It is an understatement to say that the US midterm election results were a thumping rout for the Republican party.Republicans not only lost control of both houses, but they lost even in deep “red” states. There was a 13 percentage point swing away from them. This hasn’t happened in the last half a century – since the Watergate days. Compared to 2024, every Congress district pivoted away from the Republicans (even if they won the district). In a number of states, Republicans lost both governorship and control of both houses of the legislature. Billions of dollars, including half a billion from Elon Musk, could not stem the rot for the Republicans.President Trump told the voters to vote as if he were on the ballot. And what a stinging slap he got in return.A number of factors contributed to this reversal. The Iran war and its impact on gas prices, demise of the Tariff gambit, government jobs cuts by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), austerity measures (cutbacks in health, housing, education) at a time when people are hurting, mushrooming of AI data centers in rural America, sickening and brutal ICE enforcements, gerrymandering and attack on voting rights (with often a friendly nod from the Supreme Court), attacks on activists and workers (President Trump openly calling for firing of striking workers) – all of them set the stage. The fact that, far from “draining the swamp”, Trump has become its quintessential opposite, plays its part too.AffordabilityBut if there’s one issue that trumped it all, it was affordability – a word popularised by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign. Even the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, referred to it several times in his speech on the election night. Startling as it may be to hear such taboo words from an establishment Democrat, it’s an indication just how much the political landscape has shifted.There is something viscerally grotesque about a working family having to choose between food and healthcare, while billionaires make super-profits and are being given lucrative contracts, subsidies, and tax breaks. But, more than the gaping inequality, it is the astronomical living costs amidst of stagnant wages and declining social resources that fueled the midterm “political earthquake”.In the one of the richest countries in the world, millions of working families struggle to put food on the table and are unable to afford the basic necessities. Housing, education, healthcare, child-care, groceries, food, gas – everything has become unaffordable. Some 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, while some 100 million Americans reel under the weight of medical debts.This didn’t happen overnight. As neoliberalism ensconced itself for the last several decades, immiseration and political marginalisation of people became routine. But these urgent economic and political questions only simmered on the background, overshadowed by the hubris of social justice, diversity, inclusivity and cultural narratives.Such a situation allowed the right wing to swoop in and demagogically hijack the frustrations of people. Indeed, Trump’s 2024 comeback was not merely driven by the politics of hate or a national eruption of xenophobia or bigotry, it was, in large measure, a rejection of a political establishment that appreciated little and cared even less for the vulnerability of the working people.This mid-term election also threw up many historic firsts – a Native American female governor, a female Black governor, a Muslim Senator, an openly gay Senator, several Black governors. As heartening as this race, ethnicity, gender and sexual diversity is, the fact is that none of them ran on an identity ticket. Instead, they highlighted the need for economic justice and for solving bread and butter problems. For instance, Gina Hinajosa, a Latino woman who won the governor’s post in a place like Texas, did not bring up the issue of her heritage till a good 20 minutes into her victory speech, focusing instead on inflation, high gas prices, and affordability.In an interview, she was blunt: “We’re not doing the culture wars … we are talking about how we’re gonna deliver for Texans, how we’re gonna make life easier for working families”.Even if laced with a dose of populism, the class question is firmly back on the front burner!Economic justiceThere’s a lesson in this for not just upcoming House and Senate politicians, but for the entire world. Social justice turns into its opposite, unless anchored by economic justice. How can there be inclusion, when the majority is marginalised from the polity? No minorities can rise if the majority is sinking.One of the few voices that strenuously talked about economic insecurity was that of Senator Bernie Sanders. But that voice was repeatedly silenced by his own party bosses – the establishment Democrats, the cheerleaders of neoliberalism. After the 2024 elections, these Democrats went into hiding.As the Democratic strategist James Carville famously put it, the strategy was: Democrats should “roll over and play dead and allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us.”Nancy Pelosi spoke in a similar vein: “Let him (Trump) stew in his own juice”. In other words, do nothing while people suffer – the only thing that matters is an electoral power-grab. One wonders why the political system has failed us!With the official electoral opposition choosing the comfort of paralysis in the face of autocratic, arbitrary and abominable actions of the president, the battle soon moved to the streets.Mamdani, now the Mayor of New York, engaged with the working people in the city, listening to them at bus stops and street corners. Sanders embarked on “fighting oligarchy” tours across the length and breadth of America, including Republican strongholds. His rallies drew massive crowds. In the wake of DOGE cutbacks, Republican leaders were chased out of town-halls even in Republican strongholds. In city after city, citizenry put up spirited and stubborn resistance to ICE deployments.Pro-Palestine Protests against Israeli genocide and “No Kings” rallies energised the populace. The October 2026 “no kings rally” drew an astounding 9 million people nationwide on the streets. The Democratic Socialists of America went from strength to strength, despite concerted “red baiting” efforts. Workers and myriads of grassroot organising mounted a sustained challenge to President Trump.So, this political “seismic shift” did not originate from the power-hubs of liberal democracy – i.e. the opposition inside the House and Senate, or the Supreme Court – it came from outside it. It came from the collective actions of the activists and the street actions from below. It is these acts of resistance that tore open Trump’s aura of invincibility. In this sense, the phrase “blue wave” is quite a misnomer. People did not embrace the Democrats – they rejected the status quo.Today, liberal democracy and neoliberalism together have ensured that economic and political power is tightly concentrated in a few hands, and a vast majority of people is sidelined. The polity and the economy work only for the benefit of the corporates and the billionaires, while deprivation and misery have become a norm for the rest. Economic precariousness go hand in hand with super-profits of the billionaires.What’s next?The road to perdition cannot be reversed without recognising that the economic well-being and a dignified life (i.e. decent jobs, social benefits, and affordable basic necessities – housing, food, gas, healthcare, childcare, education etc.) are political rights. And these rights will remain a dead-letter without ending the super-profit regime, and without a strict restraint on the financial and political powers of the corporate behemoths and billionaires. Without foregrounding the battle for economic justice, none of the social or cultural problems can be solved either, nor the politics of hate be reversed. James Talarico, the new senator from Texas, captured the sentiment pointedly, when in his victory speech, he said: “the fight is not between left and right, but between top and bottom.”Now that the Democrats have firm control of both Senate and House, the question is: what’s next? In a recent AP poll, 80% of the respondents either wanted a complete upheaval or a substantial change in how the country is run. Yet, shenanigans are already afoot to diffuse the mandate. Establishment Democrats are already claiming a mandate for themselves and plotting a rush to the centre. This is but an excuse for stalling economic justice measures that people have so vociferously spoken for.The fight outside the citadels of power was the motor of change in the mid-term elections. That fight is far from over just because a cycle of elections has ended. Republicans may have been temporarily dethroned, but not the neoliberals or the billionaires. Going ahead, it is the battles outside the corridors of power that will determine if there’s a demise of the neoliberal billionaire regime or it becomes yet another muddle from the middle.Bedabrata Pain is a National Award winning film director, an ex-NASA scientist, and the leading member of the team that invented Digital Camera Technologies