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trump resistance
We Know That Wannabe Dictator Trump Can Win in 2024—So What Is to Be Done?
With only 11 months to go, this feels like the political crisis of our lifetimes. Where is the resistance we need?
Dec 06, 2023
I finally put up my Christmas lights on Saturday, in a T-shirt with no jacket on a warm December afternoon — a fitting finale to Earth’s hottest year on record. Meanwhile, the world’s life-or-death climate summit is presided over by an oil dictator who insists there is “no science” to support phasing out fossil fuels. For those who wonder if humankind is taking global warming seriously, the joke of holding COP28 in the United Arab Emirates is your answer.
Nearly seven years later, it’s easy to forget how remarkablethe first Women’s March that occurred on Jan. 21, 2017, truly was. The most incredible thing was the size of the protest that occurred on the first full day of Donald Trump’s presidency. It’s believed that at least 470,000 people attended the main event in Washington, D.C., but satellite protests across the United States and globally drew an estimated 5 million, likely the largest one-day event in American history.
That success resonated for the next four years, as thousands went back to their hometowns and organized political groups that loosely were hailed as “the Trump resistance” — not only staging local protest events but ultimately knocking on doors and sending out postcards by the millions as Democrats reclaimed the House in 2018 and the White House and Senate in 2020.
But there’s also something else worth remembering about that initial Woman’s March and the early days of those resisters. Their movement was born in the early morning darkness and frustration of Nov. 9, 2016, amid the shock realization that a dangerous demagogue had somehow been elected the 45th president of the United States. The rage that flowered on a chilly January day in a field of pink “(p-word) hats” was in part regret that more had not been done to stop Trump before the election.
Today, Trump is back, and no one calls him a demagogue anymore — because that’s too polite. The 47th presidency he envisions is tyrannical, even dictatorial — siccing zealous MAGA prosecutors on his political enemies and the media, pardoning 2021′s insurrectionists, mass detention camps for deporting migrants, and calling out troops to put down protests, perhaps as early as his Inauguration Day. And yet he is all but guaranteed the GOP nomination, and an even-money bet against President Joe Biden next fall. Even a normally cautious mainstream media is starting to get it.
“Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First,” blared Monday’s headline across the New York Times homepage, describing how Team Trump has learned from the failures of its leader’s more outlandish ideas in 2017-21. A super-long Washington Post essay from neocon scholar Robert Kagan — “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.” — was that paper’s most-read article. Not to be outdone, The Atlantic dropped a special issue with 24 separate stories about the dangers of a Trump 47.
It’s great journalism, but will it make any more difference in 2024 than the supposedly fatalAccess Hollywood tape did in 2016? What about the millions of casual voters who don’t know The Atlantic from Popular Mechanics, who’ve convinced themselves that America was better during Trump’s somewhat constrained first term than under Biden in a moment of global chaos?
Even more to the point: Where is “the Trump resistance,” now that we know how truly dangerous the man is — and that he can win again?
Few will argue that some groups have faded and some disappeared after the Democrats’ 2020 victories. Here in Philadelphia, for example, Tuesdays with Toomey is gone, its mission of flipping a Pennsylvania Senate seat accomplished. The American University sociologist Dana Fisher — author of 2019′s American Resistance: From the Women’s March to the Blue Wave— told me “I have been tracking many of the groups and some are shells of what they were” — such as the Women’s March organization — “and others are limping along trying to keep funding.”
But some groups are still going strong, three years after Trump left the White House. Vicki Miller, the group leader of Indivisible Philadelphia, told me her members still chat regularly on Zoom. Although there is the occasional protest — including a boisterous street-corner condemnation on the Jan. 6 insurrection anniversary — the focus is heavily on voter turnout, including postcards and phone banking around last month’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court race won by Democrats, as well as lobbying the state’s U.S. senators. Miller said members still sign up for Door 35, a pledge to knock on at least 35 neighbors’ doors to woo undecided voters.
