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THE 2017 TRUMP RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK IS OUT. COMMUNITY ORGANIZING IS
IN.  
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Candice Norwood and Jennifer Gerson
November 14, 2024
The 19th
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_ The Women’s March is now the People’s March, and groups working
to oppose Trump’s agenda are highlighting specific actions
volunteers can take. _

Demonstrators at the Women's March on Washington in Washington, D.C.,


 

Former President Donald Trump once again won
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presidential election. Again, his opponent was a highly qualified
woman. And again, intense rhetoric about gender and race defined his
candidacy. 

But for many who find themselves thinking about what it means to
mobilize against MAGA, this moment feels very different from Trump’s
first win in 2016. Then, it was pink pussyhats and the Women’s
March, loud calls for public action and visible outcry. Today,
progressive leaders and policy experts say, things feel quieter, more
contemplative, more focused on practical, on-the-ground community
action — even as women, people of color, and queer people face real
fears about their futures in light of a second Trump presidency
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A People’s March on Washington is planned for January before
Trump’s inauguration by the same organizers of the original
Women’s March in 2017. For some, this kind of public action
doesn’t feel like an answer. March organizers, however, stress the
need to mark the moment with some kind of highly visible collective
action.

The organizing team behind the Women’s March and People’s March
sees its work as much more holistic than a single headline-grabbing
event. Many people who come to Women’s March events have never
organized or protested, but want to do something to get involved, said
Tamika Middleton, managing director at Women’s March.

“There is no lower barrier of entry than making a sign and coming to
the march. There’s no easier way to get involved and to get
activated,” Middleton said. “It is an entry point for new people.
And then we keep organizing after the marches.”The 2017 Women’s
March drew about 4 million people to demonstrations around the world.
Speakers included celebrities like America Ferrera, Scarlett Johansson
and Ashley Judd, in addition to big-name activists like Gloria
Steinem. 

The Women’s March team, which is primarily women of color, said it
has evolved their approach since 2017. In renaming its
pre-inauguration march to the People’s March, the group seeks to
build a big tent where people of different backgrounds feel welcome to
participate. The team is also thinking about how they can capitalize
on moments of mass mobilization and extend it beyond protests. This
includes connecting people who are new to organizing with local
efforts they can get involved with and training them on things like
combatting online disinformation, Middleton said. They have also
developed “women’s protection teams” to help people assess
threats of political violence and develop early intervention
strategies. 

But other observers fear repeating the same playbook from 2017.

“We can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different
outcome,” said Staci Fox, a longtime leader of progressive policy
and advocacy groups in Atlanta. In 2017, Fox was a speaker at the
satellite Women’s March event held in Atlanta while the head of a
reproductive rights organization based there.

Today Fox is angry. Democratic losses up and down the ballot in
Georgia last week are weighing heavily on her as she thinks about what
the future may look like for marginalized people in the state. Fox
hopes that organizers and policy strategists alike will take time to
reevaluate: not only how they message to voters, but how they develop
meaningful, community-based actions that are poised to best serve, and
help protect, marginalized communities who are facing the greatest
potential threats under a second Trump term. 

She’s involved in conversations in her community about passport
fairs and other forms of documentation review for transgender people
before Trump is sworn into office again. One thing she does know for
sure is that she won’t be attending the second People’s March in
Washington, D.C. She sees it as something that can make people,
especially White women, feel like they’ve done something without
having any real impact.

“I definitely think we’ve got to do away with performative
activism,” Fox, a White woman, said of what the best next steps are
for those working to shape progressive organizing. 

As liberal advocacy groups brace for the next administration, they
also feel better positioned to prepare for what’s next. One of
Trump’s most notable achievements was his appointment of federal
judges, including three Supreme Court justices who were key to
overturning federal abortion protections in 2022. While he has stated
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he does not see a reason to pass a national abortion ban, many experts
and reproductive rights advocates worry that his administration could
move to restrict access to abortion in other ways. 

