The following article Mary Jordan and Scott Clement (video by Zoeann Murphy) was posted on the Washington Post website April 6, 2018:
In reaction to Trump, millions of Americans are joining protests and getting political
Tens of millions of Americans have joined protests and rallies in the past two years, their activism often driven by admiration or outrage toward President Trump, according to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll showing a new activism that could affect November elections.
One in five Americans have protested in the streets or participated in political rallies since the beginning of 2016. Of those, 19 percent said they had never before joined a march or a political gathering.
Overwhelmingly, recently motivated activists are critical of Trump. Thirty percent approve of the president, and 70 percent disapprove, according to the poll. And many said they plan to be more involved politically this year, with about one-third saying they intend to volunteer or work for a 2018 congressional campaign.
More Americans are taking their activism to the streets. A new Post-Kaiser survey finds that 20% of adults have attended a political protest, rally or speech in the last two years. (Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)
The poll offers a rare snapshot of how public activism has changed in the 50 years since large street protests and rallies last dominated the political landscape. Back in the turbulent Vietnam War era, college students were the face of protests. Today, many activists are older, white, well-educated and wealthy, the findings show.
[Read full poll results | How the poll was conducted]
A significant number — 44 percent — are 50 or older, and 36 percent earn more than $100,000 a year. Far more are Democrats than Republicans. An equal percentage are men and women. An outsize share live in the suburbs.
The Post-Kaiser poll is the most extensive study of rallygoers and protesters in more than a decade and one of the first attempts to quantify how many Americans are motivated by Trump to join these increasingly frequent political events.
According to the findings, 10 percent of all adults said they joined a rally or protest since the beginning of 2016 as a reaction to Trump. Six percent turned out to oppose Trump, and 4 percent did so to support him.
“I never thought I was an activist — until now,” said Anna Bralove, 69. The day after Trump’s January 2017 inauguration, she joined the massive Women’s March in Washington, her first political gathering.
With a busy job training people on ever-changing computer systems, Bralove for decades never felt the need to spend precious free time protesting. But recently, she said, “I looked up and saw life wasn’t what we thought.” Now, she said, she haslost her trust in those in power, both in Congress and the White House.
So, to be heard and counted, she joined a second women’s rights march in Florida near her home early this year. More recently, she flew to Washington for the March for Our Lives to push for more restrictive gun laws, one of 800 rallies held around the nation the same day. Standing in a sea of protesters near the White House, Bralove said she is frightened that Trump is in the Oval Office.
But Chris Borgers, a Trump fan who plans to vote for him again in 2020, sees the president as a rare politician worth making the effort to hear in person.
During the presidential race, Borgers, 61, got an email from the Trump campaign inviting him to attend a Trump rally in Phoenix. He is not sure how the campaign got his address, but he downloaded the ticket and went.
Borgers loved being with like-minded people and so many other military veterans. “I liked the energy, the vibe,” he said.
Borgers said the only other candidate he admired who might have drawn him to a political rally was Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, but back then, he was stationed on a Navy ship.
A registered Republican, Borgers said his party no longer reflected his views, and he cheered Trump’s break with the GOP establishment. “I saw him as a change agent and thought the Republican Party should be punched in the nose,” he said.
Half of those attending political gatherings were spurred to action at least partly by Trump. Many also turned out to express their views on a range of issues — most prominently women’s rights, the environment, immigration, LGBT rights, the Affordable Care Act, abortion, police shootings or gun laws.
Of those showing up for an event, 52 percent rallied solely for liberal causes such as supporting the Affordable Care Act or opposing stricter immigration policies. At the same time, 12 percent attended events exclusively to support conservative positions.
“This confirms there is a resistance and that a lot of people want to be associated with it,” said Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University and editor of Dissent magazine. He said many Americans intensely oppose what Trump is doing, just as many did in the second half of Lyndon Johnson’s term in the late 1960s.
Dottie Taylor, 57, who lives outside Decatur, Ill., said she is particularly upset with Trump’s attack on President Barack Obama’s efforts to get more people affordable health care. Walking on crutches because of nerve damage in her ankle, she has joined some marches and participated in others via live video on her phone.
In addition to the large number of rallygoers, the poll showed an even bigger number — over 1 in 4 — of more quietly politically active adults. These people took multiple political actions, such as volunteering for a campaign, joining a boycott or donating money. These “nuts and bolts” activists are about as likely to identify as Republicans as Democrats.
The poll was conducted in the first two months of this year among a random sample of 1,850 adults nationwide, including 832 who attended a protest or rally in the last two years.
“My issue is abortion — it’s wrong,” said John Blackley, 42, a teacher from Atlanta, who organizes members of his church to knock on doors on behalf of antiabortion candidates. “I am almost embarrassed to be at a political rally. It’s just not the kind of thing I do. I do my part, but I am not one of those people with pins and buttons from marches and rallies.”
Gloria Eive, an 81-year-old Californian, said these days, she doesn’t have the endurance she once did for street protests. In 1965, Eive was the San Francisco chair of the Women for Peace march against the Vietnam War.
“Now, I march with my pen — and to the extent I can, with my pocketbook,” said Eive, who writes lawmakers and donates to campaigns. She roots for those marching for good causes: “All of the important achievements of the last 100 years have started with marches and protests.”
“Unless you are careful to continue the movement, the energy doesn’t produce the results you want,” Eive said. With follow-through, history shows it can, she added.
Tens of millions of Americans do not even vote. Roughly 40 percent of those eligible to cast a ballot have not voted in recent presidential elections, according to the U.S. Elections Project. In midterm years, about 60 percent have skipped voting.
Increasing voter turnout could affect the outcome of November’s midterms, which will determine which party controls Congress; Republicans hold the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
But 83 percent of rallygoers and protesters say they are certain to vote, according to the poll.
Nearly 4 in 10 said they plan to become more involved in political causes in 2018. Among the one-third who planned to work or volunteer for congressional races, 64 percent say they will do so for Democrats, and 26 percent plan to work for Republicans.
“I will vote. I will give money. I will go to marches,” said David Orelowitz, 59, a software engineer from New York City.
To fix problems, he said, people need to be heard beyond “arguing at dinner parties.”
“It’s another Saturday, and here we go again — time to march!” said Desmond Beach, 39, an artist and teacher from Baltimore. He has attended at least five marches recently, including those protesting police shootings of black men. “Trump has allowed people to be racist in a way we have not seen in decades,” he said.
At many recent protests, parents often marched alongside their children.
Melanie Ward 57, a school administrator in Rochester, N.Y., joined her 30-year-old daughter, Kate Hennings, at the March for Our Lives. Whether young and still a student, middle-age with children or a grandparent, people of all ages are upset with school shootings, said Ward. “We are sick and tired of it.”
Recent demonstrations have been peaceful — often with music blaring from jumbo screens and donated water bottles being amiably passed among strangers. But while 1960s protests were marred with violent clashes with police, 69 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of Democrats said today’s attendees are “more violent” than those who protested 50 years ago.
Also, 71 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of Democrats said today’s activists are “more extreme in their views” than during the Vietnam era. But less than half of all those showing up at protests, marches or rallies identify as “an activist.” Among those who joined a rally or protest for the first time, just 35 percent use the term to describe themselves.
But Jasmine Stephens, 23, a substitute teacher from Voorhees, N.J., is happy to be called an activist. She has marched and uses social media to promote women’s and LGBTQ rights.
“People who are apathetic — or who care but don’t do anything about it — are a huge part of the problem,” she said.
Emily Guskin contributed to this report
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