Last night's US election results show that President Trump's agenda isn't working

One year on from that miserable defeat, voters from all across the country are pulling up their britches and showing us exactly what needs to be done

America has always been a land riddled with deep, ideological divisions. But no matter where you stand on the political spectrum, we can all agree on one thing: Donald Trump’s unbelievable rise to power was a huge wake-up call for western democracy.

The guy's unforgivingly isolationist, regressive and nationalistic agenda exposed a previously undiscovered and marginalised America – and the people living in that America were mad. They wanted to pull the rug right out from under Washington and shake up the American system with a total political outsider. They craved a bold leader willing to caricaturise conservative values with hollow promises of cultural regression.

The result? A complete and utter nightmare.

Donald Trump’s coronation was embossed with promises to liberalise gun ownership, steal rights away from the LGBTQ+ community, ban Muslims from setting foot on US soil and refuse women the right to bodily autonomy.

Donald Trump’s hateful campaign platform unleashed the floodgates for right-wing extremists – validating his divisive rhetoric and enabling him to skate right past Hillary Clinton and a fragmented left.

That victory left the entire globe in shock. Nobody seemed to have realised there were this many backwards folks in America – and nobody thought we as a people had actually strayed so far. Liberalism appeared to have fallen flat on its face, and a whole lot of us were left wondering what the hell to do about it.

One year on from that miserable defeat, voters from all across the country are pulling up their britches and showing us exactly what needs to be done.

After last year’s red wave, pundits didn’t see it coming. But last night, the Democrats totally cleaned house in a series of gubernatorial, state and local elections. The party chalked up unlikely wins in mayoral races in North Carolina and Florida, Maine waved its middle finger at the GOP by expanding Medicaid under Obamacare and New Jersey flipped to become a new liberal stronghold.

It was a complete and utter rejection of toxic Trumpism and 2016’s supposed cultural shift – and in Virginia, it got really up-close and personal.

The President’s war on diversity was turned on its head in Virginia’s 13^th District, where the GOP stooge responsible for writing the state’s bigoted transgender bathroom bill was removed from office by transgender woman Danica Roem. She’s now the first openly transgender state lawmaker in the United States. At the local level, heads turned in cities like Durham – where human rights attorney and black lesbian Vernetta Alston was elected a new city councillor.

The Republican Party’s pig-headed stance on guns took a hit in Virginia’s 12^th District, where a former news anchor whose girlfriend was fatally shot turned the tables on a guy the NRA handed a shiny “A” rating. Planned Parenthood helped Democrats stomp on Republican Jill Vogel, who as a state senator had been pushing for women to undergo vaginal ultrasounds before they were allowed to get an abortion – while Trump wannabe Ed Gillespie was stamped out in the race for governor by Democrat Ralph Northam.

This is the biggest Democratic pick-up Virginia has seen in over a century. And even easy wins like the re-election of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio were ones to write home about. His victory on Tuesday marks the first time a leftie mayor has won re-election in the city since 1985. All in all, it’s looking like about 16 million more Americans will now be living in states where Democrats are in charge.

Sure, it’s not quite the revolution we’re all so desperately craving. Donald Trump is still twiddling his thumbs in the Oval Office, the GOP’s never-ending supply of spineless yes-men are wasting time in Congress and the hatred and division that were unleashed the wake of last year’s presidential election are still poisoning our communities on a daily basis.

But you know what? This is a start.

If last night’s Democratic romp demonstrated anything, it’s that progress can’t so easily be demolished. It’s shown that liberal values can’t be extinguished. And above all else, it’s proven that voters from all walks of life aren’t going to put up with Donald Trump and his hateful, dystopian vision for America anymore.

The stage has been set for next year’s crucial midterm elections – and if we continue to build on this fresh surge of hope and momentum, it could turn out to be one hell of a ride.