March 16, 2016
Grassroots organizers call for widespread mobilization against Republican frontrunner that transcends politics to challenge ‘threat to America we love’
Donald Trump impersonator Tighe Barry leads pro-refugee activists in rally against Republican candidate in December.
Chicago was just the beginning. Millions of Americans are ready to form a grassroots movement against Donald Trump, activists say, determined to challenge the politics of prejudice and show there is now more at stake than the White House.
“There was a deer in the headlights quality in the country at the rise of Donald Trump over the past year,” said Ben Wikler, Washington director of the civil society group MoveOn.org. “That’s now over.”
An election campaign that has transgressed the normal boundaries of party politics demands a commensurate response in the eyes of many. Even as the Republican party flounders and the media remains transfixed, there are signs that activists, students and ordinary citizens are ready to mobilise against Trump, who won another series of states in the Republican primaries on Tuesday.
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Wikler continued: “It’s rapidly coalescing. The conversations are starting within movements and between movements across the country. People are having conversations about how they can connect. What’s clear is that there is an incredible hunger to push back against hate.”
From the moment he launched his campaign by claiming that Mexico is sending criminals and rapists across the border, Trump has been an object of incredulity, ridicule and fear among liberal progressives. He has called for foreign Muslims to be banned from entering the US, advocated the use of torture and encouraged violence at rallies with remarks such as “Maybe he should have been roughed up” and “I’d like to punch him in the face.”
MoveOn.org published a letter this week signed by 22 organisations describing the Republican frontrunner as “a hate-peddling bigot who openly incites violence” and “a threat to the America we love”. It called for a massive, non-violent mobilisation including protests, voter turnout efforts and greater accountability for leaders who refuse to condemn him.
Wikler said: “It’s become clear that his political juggernaut is not going away and poses a threat to the country. It needs to be confronted in a fundamental way that goes beyond the election. It’s vital not only that Donald Trump loses but any aspiring politician sees that there’s no path to power through hateful rhetoric.”
He called for Democrats, Republicans, independents and apolitical people to unite in a movement that transcends the political churn and is not just a cause on the liberal left. “The critical thing is that a wide swath of Americans set up against Trump and Trumpism, that it’s not a battle between the fringes.”
The most visible protest so far came last week when hundreds – including black, Hispanic and Muslim students – gathered inside and outside a Trump rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After the candidate decided to call the event off, violent skirmishes broke out. Student organisers said the demonstration had been planned about a week in advance once they learned of Trump’s visit.
Casandra Robledo, 19, a nursing student whose parents emigrated from Mexico, said: “It was organic. We created a Facebook event and got a lot of traction. We had a meeting with 100 student leaders on campus, including a bunch of different groups involved in racial empowerment. We wanted to keep the movement apolitical and give a voice to the disenfranchised.”
The Chicago intervention, rooted in the city’s activism against social and racial injustice, was isolated and not intended to launch a movement. But like last year’s student protests over racism on college campuses, it has the potential to spread and gain its own momentum, especially with social media linking common causes. From Black Lives Matter to trade unions to LGBT groups, there are many overlapping interests in halting the Trump bandwagon.
Dominick Recckio, 21, student president at Ithaca College in New York, said: “I can’t scroll through three or four posts on social media without seeing anti-Trump sentiments. I’ve seen everything from anti-Trump poetry to debunkings of things he says.”
On Tuesday, Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind the popular Humans of New York blog, wrote an open letter to Trump on Facebook that quickly went viral and received 2m likes from users, including Hillary Clinton. “I realise now that there is no correct time to oppose violence and prejudice,” Stanton wrote. “The time is always now. Because along with millions of Americans, I’ve come to realize that opposing you is no longer a political decision. It is a moral one.”
Trump has even caught the attention of the “hacktivist” collective Anonymous, which posted a video declaring “total war” on the New York billionaire. It aims to crash many of Trump’s websites and derail his presidential bid by uncovering embarrassing information. “We need you to shut down his campaign and sabotage his brand,” a masked individual says in the video.
Anti-Trump activism could be a boon for Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, who is struggling to overcome an enthusiasm deficit among young voters and might otherwise have trouble motivating a Barack Obama-style turnout. But it is also possible that disruptive protests could allow the reality TV show host to portray himself as a victim and create new enemies for him to scapegoat.
However, the alternative – staying silent – is unthinkable, according to Neil Sroka, spokesperson for the liberal organisation Democracy for America. “I have to admire people who put their personal safety at risk to speak truth to power,” he said. “They are saying, if not now, when? If not me, who? There’s a sense that if we don’t do it now, it will be too late.”
He added: “I have to believe that there are more people invested against the message of hate from Trump and in favour of a message of love. Trump is calling for racist and xenophobic policies and I have a lot of faith that our country is better than that. The reality is that hate doesn’t just dissipate on its own. Bigotry has to be confronted with something, but in a non-violent way.”
Sroka accused Trump of running a “neofascist” campaign and suggested that, for millennials like him, this is a test evocative of 1930s Germany. “Because of the vitriol and bigotry that underlies Trump’s campaign, there is a real need for ordinary people to say this isn’t me, this isn’t the America I believe in. That’s why the response to this is organic even if it’s starting to get organised now.”
Trump’s rallies, often tense affairs, have attracted thousands of people who fiercely support his vow to “make America great again”. But in most national polls he trails behind both Clinton and Bernie Sanders in head-to-head contests. Few candidates in recent history have been so dangerously divisive.
Angus Johnston, a historian of student activism based at City University of New York, said: “The thing about Donald Trump is that there are a lot of people who hate him. There’s a long list of people angry and honestly afraid of the prospect of him becoming president.
“They’re thinking what’s the best way to counter him and neutralise him. We’ll see unprecedented volunteer work on behalf of the Democratic nominee, with huge numbers of people who don’t normally get involved calling the local party offering to go and knock on doors.”
Trump is fond of describing his support base as a “movement” that is bringing millions of new people to the Republican party. But he could find another movement made up of Americans of all stripes blocking his path to the White House.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/16/donald-trump-protest-grassroots-movement
Source: The Guardian