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After the 2016 election, a movement that would become known as “the resistance” quickly emerged to protest and confront Donald Trump and his incoming administration. The hope was that if Trump could simply be held back — resisted — for four years, politics would go back to normal. A Democrat would retake the White House and Trump would be viewed as an unfortunate aberration.
Since Election Day, it has become fashionable in some circles to view that effort as a failure. The cynics dismiss the grassroots energy and the hard work of so many as naïve and without impact.
As usual, they are wrong. The resistance movement helped protect the Affordable Care Act from repeal and lead to bold policies at the state and local level. It built new pro-democracy institutions that challenged Trump in the courts and in the streets. It inspired thousands of new candidates to run for office and contributed to a successful mid-term election. Most importantly, in 2020 it helped defeat Donald Trump.
Republicans used that time fruitfully. They built new ideological organizations, new campaign structures, new media outlets and new leaders. Even as they suffered losses in the midterms, they were undeterred from their mission of fleshing out what a second Trump term would look like. For all of Trump’s disavowals of Project 2025 during the campaign, that effort and other, equally extreme measures were being planned.
MAGA was not focused specifically on resisting Biden. It had a bolder agenda. It wanted to build an opposing ideological and political movement to win elections and govern over the long term. It prioritized hate over hope, cronyism over competence and retribution over reconciliation.
As we head towards January, it is our turn to use this period productively. Hoping that Trump fails is not a plan. We must develop and foster new movements, structures, tactics, platforms and leaders to oppose Trump and articulate a positive vision.
In most democratic political systems, this is referred to as the opposition. Rather than a resistance, the concept of an opposition is more comprehensive and durable. It recognizes that there are no time limits to the effort.
In some systems the opposition entails an entire shadow government, in others it focuses on specific platforms. I don’t pretend to know what the version should be for our country at this time, but I know it is needed.
Here are five principles I believe we must start with to build an effective opposition…
