Some discussion questions on strategy: 

(Based on Max Elbaum’s article, A Path to Pushing MAGA Out of Power)

Thanks to Marla Kamiya and Amiko Mayeno of the Bay area Block and Build Team for preparing this guide.

Introduction:

Having won control of all three branches of the federal government, the MAGA bloc is moving quickly to implement its Project 2025 agenda and consolidate authoritarian rule. The anti-MAGA majority has a limited amount of time to use the democratic space that still exists in the US to block MAGA’s assault and oust MAGA from power. This will require a combination of mass protest (including strikes and other workplace actions, civil disobedience, and organized noncompliance) and electoral action. Success also depends on offering both a penetrating critique of MAGA’s anti-democratic, anti-working-class agenda and a positive vision of progressive change that would benefit and inspire a popular majority.

Below are key questions and main points to use in discussing the hypotheses presented to address these challenges in A Path to Pushing MAGA Out of Power.

1. What is the relationship between the immediate fightback and the 2026/2028 electoral work for pushing MAGA out of power?

     The immediate fightback is crucial if we are to maintain the possibility of having a semblance of fair elections in 2026 and 2028. Those who focus solely on electoral work in this moment are missing the depth of MAGA’s assault and the very real possibility of fascism’s consolidation in this country. 

     We must maximize the narrow window that is still open to vote fascists out of office. The progressive/left movements need to be ready to take on the electoral struggle in 2026 and 2028 with all of our might. No sitting on the sidelines! It is not out of the question that this window could close for decades if we lose in 2026 and 2028.

2. What is the relationship between building the broadest possible front against fascism and the fight for a progressive agenda?

    On messaging and platform: Don’t repeat the Democratic Party’s error in 2024. To focus solely on MAGA’s threat to our constitution and democracy, in the name of building the broadest possible alliance against fascism, fails to motivate a crucial sector of voters. Rather, a progressive alternative that addresses real needs galvanizes the breadth of voters and the kind of alliances that will be needed to defeat MAGA and take steps towards genuine change. (Zohran Mamdani!)

    On the power imbalance: We know that progressives are the weaker partner within the broad anti-MAGA front and within the Democratic Party. So what should our response be to this imbalance of power?

     Even if progressives do not lead the Democratic Party in 2026 and 2028, the extent to which we can make a progressive agenda a visible and viable alternative is critically important. (Witness the impact of the Bernie Sanders candidacy and Black Lives Matter uprising in 2020 on the politics of that moment.)

    Uniting behind progressive candidates in the Democratic primaries of 2026 and, most crucially, unifying behind one progressive candidate in the Presidential primaries of 2028, will help to establish this visible alternative.

     If progressives do not win sufficient leverage in the next Democratic administration, assuming we win in 2028, and Democrats do not make some tangible difference in the lives of working-class people, the pendulum will simply swing back to MAGA in the next election.

3. What is the relationship between “outside” and “inside” work with the Democratic Party:

     The electoral front is essential to the fight over power – pushing MAGA out of power and winning power for progressives – but only powerful mass pressure from the bottom up will allow the election of progressives and hold them accountable to a progressive agenda once elected. And, If we do defeat MAGA in 2026 and 2028, the power of mass mobilizations will undoubtedly be needed to defend those results.