DEMOCRATS’ BEST POLICY INNOVATIONMaking Care Central to the Party’s Message

Kamala Harris had only 107 days to mount a presidential campaign. She did not succeed, and she’s faced criticism for how her campaign underplayed appeals to working-class voters and failed to take a stance against Israel’s assault on Gaza. But there were many proposals that Harris got right. One that should have received more attention was her sweeping plan to expand Medicare by creating a home-care benefit. The plan would have dramatically increased options for older and disabled Americans while assuring that caregivers, be they paid or unpaid, finally got a fair shake. Harris and the Democrats could have talked more about this agenda during the campaign, but they laid the groundwork for a future in which the project is a central part of the Democratic platform. As Ai-jen Poo, a senior adviser to Care in Action, reminds us, investment in care benefits more than just those who receive it—it also benefits those who provide it. Indeed, Poo says, “these are the kinds of investments that would help families participate and stay in the workforce and realize the promise of opportunity in America.”  

ELECTION-YEAR INTERVENTIONThe Uncommitted Movement

President Biden’s failure to demand an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza put him on the wrong side of many Democratic voters during his early 2024 bid for reelection. To send a message to Biden about the need for an arms embargo to save lives in Gaza and move toward peace in the Middle East, the Listen to Michigan movement mounted a campaign that persuaded more than 100,000 voters to choose an “Uncommitted” option on the Democratic primary ballot. Activists in other states promptly picked up the baton, aligning under the banner of the Uncommitted National Movement. The movement won dozens of delegates to the Democratic National Convention and was credited with convincing the White House to adopt a somewhat more critical tone toward Israel.

Despite these successes, the movement was rebuffed in its efforts to secure a speaking slot for a Palestinian American at the convention. That was a consequential error on the part of convention organizers. In the fall, while some prominent activists said they’d vote for Harris, the movement declined to formally endorse her but warned allies to avoid voting in ways that might help elect Trump. The movement isn’t going away. It will keep urging top Democrats to listen to the party base as part of a struggle to end the violence in Gaza, save lives, and defend against the threats posed by a Trump presidency.  

DEFENSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATIONGovernor Andy Beshear and theKentucky Education Association

Donald Trump won Kentucky by a 30.7-point margin. But public education won even bigger: A proposal to revise the Kentucky Constitution to allow legislators to allocate tax dollars to private schools was beaten by a slightly wider margin. The amendment was backed by Senator Rand Paul and other top Republicans, while Democratic Governor Andy Beshear vowed, “I’m going to do everything I can to defeat it.” The Kentucky Education Association and its allies prevailed in every one of the state’s 120 counties. It turns out that standing strong for public education is a winning position—in blue, purple, and red states.  

TRADE UNION LEADER WHO WON’T BACK DOWNJimmy Williams Jr. of IUPAT

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which represents 140,000 workers, has a well-earned reputation for political savvy and progressivism. Both were on display in 2024.

IUPAT president Jimmy Williams Jr. and his members campaigned hard for Harris—alongside other unions and union leaders—and their work paid off, with the Democratic ticket winning levels of support among union members that were comparable to what Biden received in 2020. But the Democrats still lost, because, Williams argues, they did not mount a campaign that connected with nonunion workers: “The party did not make a positive case for why workers should vote for them, only that they were not Donald Trump.”

This is the kind of blunt talk that Democratic leaders need to hear. It is also typical of Williams and his union, which was one of the first to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and is exploring how to divest the IUPAT pension fund from firms that facilitate violence against Palestinians. On these issues and so many others, Williams says of the union: “We’re not gonna back down.”  

BRILLIANT LEGAL ADVOCATE DEFENDING TRANS FREEDOMChase Strangio

On December 4, Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, made history in the fight for trans rights. Appearing before the Trumpified Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Skrmetti, he argued that denying people access to gender-affirming care violates the 14th Amendment because it is sex discrimination based on transgender identity. One of the most important cases of the current court term, Skrmetti could have wide-ranging implications for a population that was targeted by Trump and the Republicans during an election in which they won control of the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

Strangio is the first openly transgender lawyer to have argued before the Supreme Court, and he “brings to the lectern not only brilliant constitutional lawyering, but also the tenacity and heart of a civil rights champion,” says Cecillia Wang, the ACLU’s legal director.

It is with such tenacity and heart that, in a recent Instagram Live, Strangio reminded us to continue to hold space and care for one another. It’s how we survive. Regina Mahone  

PUSHBACK AGAINST CHRISTIAN NATIONALISMRev. William Barber II and the New Haven Declaration

Polls show that more than half of Republicans sympathize with Christian nationalism, and prominent GOP figures embrace the movement, which seeks to transform the United States into an explicitly Christian nation. But faith leaders from across the theological spectrum—including many devout Christians—believe that freedom of religion is best maintained through the separation of church and state.

