It’s time to get real about how bad the upcoming US election could be. We are facing a political disaster with implications possibly even worse than the 2016 election. The Democrats have a good chance of losing the midterm elections, badly. The Senate and House races look dire, and even in Democratic-leaning New York State, where I live, we could get a far-right governor.

There are a few reasons we could cite for this looming horror. US politics is so polarized that power flip-flops back and forth between parties in an almost-predictable cycle of anger and rejection. As well, many Americans, including myself, haven’t done enough to help defeat the Right. There hasn’t been enough organizing in some places. (I haven’t received a single call or text urging me to phone bank — or even vote! — for the Democratic incumbent governor, nor have I seen any canvassers.)

The Democrats have also lacked a strong economic message, either about their accomplishments or about their plans. Democrats and progressives have been spectacularly dismissive on issues that matter to people and the messaging has been awful, not to mention the optics of drinking champagne with fancy donors while Americans line up for food banks. I’ve written about those problems here and in Jacobin.