In 2016, the ” endurance “ It took Donald Trump less than a week to mobilize. Since the afternoon of the elections, November 8, the slogan appeared: #resist. Three days later, protests broke out across the country. Students and high school students took to the streets. The women launched the monstrous Jan. 21 demonstration in Washington, the magnitude of which would ridicule the crowd that had turned out for the inauguration of ’45 the day before.my president.
Democratic America was protesting against the plan to expel (now) 11 million illegal immigrants. Of the “walls of empathy” had appeared in San Francisco. “ Love triumphs over hate, it reads (“Love is stronger than hate”). The heads of technology companies – from Tim Cook (Apple) to Marc Benioff (Salesforce) – reaffirmed the “common values” – including diversity – in a message to its employees. HE New Yorker saw the dawn of an era of “civil disobedience”.
None of that today. Since November 5, no large-scale demonstrations have dampened Republican exuberance. Donald Trump’s clear victory destroyed the Democratic base. The speed and brutality of the announced appointments anesthetized activists, even if activist associations, such as Indivisible, born from the 2016 Democratic defeat, began holding conference calls with their members to think about what comes next.
Facing the “dangers of authoritarianism”
Some individual gestures have emerged here and there, some calls to boycott X, to protest against the omnipresence of Elon Musk, but the scope of these initiatives has yet to be measured. “The circumstances and tactics will necessarily be different from those of the anti-Trump resistance of 2017, and there is little room for error”comments Robert Kuttner in the leftist magazine American perspective. At that time, popular mobilization launched a movement that allowed Democrats to win the House of Representatives during the 2018 midterm elections. “This time it’s going to be more difficult”writes the editorialist.
As eight years ago, Republicans control all levels of power, from the presidency to both chambers. If there is going to be political opposition to the Trump administration’s plans, it can only come from the states. Since 2010, the Republicans have occupied a dominant position: they have complete control (governor, assembly, senate) in 23 states, compared to 15 for the Democrats. Of 50 governors, 27 are Republicans and 23 Democrats.
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