It’s been quite the year for progressive values! From school board elections to voting rights and more, we’ve scored some big wins. In the fight for democracy and fundamental freedoms, it’s important to celebrate our victories – and focus on the challenges ahead as we plan ahead for the fights still to come in 2024.

Eighth Circuit Trump Judge David Stras has written an opinion that would significantly undermine one of the most important protections in the Voting Rights Act, arguing that only the federal government – not private parties – have the proper standing to sue for enforcement of Section 2 of the VRA. Hopefully, this will be a bridge too far even for the current right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. The November 2023 case is Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment and it demonstrates the dangerous lengths that far-right judges will go in order to further undermine our right to vote.

After voters in Louisiana elected Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry to be their new governor, many observers questioned what led to the lowest voter turnout for a gubernatorial election in 12 years. Predictably, questions of how this happened zeroed in on the issue of low Black voter turnout as a component of overall low turnout as if Black voters didn’t care enough to turn out in an election that had serious consequences for their lives and well-being. This was more than a little annoying to Black Louisianans. “After Jeff Landry’s low-turnout Louisiana win, Black voters refuse to take all the blame,” said one headline.

I have to agree with those voters. The factors contributing to low turnout are complex, but there’s no question that circumstances can make voting inaccessible or unattractive to Black voters.

Our team of journalists at Right Wing Watch reported in June 2022 that on the same day the Trump-enhanced right-wing Supreme Court majority overturned Roe v. Wade, a coalition of Christian nationalist, voter suppression, anti-LGBTQ-equality, Big Lie-promoting, and Trump-cheerleading groups had publicly launched a project that would “position the movement to take the reins of government” after a Republican victory in the 2024 presidential election.

Since then, the right-wing coalition has expanded, and reporting by national media outlets has fleshed out some frightening specifics of the “Project 2025” plan to conduct an ideological purge of the civil service and turn the entire executive branch into an enforcement arm of the MAGA movement—and if former President Donald Trump is elected, a weapon for personal retribution against his enemies.

If there was any doubt, it’s now clear: Americans really, really care about their freedom to make their own reproductive decisions. They’re also really good at seeing through smoke-and-mirrors attempts to say an abortion ban is not really an abortion ban. The same goes for trying to smear a candidate by ginning up hostility to trans kids. And people don’t want far-right censors sitting on their school boards, either.

The Nov. 7 election that dealt a stunning blow to the MAGA world in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and other states was also an overwhelming reaffirmation of American values. It showed, without a doubt, Americans’ strong preference for freedom and opportunity over repression and authoritarianism.

So, is it time for Democrats to relax? Not at all. In fact, the best posture for Democrats to adopt right now could be called “constructive panic.” Here’s why.