Each issue, The Progressive poses one question to a panel of expert voices—writers, thinkers, politicians, artists, and others who help shape the national conversation. For our December 2024/January 2025 issue, we asked: What Should Progressives Do Next?
Suzanne Kahn
Vice president of the think tank at the Roosevelt Institute
Progressives have been citing the level of anger ruling parties have faced internationally to account for President Biden’s unpopularity for years, yet we somehow underestimated just how much anger there was with the status quo. As we dust ourselves off, what we have to do is reckon with the anger that drove Donald Trump’s win.
Doing it justice means understanding it not as anger at the last four years of policymaking, but as anger at the last forty years. Yes, people are angry about the cost of living, [which is] exacerbated by supply-shock-driven inflation of the last four years. But the major costs in our lives—housing, child care, higher education—have been steadily rising for decades, far outpacing any growth in income. These rising costs have been driven by policy choices from exclusionary zoning to corporate concentration to the withdrawal of public funds. People are—and should be—angry about this.
To win, progressives need to develop an agenda that uses every available tool to address the structural causes of the big costs driving American anger.
Laura Flanders
Journalist and broadcaster, and host of Laura Flanders & Friends
What should progressives do next? Look around. Not up, at the politicians who failed. Not down, at the voters who were misled. If elections give us anything, they give us a chance to knock on doors and talk to strangers. At their best, they give us a chance to plot our territory and get to know where our people are.
What people who believe in progress need to do next is to keep knocking, and talking, and learning about the people in the places we are in. For many of us, that will be hard learning. We walk streets that are newly laid over long-stained earth.
On November 6, I invited three frontline activists to offer their commentary as guests on my show. “Worst night ever!” this white woman began. Three pairs of eyes stared back at me patiently: one Haitian American, one Native American, one African American. Pause. Remember. Reflect. What country did we think we were in? Did we think ours was easy work?
April Ward
Rann Miller
New Jersey-based educator and freelance writer who blogs at Urban Education Mixtape
The day after Donald Trump’s election win, MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan said, “The progressive era should be over if [Democrats] want to start winning again.” However, Kamala Harris’s defeat is not an indictment of progressives; Harris was not a progressive candidate. Harris failed to embrace progressive politics, and the electorate’s embrace of racism, xenophobia, and misogyny led to her defeat.
With that in mind, how should progressives strategize for future elections? 1) Make—or reaffirm—dismantling white supremacy the centerpiece of their platform. The fight against capitalism, militarism, racism, settler colonialism, etc., is all-encompassing when taking on white supremacy. 2) Identify anti-Blackness and misogyny as a central feature of class struggle. Naming how ideological tools of oppressive systems work together helps the people begin to work against them. 3) Pursue adopting a sincere public policy agenda that prioritizes the poor, the working class, and the perpetual victims of anti-Blackness. 4) Develop political candidates who can win elections—nationwide—at the local, state, and federal levels, separate from the Democratic Party. 5) To thine own self be true. Don’t compromise the philosophy to attract moderates and conservatives; you dilute the movement and lose credibility. Cater to the base.