Now What?

As of tonight, November 3, Democrats are on course to retake the House, and Senate in a sweeping blue wave. If if happens, Democrats had better get busy. And they had better not confuse they win for popular support for all things liberal. It isn’t. It’s a repudiation of Republican failure, and an history opportunity on the heels of an historic disaster of a presidency.

Here is a twelve-point plan for halting the carnage, stabilizing the economy, restoring the institutions of democracy.

1. Immediately reassert congressional control over the executive branch.

Launch coordinated oversight of executive orders, spending, immigration enforcement, military operations, federal contracting, and the independence of law enforcement. Issue subpoenas, require sworn testimony, and establish independent investigative staff. Use appropriations and authorization bills to impose enforceable limits on executive action, while recognizing that funding legislation remains subject to vetoes and negotiations.

2. Establish accountability for corruption and abuses of power.

Investigate credible allegations of self-dealing, improper foreign influence, obstruction, politicized prosecutions, and misuse of government resources. Preserve documents and refer evidence of crimes to appropriate independent prosecutors. Strengthen whistleblower protections. Impeachment should remain available for demonstrable serious misconduct, but investigations must distinguish criminal wrongdoing from policy disagreements and observe due process.

3. End partisan congressional gerrymandering nationwide.

Require independent congressional redistricting commissions, transparent mapping criteria, public access to mapping data, and enforceable limits on partisan bias. Use measures such as partisan symmetry and efficiency gaps as diagnostic tools, not arbitrary single-number tests. Prohibit discriminatory maps and provide expedited judicial review. Crucially, apply the same rules to Democratic and Republican states. The goal should be representative elections, not a new Democratic gerrymandering advantage.

4. Restore and modernize the Voting Rights Act.

Establish a modern preclearance system for jurisdictions with documented voting-rights violations. Protect against racial vote dilution, discriminatory polling-place closures, and unjustified voter-roll purges. Guarantee accessible registration, reasonable early voting opportunities, and reliable absentee-ballot procedures, with appropriate safeguards against fraud.

5. Reform the Senate filibuster.

A bare Senate majority ordinarily cannot pass most contested legislation under existing cloture rules. Democrats would need to change those rules, potentially eliminating the legislative filibuster or creating a narrowly defined exception for voting rights and democratic reforms.

This is a consequential choice: any rule change could also empower future Republican majorities. It should be justified as a durable institutional reform, not simply a temporary partisan convenience.

6. Expand political representation.

Offer Washington, D.C., a constitutionally defensible route to statehood, subject to resolving the federal-district issue. Provide Puerto Rico a binding, federally recognized process for determining its status, including statehood if its voters choose it.

Consider enlarging the House beyond its 435-seat statutory limit, which has remained fixed for more than a century despite enormous population growth. Expansion would reduce disparities in representation and Electoral College apportionment, though it would not eliminate the Senate’s structural imbalance.

7. Reform Supreme Court ethics and judicial accountability.

Establish binding judicial ethics rules, enforceable disclosure and recusal requirements, and an independent process for investigating misconduct. Explore prospective, regularly scheduled Supreme Court appointments and fixed terms, while acknowledging the constitutional disputes surrounding statutory term limits. Court expansion is legally possible by statute but politically explosive. It should be evaluated separately from ordinary ethics reform, not treated as an automatic response to unfavorable decisions.

8. Reduce the power of concentrated political money.

Require timely disclosure of major political spending and its beneficial funders. Strengthen coordination restrictions and enforcement, create small-donor public financing options, and pursue a constitutional amendment if necessary to permit broader limits on campaign expenditures.

A statutory ban on all independent corporate spending would conflict with existing Supreme Court precedent and could not simply be enacted without constitutional challenges.

Which brings us to Citizens United, which is clearly corrosive to the republic, but is a Supreme Court ruling, not a law Congress can simply repeal. So, pass laws that neutralize it, stack the court in an effort to overturn it, and put forward a common sense constitutional amendment to override it.

9. Protect elections against executive interference.

Clarify that presidents cannot unilaterally alter federal election dates, cancel elections, or override lawful state certification. Strengthen protections for election workers, establish transparent election-audit standards, secure federal election infrastructure, and ensure rapid judicial remedies against unlawful interference. Preserve the decentralized administration of elections while enforcing national constitutional rights.

10. Rebuild professional, independent government.

Protect merit-based civil service from partisan purges, strengthen inspectors general, restore scientific integrity protections, and establish clear legal limits on politically motivated personnel changes. Rebuild the independence and capacity of statistical agencies, public-health institutions, regulatory agencies, and federal law enforcement. Oversight should focus on documented institutional damage and measurable restoration, rather than automatically reversing every administrative change.

11. Reestablish checks on presidential emergency and war powers.

Reform the National Emergencies Act to require affirmative congressional approval for extended emergencies. Strengthen reporting and enforcement of the War Powers Resolution, review unauthorized military operations, and narrow opportunities to redirect appropriated funds without congressional consent.

Create faster judicial review procedures where constitutionally permissible.

12. Establish a public, measurable democratic restoration agenda.

Publish a legislative program with deadlines, draft bills, recorded votes, and independent progress measures. Prioritize reforms that voters across party lines can assess: fair districting, election security, anticorruption, government competence, and equal voting rights.

Make reforms durable by building public support and applying standards consistently, including when doing so disadvantages Democrats.

We shall see if they do the job or throw it away infighting and focusing on fluff.