“It’s sad,” Miller said of those early polls showing Trump tied or narrowly ahead, but she was quick to add, “it doesn’t change what we are doing, which is working our tails off to get Joe Biden and Senator [Bob] Casey elected.” She also believes talking to voters about the things that affect them personally, like reproductive rights or, if done the right way, the economy, is most important — more so than hyping the Trumpian threat to democracy.
Maybe. But with only 11 months to go, this feels like the political crisis of our lifetimes, and I can’t stop wondering if there is more to be done before Election Day. Voter turnout is indeed the most critical, but should there be protests or maybe teach-ins to raise awareness for that true sliver of undecideds? Should there be boycotts of companies whose CEOs support Trump (also known as the Yuengling spit-take)?
As I write this on Monday night, “dictator” is a trending topic on X/Twitter. It could be trending nightly if the too-silent majority of Americans who believe in democracy don’t take a more forceful stand. The moment for resisting Trump is right now, not waiting until Jan. 21, 2025.
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Midterm Voters Decisively Rejected Election Deniers
Is a durable majority for safe and secure elections emerging?
Nov 16, 2022
The 2022 election is almost over, about one week after the last ballots were cast. It was a surprising and in many ways inspiring result. Despite inflation, fears of crime, and a toxic political atmosphere, voters took the issue of the health of our democracy seriously. Massive efforts by voting rights groups, election officials of both parties, and law enforcement made a big and visible difference. A few key trends will help shape politics going forward.
Rarely does the public speak so clearly on such a precise issue: voters care enough about democracy to reject those who would undermine it.
First, the election was smooth, fair, and calm. Why? Where was the wave of disruption long promised and feared? One notable answer: election officials were prepared. They were trained in de-escalation. Law enforcement at all levels--state and local police, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security--made clear that attacks on the process would not be tolerated (that, too, is new).
Second, the voters decisively rejected election deniers in their bid to take control of election administration. In six key battleground states--Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania--conspiracy theorists ran for offices that would set the terms of the 2024 elections. All were defeated (in Georgia, in the spring primary).
Election denial candidates' losses weren't for lack of resources. A group of megadonors spent tens of millions of dollars to support them, according to Brennan Center research. Nor was it for inconsistency of message. Nearly one in three Facebook posts and one in five tweets from candidates for secretary of state peddled false election narratives, according to the Midterm Monitor, a collaboration by the Brennan Center and the Alliance for Securing Democracy.
These candidates often ran behind others on their same ticket. Thousands of voters in Nevada supported the Republican Senate candidate and the new governor, for example, but voted to reject the secretary of state candidate who said if he and others won, they would "fix" the 2024 election for Donald Trump. Voters who likely had never thought of the topic three years ago chose their candidates with eyes wide open.
To be clear, the fever has not broken entirely. Dozens of legislative and congressional candidates who voiced lies about the 2020 election were elected. At one level, support for election deniers was still shockingly high. Much of that may be attributable to partisanship, though. Rarely does the public speak so clearly on such a precise issue: voters care enough about democracy to reject those who would undermine it.
A third and less widely covered trend was seen in states, too. Voters backed ballot measures to strengthen democracy while generally rejecting those that would restrict access. Connecticut finally adopted early voting. Michigan expanded early and absentee voting while improving identification requirements. Nevadans backed ranked-choice voting and a "top five" finisher model that would give voters more candidates to choose from in a general election, though that plan will require another vote to become law. Voters in Arizona by more than 70 percent backed curbs on "dark money" while likely rejecting a measure to impose harsher voter ID rules. Of note, the upcoming Supreme Court case on the "independent state legislature theory" could upend these and other democracy-strengthening moves.
While turnout was high in the 2022 midterms, this upswing doesn't close the racial turnout gap, as my colleague Kevin Morris reports. According to preliminary data, early in-person and mail voting turnout was higher for white than nonwhite voters in each of the 28 states for which we already have solid individual-level voting data. The gap varied in size, but it was enormous in certain areas. In Texas, about 40 percent of white voters, but only 20 percent of nonwhite voters, cast their ballots before Election Day. We'll have updated data very soon.
