Defeating Trumpism requires addressing unresolved structural contradictions through durable working-class organization and universalist politics
Source: Adolph Reed. "Adolph Reed on What It Will Take to Defeat Trumpism." October 25, 2026. jacobin.com
The Gist
Reed says Trump's unpopularity won't end Trumpism, because the economic and political problems that produced it are still there. Democrats aren't offering a real solution, and political analysts distract from this by sorting voters into racial and demographic blocs instead of looking at class. The only lasting answer is rebuilding working-class organization and a politics that speaks to everyone's material needs.
Conclusion
Trumpism or a successor authoritarian movement will persist unless the Left rebuilds durable, class-based working-class organization and a universalist, solidaristic politics that addresses economic insecurity. Electoral mobilization against Trump alone will not defeat it.
Premises
- Trumpism arises from structural contradictions in neoliberal democracies, especially the tension between capital accumulation and political legitimation, and these contradictions remain unresolved.
- The social forces and material interests behind Trumpism (billionaires, hustlers, discontented and insecure populations) persist regardless of Trump's personal fate or declining approval, and could reorganize into another formation.
- The Democratic Party, favored by large capital and governing elites, manages the accumulation-legitimation tension only superficially and offers no compelling program addressing widespread discontent. This failure helped give rise to Trumpism.
- Mainstream political science and polling reify demographic blocs (race, ethnicity, education, age) as ready-made political constituencies, and have worked to erase class and political economy from the analysis of American politics. This obscures what people actually care about and misreads shifts in voting.
- Widespread dissatisfaction, desperation, and fear of uncertainty will keep generating authoritarian movements unless some political force offers a different worldview and strategy for achieving security and well-being.
Assumptions
- Class-based, universalist politics is more effective at addressing insecurity than identity- or bloc-based appeals
- Authoritarian movements are driven mainly by material and economic conditions rather than ideology, culture, or charismatic leadership
- Durable working-class organization is achievable under current conditions
- Electoral mobilization without organizational infrastructure is inherently fragile
- Pollster and social-science categories shape political self-understanding rather than merely describing it
- Economic insecurity and status insecurity are not separable, so a material program can address both