In 2016, the « résistance » Donald Trump took less than a week to mobilize. From the evening of the election, November 8, the slogan appeared: #resist. Three days later, protests were taking place across the country. Students and high school students took to the streets. The women launched the monster demonstration of January 21 in Washington, the scale of which would ridicule the crowd who came to attend the inauguration of the 45th the day before.e president.
Democratic America was protesting against the plan to expel – already – 11 million illegal immigrants. Of the “walls of empathy” had appeared in San Francisco. “ Love trumps hate », it read (“Love is stronger than hate”). The bosses of technology companies – from Tim Cook (Apple) to Marc Benioff (Salesforce) – reaffirmed the “common values” – including diversity – in a message to their employees. THE New Yorker saw the dawn of an era of “civil disobedience”.
Nothing like that today. Since November 5, no large-scale demonstration has 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, like Indivisible, born from the Democratic defeat of 2016, began to hold conference calls with their members to think about what comes next.
Facing the “dangers of authoritarianism”
A few individual gestures have emerged here and there, a few calls for a boycott of X, to protest against the omnipresence of Elon Musk, but the scope of these initiatives remains to be measured. “The circumstances and tactics will necessarily be different from those of the 2017 anti-Trump resistance, and there is little margin for error”comments Robert Kuttner in the left-wing magazine American Prospect. At the 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 harder”writes the editorialist.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In the United States, Elon Musk charged by Donald Trump with “dismantling government bureaucracy”
Read later
Like eight years ago, Republicans control all the levers of power, from the presidency to both chambers. If there is to be political opposition to the Trump administration's plans, it can only come from the states. Since 2010, the Republicans have been in a dominant position: they have complete control – governor, assembly, senate – in 23 states, compared to 15 for the Democrats. Out of 50 governors, 27 are Republicans and 23 Democrats.
You have 69.49% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