And of course, the former president still spouts lies about our democracy, with his possible candidacy backed by millions of Americans.
The bottom line: we have seen, with growing unease, the rise of an antidemocratic election denier movement. In 2022, we saw the emergence of a pro-democracy movement across both parties. That can be the story of American politics going forward--if we make it so.
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With New Date Set for UK Visit, Brits Vow Epic Street Protests to Counter 'Exceptional Danger' of Trump
"We will be joining to take a strong stand against Trump's racism, bigotry, misogyny, transphobia—as well as his ultra-corporate trade agenda."
Apr 27, 2018
Tens of thousands of people in the United Kingdom have committed to protest during President Donald Trump's planned visit to London on July 13, with organizers saying a potential post-Brexit U.S.-U.K. trade deal as well as the president's overall agenda and misogynist, racist rhetoric will drive demonstrators into the streets.
\u201c"Trump represents an exceptional danger. And that\u2019s why we must all march." https://t.co/HQXe3Lf3cy\u201d— Stop Trump (@Stop Trump) 1524841234
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a longtime critic of Trump's, promised on social media that demonstrations against the president would be welcomed by the city.
\u201cIf he comes to London, President Trump will experience an open and diverse city that has always chosen unity over division and hope over fear. He will also no doubt see that Londoners hold their liberal values of freedom of speech very dear.\u201d— Sadiq Khan (@Sadiq Khan) 1524762616
Shaista Aziz, organizer with the Stop Trump coalition, appeared on Radio 4 on Friday to explain what her group was planning for Trump's visit:
As leftist journalist and activist Owen Jones declared in a Friday column at the Guardian: "Trump represents an exceptional danger. And that's why we must all march."
The president's previously planned state visit was scaled back to a working visit earlier this year after 1.8 million Brits signed a petition opposing the event.
"If mass protests against Trump's visit also derail a trade deal, it will be a double success." --Nick Dearden, Global Justice Now
The petition was circulated amid outrage over Trump's retweet of an anti-Muslim video posted on Twitter by the far-right fringe group Britain First, an action that drew condemnation from British politicians including Prime Minister Theresa May.
London's demonstration is being planned amid warnings that such protests could harm a potential post-Brexit trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K., with many British people saying they oppose a deal.
"Let's be clear: a trade deal with this man is not a 'prize', it would be a disaster," Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now said in a statement. "If mass protests against Trump's visit also derail a trade deal, it will be a double success. The people of Britain are overwhelmingly opposed to the sort of trade deal Trump will offer, which promises chlorine chicken and a further privatized NHS among many other attacks on U.K. standards and protections."
British food safety experts were aghast earlier this year after the release of a report detailing major safety and hygiene breaches at large meat and poultry plants in the United States.
Britain's Institute for Public Policy Research found recently that 82 percent of the nation's public would rather abandon plans for a trade deal with the U.S. than lower food standards--a step May has refused to rule out in order to push an agreement through.
London has been the site of numerous anti-Trump protests since the president won the 2016 election. Nearly 100,000 were estimated to join the 2017 Women's March in Britain's capital, and tens of thousands turned out two weeks later to march against Trump's proposed travel ban.
"The demonstrations against Trump's visit will be a carnival of resistance," said Dearden. "We will be joining to take a strong stand against Trump's racism, bigotry, misogyny, transphobia--as well as his ultra-corporate trade agenda. At a time when the U.K. government's own treatment of immigrants has been shown to be Trump-like in its crude populism, let's remember that Trump's Muslim ban is still in place. In Britain as in the U.S.A., this politics of hatred and division has no place."
\u201cTrump can come. But let him know Britain won\u2019t stand for his bigotry @realDonaldTrump #StopTrump https://t.co/nxu5y6v9zz\u201d— Oliver Maxwell-Jones (@Oliver Maxwell-Jones) 1524840490
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