Many of us on the Left today joined because we were inspired and got organized on the basis of Bernie Sanders’s program for a “political revolution.” The essence of that program is by now very familiar, and it is the de facto program of the democratic socialist left today. It includes Medicare for All, a Green New Deal to address the climate catastrophe, new labor laws to enable a surge in union density, and more. Not only is it the de facto program of our new socialist movement — it is a program that now enjoys broad popular support.

At the risk of sounding overly optimistic in an especially difficult time, I would say that the election of a government on the basis of this program in the United States some day in the future is entirely possible. It is, at the very least, a major goal of our new socialist movement to achieve that. A government of the Left dedicated to enacting this program for a political revolution would encounter all kinds of challenges, from stiff resistance from business to a relentless attack campaign from the corporate media and harsh attacks from the political center and the Right. Nevertheless the eventual victory of such a program is not impossible to conceive. It is no more radical than programs of reform that have been fought for and realized before in many countries all over the world.

For many if not most of us in the socialist movement, that is the horizon with which we are more or less working on a daily basis. Our main question is how to build a movement that is capable of winning such reforms.