Splintered Dems Prep Differently Than ’16 for Trump Win
By Michael Katz | Monday, 28 October 2024, 04:22 PM EDT
Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/politics/donald-trump-democrats-hillary-clinton/2024/10/28/id/1185738/
The pink pussycat hats. A Women’s March that drew a half-million demonstrators to the nation’s capital. Millions of other demonstrators nationwide. It was all part of the Democrats’ reaction to Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. But this time could be different should the Republican former president prevail Nov. 5 over Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Trump is no longer an unknown entity and with polls so close, he has as good a chance of winning as losing, so the shock to the system of millions of Democrats will not be as intense.
More than a dozen influential progressives told the Journal they are dreading the prospect of Trump returning to power and are dismayed that half the country might see a different reality than they see. Jim Hannon, a psychotherapist and liberal organizer in Massachusetts, counseled calm in an open letter last week, noting the strength of Harris’ campaign while urging a broader perspective.
“Trump could win. So, panic then? No,” he wrote. “A Trump presidency would be awful but not the end of history.”
On a recent evening, the Journal reported, more than 200 joined a Zoom meeting titled Mass Training for Women’s Safety Teams hosted by a Women’s March veteran who noted its timing amid “escalating political violence.” Others are channeling their nerves into action by planning to attend Women’s Marches scheduled in Washington, D.C., and beyond on Saturday. In Boston, they are joining parties where volunteers fill boxes with abortion kits to mail to women in red states with strict abortion limits.
“We feel like we’re doing something,” Erin Gately, a 47-year-old physician assistant told the Journal. After Trump won in 2016, she took to the streets to protest but said this time she would focus on tangible actions such as protecting abortion rights.
Danielle Deiseroth, 28, executive director of Data for Progress, a liberal research group, told the Journal she has been talking with leaders of other progressive nonprofits about how to push back if Trump is elected. She said she anticipates progressives will look to Democrat governors as political torchbearers and Democrat attorneys general to contest Trump initiatives.
Laurie Woodward García, a South Florida activist, founded People Power United during Trump’s presidency to champion progressive causes, and, in her words, “stand up to fascism,” the Journal reported. Her bimonthly online seminars, some scheduled for after the election, explore the consequences if Trump were to enact Project 2025, a conservative policy agenda created by the Heritage Foundation from which he has distanced himself. Each session has drawn about 500 viewers.
“We’ve got to be optimistic and fight like hell,” she said.
That might be complicated by the uncertain trajectory of the Democratic Party, which would be at a generational crossroads with Barack Obama, the Clintons and President Biden all off the stage and no clear heir apparent should Harris lose.
“We’ll be in rebuilding mode,” South Carolina state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter of Orangeburg, S.C., told the Journal.
What Did You Say? 