Donald Trump’s return to presidential power today augurs a reactionary regime that will harm countless lives — from the safety and security of the most vulnerable people in our society to the stability of the global climate on which we as a common humanity all existentially depend. His economic agenda of “fiscal extravagance” and chauvinistic statism to support capital and rich rentiers but austerity for the rest will come at the expense of middle class and working people and won’t fix the issues of price instability and squeezed living standards on which the election was a referendum.

That this is a return to power not just for Trump but a Republican party remade in his image makes clear that the only path to overcoming the American far right and the long-lasting authoritarian forms it will seek to cement is to respond in kind. We must build an alternative progressive political project and reconstructive policy agenda that can resolve the pervasive economic precarity, political disempowerment, and indignity that characterise American life. We need credible and commonsense answers to the public’s most basic needs and urgent questions: How can I afford my rent and feed my family? When will my income stop being squeezed and my employment stop being insecure? When will healthcare be affordable, high-quality and guaranteed? We need to develop ambitious and winning policies that remake our failing political and economic institutions to democratize, decommodify, and decarbonize our economy. The only way to defend American democracy is to reconstruct it for the 21st century.