Tag: resistance

The resistance owned 2017. Here are the wins to prove it.

The following article by Matthew Chapman was posted on the ShareBlue Media website December 29, 2017:

Since Donald Trump assumed the presidency, concerned Americans have stood up and fought back by the millions. And in the face of long odds and intimidating obstacles, they’ve made all the difference.

Demonstrators protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, in front of the U.S embassy in Brussel, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

One year ago, the Democratic Party and liberal activists were devastated. They had been wiped out at every level, President Barack Obama was on his way out, and Donald Trump was assembling an administration of terrifyingly extreme and unqualified right wing crusaders, ready to break down and all but demolish many of our civil institutions.

It was a low, dark time. But Americans did not give up. They got mad, and they fought back. Continue reading “The resistance owned 2017. Here are the wins to prove it.”

New data shows a sharp increase in U.S. protest activity in April

The following article by Erica Chenoweth, Evan Perkoski, Jeremy Pressman and Ches Thurber was posted on the Washington Post website May 22, 2017:

Thousands gather on the Mall in Washington for the March for Science on April 22, Earth Day. Activists and scientists descended on the nation’s capital to rally for environmental causes and government policies rooted in scientific research. Marches for Science were held worldwide. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

This is the fourth installment in a monthly series reporting on political crowds in the United States. Each month the Crowd Counting Consortium will post updates about trends and patterns from the previous month as recorded by our volunteers. (For our counting methods, please see our first post in the series.)

For April 2017, we tallied 950 protests, demonstrations, marches, sit-ins and rallies in the United States, with at least one in every state and the District. Our conservative guess is that between 637,198 and 1,181,887 people showed up at these political gatherings, although it is likely that there were far more participants. Because the media often do not report nonviolent actions — especially small ones — it is probable that we did not record every event that took place. Continue reading “New data shows a sharp increase in U.S. protest activity in April”

They Marched, Now They’re Running

The following article by Susan Milligan was posted on the US News and World Report website April 14, 2017:

Democratic women across the country mobilize to take on President Donald Trump.

Brett Ziegler for USN&WR)

They got mad when Donald Trump was elected president, turning out in the millions worldwide to protest the ascension of a man who bragged about being able to use his fame to sexually assault women without consequence. They got madder when they saw Trump name cabinet officials opposed to some of the legal protections women’s groups fought for many years to achieve. They got madder still when they saw Trump – without the fanfare and camera flashes associated with his other regulatory changes – roll back protections for women in the workplace.

Now, female activists are trying to get even – or at least get to an America where opportunities and power-sharing between men and women is closer to even. After the shock of Trump’s election and the buoyant call-to-arms of the Women’s March on Washington, the women and girls who participated in the marches are mounting what Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, defines as an epic and historic battle.

Continue reading “They Marched, Now They’re Running”

Next steps for the Trump resistance

The following opinion written by E. J. Dionne was posted on the Washington Post website March 12, 2017:

Demonstrators gather near the White House to protest President Trump’s travel ban on March 11. (Tasos Katopodis/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

For opponents of President Trump, his first seven weeks in office went about as badly for the country as they expected. The pleasant surprise is their own capacity for resistance and political resilience. What some feared might be a Trump Juggernaut is instead the Trump Jalopy, a wheezing, unsightly contraption with grinding gears and missing parts.

Many of Trump’s problems are of his own creation. They include the lies about his team’s Russian contacts that feed suspicions of wrongdoing; the sloppy execution of his flawed-from-the-start anti-Muslim travel ban; the failure to fill scores of key government jobs; and Trump’s adolescent indiscipline highlighted by his evidence-free charge that President Barack Obama had him wiretapped. Continue reading “Next steps for the Trump resistance”

Michael Moore Steps Up With Resistance Calendar and Website Devoted to Stopping President Trump

The following article by Don Hazen was posted on the Alternet website February 21, 2017:

He offers his 10-step program to rally the troops for the long-term resistance battle.

Editor’s Note: Filmmaker Michael Moore, one of the most visible and active leaders of the Trump resistance movement, has stepped up with two major contributions to the battle ahead. He has created an easily accessible website—a Resistance Calendar—where people can post news about upcoming resistance activities and find out what is going on in their community and region. Moore writes: “I’ve promised you a one-stop site, a clearinghouse of all actions—a RESISTANCE CALENDAR—where you can find every upcoming action, protest, march, sit-in, town hall, anti-Trump, pro-democracy event in all 50 states!”

Moore has also unleashed “The Michael Moore Easy-to-Follow 10-Point Plan to Stop Trump,” published below, which contains Moore’s list of tactics for resisters all over the country. Part of Moore’s plan is to take over the Democratic Party, which to him means getting Congressman Keith Ellison elected to head the DNC when it meets this Saturday, February 25. A key element of Moore’s plan is getting five to 20 of your friends and family members together to create a personal “Rapid Response Team.” Moore also wants thousands of progressives to run for office and make their own media using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media sites to spread news and information. He says, “Make sure all your friends and family are signed up.”

 —Don Hazen, executive editor, AlterNet

The Michael Moore Easy-to-Follow 10-Point Plan to Stop Trump

First, let’s acknowledge what we all know to be true: Trump is in deep, deep trouble—in the pocket of Russians, surrounded by alt-right idiots, alone in his bathrobe in a mostly empty White House—and caught inside a disgusting “shit-sandwich,” so said his supporter who turned down the NSA job. Continue reading “Michael Moore Steps Up With Resistance Calendar and Website Devoted to Stopping President Trump”

The Tyranny of A Minority President Has Begun — And So Has The Resistance

The following article by @LOLGOP was posted on the National Memo website January 23, 2017:

Donald Trump’s official presidential bio contains about a half-dozen attempts to convince someone — probably himself — that his win was a massive blowout and not a shameful, slight fluke only made possible by the intervention of a foreign government and a domestic conspiracy to get the FBI director to interfere in the democratic process during the final weeks, twice.

This sad overcompensation — like the emergency White House press briefing called Saturday night to lie about the size of of his inauguration crowd as the largest protests in U.S. history raged against the new president — isn’t an accident. Continue reading “The Tyranny of A Minority President Has Begun — And So Has The Resistance”

DFL Chair Ken Martin on Donald Trump’s Inauguration

“Today, as Donald Trump becomes president, the Trump Administration will start working to undo all the progress we’ve made over the past 8 years. Their reckless ideas don’t account for the very real people who will be affected by them combined with the unrestrained support by the GOP-controlled Congress creates an unknown level of fear for what our future holds.

“But it’s not about how much we fear the uncertainty. It’s about how we transform that fear into fuel to fight the discrimination and hatred inherent in Trump’s policies so that we can protect the progress we made under President Obama’s bold leadership. Continue reading “DFL Chair Ken Martin on Donald Trump’s Inauguration”