Earlier this year, the Rev. William Barber II, a longtime pastor in the Disciples of Christ Church, NAACP leader, and cochair of the Poor People’s Campaign, joined leading preachers and academics in pushing back against Christian nationalism with the groundbreaking New Haven Declaration of Moral & Spiritual Issues in the 2024 Presidential Election. The statement asserted: “We know that a well-funded, coordinated political movement has co-opted our faith tradition and is exploiting so-called ‘traditional values’ to undermine democracy and divide people across this land. This distorted religious nationalism has persuaded many well-meaning Christians to focus on a narrow set of divisive cultural wedge issues while ignoring the real moral issues that are at the heart of our Scriptures and tradition.”

The declaration has been signed by more than 3,200 supporters, who will keep preaching the truth in 2025.  

ADVOCATE FOR OUR RIGHTSCecile Richards

In 2018, Cecile Richards stepped down from her 12-year tenure as president of Planned Parenthood and, with domestic workers organizer Ai-jen Poo and Black Lives Matter leader Alicia Garza, promptly cofounded Supermajority to channel the energy of women voters to push back against Trump’s agenda. But in 2022, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision eliminating the constitutional right to abortion drew Richards back into abortion activism. She started to gather the stories of women who nearly died—as well as some who did—because abortion access has been curtailed and launched the innovative multimedia project “Abortion in America” to share those stories. Richards brought that message to the Democratic National Convention, where she declared, “When women are free to make our own decisions about our lives and follow our dreams, we are unstoppable. But when Roe v. Wade was overturned, a generation of young people lost that freedom.” And in November, President Biden awarded Richards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to honor her leadership role in “some of our most important civil rights causes.”

Even as she wages a personal battle against glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, she’s been rallying activists since the election and telling them, “I believe with all my heart that ultimately, the right of every person to determine their own lives and futures will prevail.” When it does, we’ll all owe a huge debt to Cecile Richards. Joan Walsh  

TRANSPARTISAN THINK TANKThe Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Five years ago, Andrew Bacevich and Trita Parsi launched the Quincy Institute to counter the seemingly permanent consensus for war among Washington’s elites. Quincy still has a long way to go in that mission—but in only its fifth year, it has established itself as a respected, influential, and genuinely transpartisan think tank that brings together allies across political lines to challenge mindlessly militaristic foreign policy. The institute advances concrete ideas for shared global leadership, diplomacy, restraint, and commonsense alternatives to the failed policies of US supremacy. Its new wave of academics, veterans, and policy experts is trying to upend the groupthink on American exceptionalism, playing David to the establishment’s Goliath. As Trump begins a second term by staffing the State Department with hawks and proposing to meddle even more aggressively in military affairs, Quincy’s steady advocacy for a saner worldview will be more necessary than ever. Katrina vanden Heuvel  

IN MEMORIAMLabor Strategist and Writer Jane McAlevey

Like everyone else with more than a passing interest in American unions, I was inspired by Jane McAlevey’s activism and writing. My copy of Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell), a no-holds-barred account of her adventures in successfully reviving a moribund local of the Service Employees International Union—only to run aground on the SEIU leadership’s cozy relationship with corporate bosses—was beginning to physically fall apart when we began the ongoing conversation that would eventually lead to her hiring as The Nation’s strikes correspondent. McAlevey was a tireless, brave, and inspiring organizer whose expertise made her the perfect interpreter of this moment, when unions are finally fighting back after years in the doldrums. And her obsession with winning was contagious. McAlevey’s death in July, at age 59, has robbed us of her insights on labor’s ongoing resurgence. But if there’s a heaven, the bosses better look out. Rest in power, Jane. D.D. Guttenplan  

DOCUMENTARY FOR THE ERAUnion

Jeff Bezos may be more powerful than ever after The Washington Post—a newspaper the billionaire supposedly purchased in order to prevent democracy from dying “in darkness”—made the shocking decision not to endorse Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. But there are still bold Americans who, though they lack the wealth and power of the 1 percent, are willing to stand up to bullies and autocrats.

The filmmakers Stephen Maing and Brett Story document some of these brave activists and their efforts in Union, which recounts the struggle of the Amazon Labor Union to take on the empire that Bezos built on the backs of his employees—workers who have been used and abused in the dark satanic warehouses of America’s postindustrial age. This is essential viewing. Go to unionthefilm.com to learn more about how to watch their documentary. It’s brilliant.  

SONG FOR RAGING OUTMacklemore’s “Hind’s Hall”

At a point when campuses were cracking down on student protests in solidarity with Gaza, when Republican leaders in Congress were attacking university presidents who tolerated even modest dissent, and when too many media outlets were smearing students for objecting to what the International Court of Justice would determine was a “plausible” case of genocide, the Seattle rapper Macklemore released the year’s most powerful protest song. “Hind’s Hall” highlights the demands made by students at Columbia University and on many other campuses: that colleges and universities divest from firms with ties to the Israeli military. “What is threatening about divesting and wanting peace?” Macklemore asks. At least some people were listening: The song climbed high on music charts around the world, and Tom Morello, the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, wrote, “Honestly, Macklemore’s ‘Hind’s Hall’ is the most Rage Against the Machine song since Rage Against the Machine.”