Centrism did not win the Democratic party the election

The blue wave, while a rebuke of Trump's policies, was also a referendum on the party's status quo

On election night I stood in a crowd at Harlem Tavern, a restaurant in New York City, at the electoral party for Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member and congresswoman-elect from New York's 13th congressional district. The crowd cheered as what came to be called the blunami" rolled in: Iowa blue, Kansas blue, Talarico in Texas, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, House, Senate, gubernatorial races overwhelmingly going for the Democratic party.

The victories were a clear rebuke of Trump's politics, but also a referendum on the Democratic party's own centrism that is complicit in the violence of masked men hunting immigrants, the funding of a genocide and the denial of healthcare to citizens of the world's wealthiest country.

Heba Gowayed is an associate professor of sociology at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center and author of the book Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential.