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As Always, It’s Up to Us: Questions for a Second Trump Presidency
As a scholar of social movements in the United States, I look to what the activists of the past show us: Justice doesn’t come from the White House. It comes from the people.
Nov 06, 2024
Former U.S. President Donald Trump won a second term. Handily. I see, already, the overwhelming dread flooding my social media. After all, Americans elected a man who has bragged about grabbing women by the pussy, who has bred fear and hatred toward Central American migrants, who has pledged to undo any climate protections he can get his grubby little orange hands on, who oversaw the eradication of abortion rights, who has praised white supremacist, antisemitic marchers as “very fine people,” and who fostered an insurrection. Again.
Knowing this, what do we do next?
As a scholar of social movements in the United States, I look to what the activists of the past show us: Justice doesn’t come from the White House. It comes from us.
In 1977, dozens of disabled activists occupied a federal building in San Francisco, demanding that the Carter administration enforce Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 was the first piece of federal legislation that prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities, yet four years after its passage, the law just sat on the books with no regulation to power it. Disabled protestors camped out for 26 days, supported by a coalition of labor, queer, and Black groups—most importantly, the Black Panther Party, who fed the protestors warm food every single day. Eventually, the administration relented, vowing to regulate Section 504. If you know a child who has benefited from a 504 plan in school, that wasn’t because of the goodness of the government’s heart but because of the sweat, the joy, and the organizing of a group of disabled activists and their allies in the Bay Area.
There are countless examples before and after 1977 of tireless activists creating the world they want to live in despite the apathy of their government. And we can continue to follow their roadmap today by building the worlds we want to live in, we want to grow families in, without the permission of the electorate.
Here are some questions to guide us.
The Trump campaign mobilized its base by villainizing some of the most vulnerable youth, transgender, and non-binary kids, as symbols of a decaying world order. Knowing that, how are we going to uplift gender-non-conforming kids in our communities? Who are we going to elect to school board that will affirm trans kids’ dignity and protect their privacy? How are we going to open our homes to queer and trans youth who are rejected from their families? How are we going to build spaces for kids to explore their gender with love and curiosity?
The reality is, these are the same questions we should have been asking ourselves even if Kamala Harris had won the presidency.
The president-elect has been recorded bragging about touching women’s genitals without their consent, was found liable for sexual assault, and ushered in the end of Roe v Wade. Knowing that, how are we going to raise children with confidence in their bodily autonomy—and respect for others? How are we going to create reporting structures in our workplaces and schools that believe and support survivors? How can we move toward restorative justice practices that prioritize the healing of survivors and communities and prevent further harm? How are we going to mobilize to ensure every person has access to safe abortion care, no matter what state they live in, whenever it is needed?
The Trump campaign promised mass deportations, characterized immigrants as criminals, and admitted to spreading false claims about immigrants eating pets. Knowing this, how we do build communities that welcome immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers? How do we amplify stories that illustrate the humanity of brown and Black immigrants? How do we advocate local governments for policies that protect our neighbors from deportations and criminalization? How do we teach our children to welcome new cultures and traditions rather than fear the unknown?
The Trump campaign has vowed to undo the minimal environmental protections we had. Knowing that, how are we going to ensure that our cities don’t dump environmental disasters on the doorsteps of our working class, Black, and brown neighborhoods? How are we going to push state governments to invest in clean energy, clean water, and clean air? How are we going to support Indigenous-led movements to return the land to its original stewards and protectors? How are we going to re-organize our daily lives to privilege sustainability over convenience and thus divest from corporate solutions that pollute our world?
The Trump campaign has used vulgar, racist, sexist, and just plain rude language to describe its opponents. How do we build communities grounded in love and kindness? How do we model such love and kindness to our children? How do we listen to marginalized communities and follow their lead on what language to use when organizing with them? How do we organize ourselves to protect the most targeted as beloved kin? How do we create opportunities for collective joy and creativity and friendship?
As individuals, we cannot tackle every question listed above, and in my post-election haze, I know I have left out critical issues. (How do we protect our children from gun violence? How do we stop the genocides in Gaza and Sudan and emerging genocidal threats across the globe? How do we abolish systems that criminalize Blackness, disability, and poverty?) But if you’re new to organizing and activism, you can find a group of people who are already grappling with the questions that resonate for you and can figure out how to amplify and support their work. And if you have been already doing this work for years, I thank you.
The reality is, these are the same questions we should have been asking ourselves even if Kamala Harris had won the presidency. Presidential candidates will never be our saviors. As always, it is up to us to forge the path to liberation, even in times of the deepest despair, grief, and shock. Especially in these times.
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'Today, It's All on the Line': Progressives Mobilize Nationwide to Defeat Trump
"The right to an abortion is on the ballot. Healthcare is on the ballot. Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. "Our very democracy is on the ballot. Your vote doesn't just affect who becomes president—it affects every aspect of our lives."
Nov 05, 2024
Progressive activists, labor unions, and lawmakers who have organized for months against Republican nominee Donald Trump emphasized the enormous stakes of Tuesday's election for abortion rights, healthcare, the future of Gaza, the climate, and democracy itself as Americans cast their ballots in what's likely to be one of the highest-turnout elections in modern U.S. history.
"Today, it's all on the line," Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said Tuesday morning, urging a vote for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. "We can make history and elect a president committed to making our lives easier and protecting our freedom and humanity. So vote for yourself, for your neighbor, and for our democracy."
"Vote for Kamala Harris like lives depend on it," Pressley added, "because they do."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has also endorsed Harris, similarly emphasized the election's potentially seismic impacts on major aspects of U.S. society, from reproductive freedom to the future of Social Security.
"The right to an abortion is on the ballot," Warren wrote on social media. "Healthcare is on the ballot. Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot. Our very democracy is on the ballot. Your vote doesn't just affect who becomes president—it affects every aspect of our lives. Please vote accordingly."
"All our work in this election has come down to one question, 'Which side are you on?'"
In the weeks leading up to Election Day, progressive organizations and labor unions such as the United Auto Workers and AFL-CIO phone-banked and knocked doors across the country in an effort to defeat Trump, a former president who has threatened to prosecute his political opponents, gut regulations for the benefit of planet-destroying fossil fuel companies, give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu free rein in the Middle East, allow states to implement the most draconian abortion bans, and deliver another round of tax cuts to the rich and large corporations.
The UAW said Tuesday that its members knocked on 250,000 doors in Michigan alone during the final stretch of the 2024 campaign in an effort to defeat the Republican nominee.
"When members hear directly from other members about what’s at stake, we break through and change minds," said UAW president Shawn Fain. "By engaging our members and highlighting the issues that matter—their paychecks, their families, and their futures—our union has been critical to defeating Trump and making sure working-class issues are at the forefront of this election."
"All our work in this election has come down to one question, 'Which side are you on?'" Fain added. "In this election, we made sure our members had the information they needed to cast their vote based on each candidate’s own words and action. For our union, the choice is clear: Harris stands with us and Trump is a scab."
Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party (WFP), wrote in a memo released on the eve of Election Day that his group's members knocked on 1.6 million voters' doors across Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, and other battleground states where Harris and Trump are polling neck-and-neck.
"Working people in this nation cannot afford another Trump presidency," Mitchell wrote, alluding to the Republican nominee's anti-worker policy record. "That's why the WFP ran the biggest national campaign we've ever built to defeat Trump and elect Harris, and we left everything on the field."
Abbas Alawieh, co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement, said in an appearance on MSNBC Tuesday that he personally decided to vote for Harris despite his group's decision not to endorse her, pointing to the grave threat Trump poses to Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities.
A message from @AZAlawieh on Election Day. pic.twitter.com/enoJNZ8oCv
— Uncommitted National Movement 🌺 (@uncommittedmvmt) November 5, 2024
"He has never espoused a pro-peace policy," Alawieh said of Trump during Tuesday's interview. "He has been a purveyor of militarized violence against our communities."
"We're under no illusion that there's a president who's going to come in and wave a magic wand and change the policy," added Alawieh, referring to U.S. military support for Israel. "I'm looking at what are the conditions that are going to exist for our anti-war movement after this. Donald Trump intends on making it a lot harder for us to advocate for Palestinian human rights and against war."
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We Only Have One Chance to Get This Right
If we lose our democracy in this election, we are unlikely to get it back, or at least to get it back anytime soon.
Oct 25, 2024
Has there ever before been a wannabe tyrant as open about his intentions as Donald Trump? This transparency—absent in everything else in his politics and his life—is nothing short of astonishing. This is a man who lies every time he opens his mouth. Yet, as to this one, immeasurably important, subject he’s been remarkably frank, openly embracing one characteristic of an authoritarian after another. He even expressly announced his desire to be a dictator, if only for one day.
One cannot help but wonder if this openness is because the drive to be an autocrat is one of the few things to which he has ever been deeply committed.