For many abortion groups around the country, the work remains the
same. In Texas, which has a total abortion ban
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the Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund told The 19th it is training
volunteers to support clients searching for abortions. They are
teaching them ways of responding to medical distrust in communities of
color, challenging misleading information from anti-abortion
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pregnancy centers,” and the specifics of legislative efforts to
increase abortion protections. TEA Fund said that since Election Day,
it has seen more than 80 volunteer applications when it typically
receives one or two per week.The National Women’s Law Center, which
previously sued the Trump administration on issues ranging from pay
data collection to the Education Department’s changes to Title IX
rules, is gearing up for more assaults on reproductive rights, said
Emily Martin, the center’s chief program officer. Martin also said
that they expect one of the first big fights of Trump’s
administration to be around tax policy and tax cuts for billionaires
and wealthy corporations.

“Maybe the sense of shock is different this time around, but what I
am seeing from partners and from the broader public is a deep
understanding of the stakes and the need to engage because the stakes
are so high,” Martin said. “We’re all coming having learned
lessons from the first time around, but one of the lessons we have
learned is the seriousness of what’s before us.”

The progressive Working Families Party will be looking out for
Trump’s immigration policies. During his first term, Trump
implemented a temporary travel ban on people from seven predominantly
Muslim countries and used family separation as a deterrent for
undocumented immigrants, which resulted in more than 5,000 migrant
children being separated from their families. Trump has promised to
begin a push for mass deportations from Day 1 of his second term.

Jennifer Knox, organizing director of the Working Families Party, said
she believes organizing work since 2017 has matured as advocates
become more intentional about their work — from being selective
about the actions they take to ensuring that they reach groups outside
of White college-educated, middle-class people. 

“I think that people are interested not just in being in a reactive
space and doing the same playbook as 2016 but trying to figure out how
to fight for the long term and how to be more successful,” Knox
said.

Taylor Salditch, the executive director of Supermajority, a group that
organizes young low-propensity voters around progressive issues, said
she also thinks now is the time for listening and not reacting. 

“Rest is important. Going slow is important. Taking our time is
important,” she said. 

While many progressive groups are engaged in finger-pointing about
what issues, messages, strategies and demographics are to blame for
Democrats’ losses last week, Salditch said that conversation
doesn’t actually help protect those who stand to be most impacted by
what’s to come in the second Trump term. 

In lieu of large public displays, she would like to see more time
outlining what Democrats see as their needs and goals before midterms
in 2026. Salditch hopes that people act with “compassion and
curiosity and fundamentally a belief that people are good and
worthy” as Democrats think about how to rebuild their coalition. 

From where she sits, Salditch said that one major consideration needs
to be that young women cannot by default be assumed to be the
Democratic base — especially without investment by the larger
progressive ecosystem in reaching them as voters. The party may also
consider what messaging to women as a demographic means beyond
focusing on “mom” as an identity.

Salditch said what feels more necessary right now is the understanding
that when it comes to talking to and about women, diversity of thought
— and issues — matters. 

“If you are reaching for contempt over curiosity, you’re doing bad
organizing,” Salditch said.

_I’m CANDICE NORWOOD, a reporter for The 19th who covers general
assignment news. Since 2016, I’ve covered all things politics and
policy for The Atlantic, Bloomberg News, PBS NewsHour and other
publications in the Washington, D.C. area. I write about a range of
subjects at The 19th, but most of my stories center on courts,
incarceration and policing._

_I’m JENNIFER GERSON, a reporter at The 19th who has a deep passion
for the people who change the conversation, whether that’s
politicians or influencers. I love stories that get at how
contemporary American politics and popular culture both and prod each
other, especially by examining how voters, public servants and
advocates alike all seek to iterate and refine their political
personas in response to this push and pull of culture and politics._

_The 19th was founded in 2020 by Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora,
longtime journalists who believed the news was not representative
enough. Our goal is to empower women and LGBTQ+ people
— particularly those from underrepresented communities — with
the information, resources and tools they need to be equal
participants in our democracy.  The 19th is a nonprofit newsroom
supported by a mix of membership, philanthropy and corporate
underwriting. Our goal is long-term sustainability to support a
lasting future for news and information at the intersection of gender,
politics and policy. _

* Women's March
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* Organizing for Action
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