“The significance of this blue tsunami is therefore bigger than Congress and bigger than Trump himself. It is evidence that the advance of the far-right can be challenged. It can be pushed back. And, with effective organisation, it can be decisively defeated.”
By Kim Johnson MP
Donald Trump wanted these elections to vindicate him. Throughout the campaign, he urged supporters to treat the midterms as though he himself were on the ballot. In many ways, they did. And voters assuredly delivered their verdict.
What followed has been described by many commentators as a “blue tsunami”: historic Democratic victories, huge gains across the country, and the recapturing of both chambers of Congress. Candidates closely associated with Trump’s brand of grievance politics suffered defeats in races that, only months ago, many considered beyond the Democrats’ reach.
For those of us watching from across the Atlantic, that matters.
The temptation is to view these results purely through the prism of Trump. Was this the beginning of the end for Trumpism? Has the American public finally grown tired of the chaos, conspiracy theories and culture war politics that have defined this era?
Those are important questions. But they are not the most important ones.
The most important lesson is not that Trump lost. It is how the American left won.
For more than a decade, a new generation of progressive organisers have been rebuilding political power from the ground up. While media attention focused on Trump rallies, headlines and scandals, countless activists were doing the less glamorous work of organising workplaces, communities, tenants, trade unions and voters.
At the centre of that story stands Bernie Sanders.
Bernie may never have reached the White House, but his contribution to American politics has been enormous. He has fundamentally reshaped the political landscape and has popularised a politics rooted in economic justice, labour rights, universal healthcare and opposition to corporate power.
But perhaps his most enduring contribution will be the generation he inspired to see politics not as something to observe from the sidelines, but as something they can shape through collective action, organisation and struggle.
The growth of the Democratic Socialists of America, the revival of labour organising, the surge in workplace unionisation campaigns and the emergence of a new generation of progressive elected representatives did not happen by accident. Much of it flowed directly from the failure of the centrists to provide answers to the 2008 recession and dramatically declining living standards and the subsequent energy unleashed by Sanders’ campaigns.
Countless volunteers who knocked doors during these midterms were politicised during that period. Many candidates who won office learnt their politics in the movements Sanders helped energise. Many organisers who built local campaigns were inspired by his insistence that meaningful change comes not from elite consensus but from collective action.
They took seriously Sanders’ central argument: that politics is not fundamentally about personalities. It is about power. That is the mindset that has transformed the American left.
Democrats did not succeed simply because they found a better slogan or hired brighter consultants. They succeeded because activists spent years building relationships, developing local leadership and embedding themselves within communities. They offered answers to the real problems people face every day: low wages, insecure work, unaffordable housing, inaccessible healthcare and declining living standards.
In short, they organised and they built power. That lesson should resonate strongly across Britain.
Many of my own constituents in Liverpool Riverside face challenges similar to those confronting voters in America. Living standards remain under pressure. Housing is increasingly unaffordable. Public services have been stretched to breaking point. Too many communities feel abandoned by a political and economic system that seems incapable of delivering opportunity.
The far-right is attempting to exploit those frustrations here just as it has in America. They offer simple scapegoats for complex problems, directing people’s frustrations towards migrants and minorities rather than the wealthy and powerful who have benefited from decades of inequality.
Our response cannot simply be to denounce it. Nor can we defeat that politics by adopting its language, accepting its assumptions or moving further to the right in the hope of winning back its supporters. We must build an alternative.
People need to see that solidarity offers more than division does. That economic justice provides more answers than scapegoating. That collective action can achieve more than anger alone. That is the deeper lesson of these midterms.
Of course, there are profound differences between ourselves and the US. Political strategies do not travel neatly across borders. But some lessons are universal.
The significance of this blue tsunami is therefore bigger than Congress and bigger than Trump himself. It is evidence that the advance of the far-right can be challenged. It can be pushed back. And, with effective organisation, it can be decisively defeated.
Trump may yet remain a dominant force in American politics. We should never underestimate the dangers posed by his authoritarian instincts, his willingness to attack democratic institutions, or the influence he continues to wield. Accountability remains essential.
Trump has spent years cultivating the impression that his political dominance is unstoppable. These elections have demonstrated that it is not.
From Liverpool to Washington, our struggles are connected.
The message from America is clear. The far-right can be beaten, but only when we do the hard work of organising. And as Bernie Sanders watches a generation he helped inspire reshape American politics, he can take pride in seeing the fruits of that labour finally succeed.
- Kim Johnson MP is the MP for Liverpool Riverside, you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and Tik Tok.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please donate here or become a supporter on Patreon.