He makes no effort to hide his distaste for the rule of law, bragging publicly about plans to turn the Justice Department into his personal avenger, prosecuting and jailing his political opponents. These will be prosecutions not intended to prevent or punish crime, but as a means of attacking those with the nerve to oppose him.
The same is true of his lust for political violence, another classic authoritarian trait. He has repeatedly, and again openly, encouraged his followers to engage in political violence—famously telling the crowd at one of his rallies in 2016 to “knock the crap” out of a heckler. And, of course, there is the granddaddy of all political violence—sending a fired-up crowd to the capital on January 6, 2021, with orders to “fight like hell.”
He is a man who regularly celebrates dictators. The only foreign leaders he seems to be comfortable with are totalitarians, people like Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, and, of course, his favorite squeeze (“We fell in love”) Kim Jong Un.
Yet despite all this, some progressives still intend to either stay home or cast a protest vote for a minor-party candidate. And in a close election like this, if enough people in the wrong states do stay at home or vote for a third-party candidate, Trump could win because of it. And if that’s the choice you make, which is certainly your right, all I can say is enjoy casting your protest vote, savor the experience, because if Trump wins it is likely to be the last act of protest you will ever participate in where you won’t be putting your life on the line or risking a long prison sentence.
The ugly truth is that if Trump becomes president, especially if he has a Republican Congress to work with, he will have all the power he needs to rig the game such that he, or his chosen successor, will be all but guaranteed to win future elections. That is precisely how Orban ended meaningful democracy in Hungary.
Trump has been up front on this subject as well. If people protest his actions, he intends to call out the national guard, or even the military, to shut them up. To shut you up. Although it is hard to see why he would bother with the military. Trump already has no shortage of thugs, his own personal Brownshirts, who would be more than happy to beat the life out of a few liberals. After all, if they get arrested he can just pardon them in the same way he is promising to pardon the January 6 rioters.
Trump has studied at the feet of authoritarian masters—often taking his lead from the likes of Orban, Putin, and Kim Jong Un. At the same time, hundreds of Americans in right-wing think tanks and other far-right institutions are working hard, preparing to move quickly when Trump takes office. Don’t underestimate their goals. They are fighting for nothing less than revolutionary change, including election fixes that will guarantee that once in power they will remain in power indefinitely.
In most elections there are several weighty issues at the center of the campaign. But this time there is really only one issue—will the United States remain a liberal democracy. In saying this, I am in no way suggesting that other issues, such as a woman’s right to control her own body, are not critically important. They are. What I am suggesting, however, is that in this election all of those other issues of concern to progressives are wrapped up inside this one issue. If Trump wins, he will saturate executive departments, including the Justice Department, the FBI, the military leadership, the CIA, and many regulatory agencies with far-right fanatics—not to mention continuing what he started in his first term in packing the courts with even more far-right fanatics.
What chance will abortion rights, and other progressive causes, have in the United States then?
I understand that for some people casting a vote for someone they regard as “the lesser of two evils” will be personally offensive. I don’t feel that way in this election, but if you are one of those people, I understand where you are coming from. But do me a favor and make a list of all the things you love in this country that depend on federal action.
Please think twice before assuming that people are exaggerating the danger, or that we can get by and then vote the far right out of power in later elections.
If you try, you will have no problem coming up with a long list. Perhaps your list will include preservation of national parks and wilderness areas. Or maybe the protection of endangered species. Public education? Union rights? Fighting climate change? Fighting other forms of pollution? Protecting consumers from fraud and dangerous products? Then once you’ve made your list, take a moment to think about what will become of those things in a Donald Trump America.
Take that list with you when you go to vote and look at it one last time before voting, then hold your nose and mark your ballot for Kamala Harris.
One last point: Please think twice before assuming that people are exaggerating the danger, or that we can get by and then vote the far right out of power in later elections. The ugly truth is that if Trump becomes president, especially if he has a Republican Congress to work with, he will have all the power he needs to rig the game such that he, or his chosen successor, will be all but guaranteed to win future elections. That is precisely how Orban ended meaningful democracy in Hungary: after gaining power through elections, he used that power to change election rules, weaken the courts, and damage his opponents in other ways. Trump supporters have already started paving the way for such an assault in the 2025 Plan.
What this means is that if we lose our democracy in this election, we are unlikely to get it back, or at least to get it back anytime soon. As described in Anne Applebaum’s book, Autocracy, Inc, once an authoritarian gains power though elective office, it becomes remarkably easy for that autocrat to extend that power.
In other words, we only have one chance to get this right.
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