Overthrow the donor class. And the consultants, too

Organizer and author Astra Taylor on what Democrats got wrong, how Republicans took the advantage, and how to play the long game of progress

When we last talked to Astra Taylor, the organizer, author, and anti-debt activist, we discussed her ideas for what a Harris administration might do to transform American lives by extending debt relief and beginning the work of building a solidarity state. In these changed circumstances, we reached out to her again, as part of the series of conversations we’re having to explore how the Democratic defeat has challenged people’s preconceptions about American politics and to gather thoughts on how to plan for the future.

With the second Trump administration on the horizon, the crux of Taylor’s advice remains the same: organize. Today, in the first half of our wide-ranging conversation, Taylor reflects on the electoral loss from the perspective of her long experience in the world of movement politics, the problem of closing the distance between the Democratic Party and the organizers and activists working for small-d democratic change, and why she thinks cutting ties with the donor class and pursuing a real populist program is critical to any serious, long-term project of winning a durable Democratic majority down the line.

---

We hope The Ink will be essential to the thinking and reimagining and reckoning and doing that all lie ahead. We want to thank you for being a part of what we are and what we do, and we promise you that this community is going to find every way possible to be there for you in the times that lie ahead and be there for this country and for what it can be still.

---

First off, maybe this election upended some of your expectations, but I suspect maybe not, given that you have always had a realistic attitude about this possibility. But there are clearly things that have to change in the way people are strategizing and thinking. This is the flip side of what we talked about going into the election, feeling unburdened by what’s come before. In a way, thinking about this you are even less burdened now because you can — or have to — write a new script. So what comes to mind for you now?

A lot of things. I am certainly someone who would rather be organizing on the terrain established by the Harris-Walz administration. And I made that very clear over the last few months. But the most important thing for an organizer to do, I think, is be honest about where we are.

And so I think we on the left do need to reground and take a look at this. And part of that is assessing what just happened. I think a lot of us on the progressive left are correct that the kind of centrist campaign Harris ran did not resonate with the kind of folks that need to be mobilized to win Democratic majorities. And by that, I just mean capital-D Democratic Party majorities. And so in that sense, we're still fighting a battle that we've been fighting since 2015, 2016 

It's the question of who are the political structures in this country set up to serve. And so I do think in some ways, it is strategic to engage in what we could dismissively call the blame game. 

So who and what do you blame?