation seeking alternatives to entrenched power structures of either party. Mamdani’s articulate vision and DSA’s organizing prowess helped transform frustration into constructive activism, suggesting that real and lasting change is possible. Let’s work on building the organizational infrastructure for a Third Reconstruction, and let’s hope the new year holds new pleasant surprises to help us on our way.
MICHAEL MEEROPOL / COMMENTARY / Sleeping Giant: Thoughts on the results of the November 4 elections
Image from Pix4Free.org.
By Michael Meeropol / The Rag Blog / November 18, 2025
The following is an expanded version of a commentary delivered over WAMC-FM on November 7, 2025, by Michael Meeropol, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. It has been edited for The Rag Blog. Meeropol and Alice Embree will be featured on Thorne Dreyer’s Rag Radio program on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin and streamed at KOOP.org, Friday, Nov. 21, at 2 p.m. to discuss this article and larger issues it raises.
I stayed up to watch the election results and was rewarded with evidence that the “sleeping giant” — the American people — had finally awakened to the danger that Trump and Trumpism poses to our society. Yes, I saw the exit polls. Most people claimed to be voting in favor of the candidate they voted for, not “against” anyone. Yes, in two of the three major elections, the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey were won by so-called “moderates” — two “national security women.” (Governor–elect Spanberger of Virginia served in the CIA before getting into politics. Governor-elect Sherrill of New Jersey is a former Navy helicopter pilot who had graduated from the US Naval Academy.)
But I believe despite what voters told pollsters, there was an underlying goal for many of the people who came out to vote — and that was to “vote against Trump.” The candidates running did not have to say it — the people answering pollsters did not want to say it. But I believe that, for example, the people standing in line for hours in California to pass a ballot measure that they were very confident would pass without their votes — when there was no one on the ballot! — were there to make a statement against Trump and as one person told a reporter, voted “in defense of my freedom.”
Meanwhile, the election of a Democratic socialist in New York City who brought out a hundred thousand young people who had never voted and probably wouldn’t have voted if he hadn’t been in the race has been considered an anomaly. And this attempt to dismiss his victory as something totally impossible to replicate anywhere else has occurred despite the fact that he had to battle unbelievably strong headwinds. Once he won the primary, literally millions of dollars were spent by billionaires attempting to smear him as badly as any red baiters did in the McCarthy era.
The fact that Trump routinely called him a communist means almost nothing. But the attempts to smear him as a radical Muslim – even hinting he would have celebrated 9-11 — did produce a fear in too many Jewish New Yorkers that the city would no longer be safe for them should he win. And this, of course, was despite the fact that he won the vote of young Jews. Meanwhile, his campaign was focused like a laser on economic issues — which also had pride of place in the two gubernatorial campaigns.
And to return to the Virginia campaign, the Republican candidate for governor spent a tremendous amount of money running ads attacking trans kids in sports and bathrooms. According to a Substack entitled Erin in the Morning [Check out “A Stunning Rebuke Of Anti-Trans Politics”—Dems Win Elections Nationwide Despite Anti-Trans Ads.]
“According to MSNBC, more than 57 percent of Republican ad spending in the Virginia governor’s race went toward anti-transgender messaging, an effort to revive what the party saw as a winning wedge issue in 2024. But a year later, with prices still high and anti-trans rhetoric solving none of voters’ real problems, the strategy appeared to backfire. Voters seemed tired of the culture wars and frustrated that Republicans remained fixated on scapegoating instead of governing.”
Both Democratic candidates for governor stressed economic issues in their campaigns — just as did Mamdani. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, three judges on the State Supreme Court were up for their 10-year “re-election” where the vote was Yes (keep them for another 10 years) or No (send them off the bench). A very clever set of ads made it seem that voting “no” was a way of protecting the integrity of voting in Pennsylvania. In fact, knocking off these three judges would have created a right-wing majority which would have been ready to rule in favor of whatever ridiculous challenge Republicans would mount to steal the 2026 and/or 2028 elections. All three campaigns went down to ignominious defeat.
And in California as I already mentioned, people waited in line for over an hour to vote for an idea, Proposition 50, which changed the State Constitution giving the Governor and State Legislature the power to increase the number of Democratic majority districts in California by five — matching exactly what the state of Texas did at Trump’s bidding — adding five Republican seats.
What does this mean? I saw one poll out of hundreds that tells it all. Thirty percent of the population told pollsters they identified as MAGA — that is the Trumpified Republican Party — the people who waved signs at the Republican Convention calling for mass deportation — the people who have rushed to join the newly militarized ICE so they can snatch people with brown skin off the streets without warrants or accountability].
Guess what? The same poll asked how many people identified with the No Kings protests. That number was 43 percent. Given that the No Kings movement has no national leadership — no nationally known face of the leadership — no agreed upon principles beyond defending American democracy against Donald Trump and his fascists and has gotten very slight coverage from lots of the national media — that number is remarkable.
[For details see https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/poll-shows-no-kings-protest-movement-topping-maga-public-support-rcna241803
It is particularly remarkable because the Speaker of the House was all over national television calling the No Kings rallies “hate America” events and attacking the participants as Hamas supporters, terrorists, supporters of political violence and communists. (Not sure I got all his epithets but people can look it up!). The attack lines of Trump and his Trumpists did not work for that 43 percent and I consider that remarkable as well.
I am convinced that the reason the elections were blowouts is because the energy generated by the giant crowds at the No Kings Day protests carried over to election day. So many people at these rallies asked each other and the speakers what can we do? It is easy to give money. It is (relatively) easy to write a letter to an editor. It is harder to take a drive and stand in a crowd for a few hours with a sign. It is much harder to knock on doors for your preferred candidate. Yet thousands of people — in New York thousands of young people — did just that for the New York Mayoral candidate who Trump called a communist as well as for the two Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey. And in California, people waited in line for over an hour for an idea — proposition 50 — in California.
America is back. But — now is not the time to rest on our laurels. These blowout elections are validation of all the work that’s been done exposing the atrocities of the Trump Administration and making sure at least the majority of the public sees through the administration’s lies. But it is almost a full year to the 2026 midterms. A lot can happen in that time. It is essential that the people keep coming out to demonstrations and rallying around support for our immigrant neighbors targeted by ICE.
More importantly, lawyers, officials, etc., have to prepare to fight Trump’s and the Republicans’ attempts to steal the 2026 election. We know they are planning to do that — only massive voter turnouts and massive vote margins will stop them — as will courts like the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
The people have demonstrated they understand the threats to our democracy posed by Trump and his enablers — we just have to keep it up for at least the next year.