What Does this Mean for the Future? 

By Daniel Faber

The man who incited a mob of supporters to violently attack the United States Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021, to steal the 2020 presidential election through a self-coup, is returning to the White House. In a convincing victory over the Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris, Republican Donald Trump was re-elected as President of the United States in the 2024 federal elections. Trump’s election win is sending shockwaves throughout the liberal political establishment and is a wake-up call for the Left. Here we see the second coming of a political reactionary who at times exhibits the traits of a neo-fascist, richly supported by billionaires and major corporate polluters (especially Big Oil), and who embraces an ethno-capitalist vision committed to “Make America Great Again”.

Trump’s MAGA movement is formidable. Trumpism now embodies the merger of the pro-corporate, anti-regulatory agenda of economic neoliberalism (deregulation) and authoritarian populism (protectionism) with the racism, bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia of social neoconservatives and Christian nationalists. If he follows through on his campaign promise, the dismantling of the federal bureaucracy, or what the Right calls the “administrative state,” will begin almost immediately. We must now prepare for an all-out assault on the hard-fought achievements of labor, progressive social movements of all stripes, and the Left.  This article explains why the Democrats lost the election and the challenges that await the Ecological Left under Trump 2.0.