Democrats' revenge. There may be a political revolution in the USA
After the defeat of a Biden presidency that promised a return to normalcy, Democrats and many independent voters on Tuesday came out in favor of political revolution. Instead of voting to restore the conventions broken by President Donald Trump, voters from the so-called blue (democratic) states turned to more drastic countermeasures.
In New York, they embraced ideological radicalism and elected a 34-year-old far-left activist — Zohran Mamdani — as one of the most sensitive executive positions in the country.
In California, radical politics found expression not in democratic socialism, but in democratic procedure. Facing Republican pressure to gerrymander red (Republican) state redistricting boundaries ahead of the midterm elections, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his party broke with California's nonpartisan redistricting process and asked voters to approve a new electoral map that eliminated the Republican Party.
Newsom, defending the Proposition 50 campaign, said in a Sunday interview on “Meet the Press” that political traditionalism is over.
“The rules of the game have changed. Now we have to write new rules” Newsom said. “Obviously we want to get back to some kind of normality. But the current crisis must be dealt with.”
Politics is evolving at such an astonishing pace these days that it's easy to overlook what a significant change this is for a party that has spent most of the last decade spouting smug, reassuring slogans about how America is already great and Trump is parochial.
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Democratic failure
No one has done more to perpetuate this version of politics than Joe Biden, who launched his 2019 campaign arguing that Trump's presidency was merely “anomaly in time”. Over the next five years, Biden committed himself and his party to restoring a “pre-Trump” Washington, including norms of legislative procedure and the judicial system that more confrontational Democrats wanted to abandon.
His political vision and language were rooted in nostalgia for distant past — wanted to be the new Franklin D. Roosevelt, ridiculing Trump as an insult to George Washington's legacy. Biden's most ingenious political tactic has been to deliver speeches accompanied by flags in picturesque locations such as Gettysburg and Union Station in Washington.
The only form of radical policy that Biden enthusiastically embraced as president was identity politicsdividing the electorate into racial, gender and sexual orientation classes. He did this even when most voters, across all demographic groups, were primarily concerned about the rising cost of living.
The result was an electoral defeat and Trump's return to power.
Not just New York
This week, even the less radical Democratic winners are showing they are rejecting the approach of Biden and the old line of Democratic leadership on other issues.
In Virginia, voters elected the state's first female governor. Abigail Spanberger is a centrist and former parliamentarian who also became famous for criticizing Biden at key moments in his term. In New Jersey, House of Representatives member Mikie Sherrill won election to the state's governorship. Before that, she had a career in Congress marked by open conflict with Nancy Pelosi, the powerful Speaker of the House of Representatives, whom Sherrill dared to oppose.
Zohran Mamdani, election night in New York, November 4, 2025.ANGELA WEISS / AFP
Destroying “Bidenism” is not the same as creating a new, effective version of democratic politics.
However, as we have seen on the right side of the political spectrum, it can be difficult to bury a failed presidency part of the reconstruction process. The radicalism of the 2010 Tea Party libertarian movement created chaos in the Republican Party in Washington and undermined its efforts to remove Barack Obama from power in 2012. It also helped to dissociate the Republican Party from the presidency of George W. Bush in the public mind and opened the way to a complete overhaul of conservative politics under Trump.
Question mark over Democrats
Mayor-elect Mamdani is unlikely to be a useful role model for most Democrats. In addition to the views on the economy and foreign policy that rank him outside the national mainstreamthe politician will soon face a difficult test of his credibility in a high position. New Yorkers expect action on issues of cost of living, quality of life and public safety that have posed difficulties for more experienced leaders.
Nevertheless, Mamdani's promotion will certainly be there will embolden other progressive figuressuch as New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to seek leadership of the country and authorship of the party's new identity.
Newsom's evolution as party leader was — and remains — somewhat less predictable.
When Trump's second term began, the governor of California did not declare war on the Republican Party. Instead, he launched a podcast to which he invited figures associated with the MAGA movement, such as Steve Bannon and the late Charlie Kirk. Newsom became a staunch supporter of the party only later and, according to sources, not entirely of his own volition.
The development of his leadership role from this point on is one of the most important question marks hanging over the Democratic Party in the years 2026 and 2028.
But for the broader swath of Democrats who want to influence the party's future, the overall course of action is now clear enough. This moving away from mourning broken norms and moving towards a politics of groundbreaking change.
