Part 5 of "Defending Society Against MAGA Tyranny: A Prospectus for Action"
January 5, 202
Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.
COUNT EVERY VOTE RALLY at McPherson Square at 15th and I Street, NW, Washington DC on Wednesday evening, 4 November 2020 by Elvert Barnes Photography via Wikimedia
Part 5 of this series contains the following chapter:
6. Electoral Opposition
Defending Society Against MAGA Tyranny: A Prospectus for Action is a report from the Labor Network for Sustainability, co-published by ZNetwork.org.
Click here to read the report in full: Defending Society Against MAGA Tyranny: A Prospectus for Action
Electoral Opposition
Even when, as in Milosevich’s Serbia or Bolsonaro’s Brazil, democracy has been severely undermined, institutions of representative government can still play a major role in ending a tyranny. While Trump and the Republican party have already restricted voting rights and other democratic practices, the electoral arena remains crucial for Social Self-Defense.
Trump won less than 50% of the popular vote.[1] Republican margins in the House and Senate are extremely narrow. If the electoral system is not further corrupted, a very small shift would swing the House and/or the Senate to Democratic control in 2026 and elect a Democratic president in 2028. A very small swing to the Republicans, conversely, might solidify para-fascist governance for a very long time.
There are serious obstacles to defeating MAGA simply by electoral means. The first is that Trump has already used and will now augment the use of extralegal, violent, unconstitutional means that can’t be countered just by voting. That will include further undermining the electoral system itself, repressing opponents, and using all the instruments of an authoritarian, plutocratic government to secure unlimited power.
The second is the inadequacy of the Democratic Party as a vehicle for countering MAGA power. Disillusion with Democrats played a major role in Trump’s victory. Corporate and fossil fuel domination of the Democratic Party made it impossible to present a clear alternative to Trumpism that could appeal to the great majority of voters on the basis of their anger at the status quo. These weaknesses of the Democratic Party will facilitate Trump’s march to permanent MAGA domination.
Overcoming these obstacles requires a two-pronged strategy. On the one hand, the Democrats must be pressured to function as a real opposition party, to fight for Social Self-Defense, as discussed in this chapter. On the other hand, extra-electoral forms of action must help mobilize popular opposition and fight back against MAGA domination, as discussed in the next chapter.
Democratic elected officials retain significant power bases both in Congress and in states and cities. There are 15 states where Democrats control the governorship and both houses of the legislature. These states produce nearly half of the national gross domestic product. As of the 2024 elections, the mayors of 64 of the country’s 100 largest cities are affiliated with the Democratic Party, only 24 with the Republican party.[2]
Democratic politicians and elected officials can begin taking the steps that are necessary to resist Trump and defeat MAGA in the electoral arena. For example, they can do what is necessary to mobilize those currently unrepresented in the political system. According to Rev. William Barber, 30 million poor and low-wage people did not vote in 2020 because they said, “nobody talked to their issues.” In the 2024 presidential and vice-presidential debates, not one candidate was asked “how would their policies affect the issues of people dying every day from poverty and low wages.” Not one candidate was asked whether they would they raise the minimum wage.
There’s not a battleground state where poor and low-wage people don’t make up more than 40% of the electorate. There’s not a battleground state where if just 10% of poor, low-wage people were to vote around an agenda that they wouldn’t fundamentally shift the outcome of the election.[3]
Democratic politicians and officeholders need to begin right now to highlight such issues. Where mainstream politicians fail to raise such issues in the Trump era, they will have to be raised by direct action highlighting policies and actions that hurt poor and working people – and alternatives that could help them.
Democratic politicians need to help defend society against Trump’s attacks. Although Democrats are in the minority in both houses of Congress, they still have significant powers. They can hold confrontational hearings on appointments, legislation, and executive policy; speak out and campaign around the country against Trump’s actions; in the Senate they can filibuster; if President Trump commits high crimes and misdemeanors that provoke public and congressional outrage they can move to impeach him. They need to use every available power to expose, condemn, slow down, weaken, and to the extent possible, halt Trumpism’s anti-social plans. They need to build a unified force to oppose Trump’s agenda and to hold each other accountable not to sell out.
An obvious objective is to take back the House and/or Senate in 2026. That requires driving down Trump’s public support. Anti-Trump representatives need to show the disastrous effects of Trump policies and expose Trump’s corruption and stupidity.
Some Democrats have already indicated that they are willing to work with Trump; some, like New York mayor Eric Adams, are already doing his bidding. There must be redlines for any such cooperation. There can be no compromise when it comes to human rights, protection of the climate, constitutional limits on the power of government, or global cooperation to protect the human future. Even Trump’s most “progressive” programs are laced with threats to equality for women and minorities, labor rights, and the environment – and so there can be no compromise with them. And any cooperation with Trump’s agenda – or even failure to oppose it – risks legitimating and normalizing his regime and offering him credit for winning bi-partisan cooperation.
Democrat officeholders can also begin laying out attractive alternatives that meet the needs of those to whom Trump appealed but who he is now dissing. Many Democrats have laid out programs, including but not limited to the Green New Deal, that have wide support, not only within the Democratic Party but even among many people who eventually voted for Trump. Many aspects of these programs can be implemented right now by state and local governments.
What elected representatives do will depend heavily on what the people do. Social Self-Defense needs to define the Trump agenda not as a slight variation on “normal politics” but as an attack on society. We need to use petitions, letters, calls, and social media to urge government officials, the media, and institutional leaders to deny that Trump’s agenda is anything but an attack on human rights, the natural environment, constitutional government, and global survival. We need to protect the protectors, ensuring money and support for those in Congress, local and state government, and the political system more broadly who are demonstrably fighting Trump.
Finally, Democrats who may be tempted to compromise with Trump must be made to realize that they will be risking their own political future to do so. Advocates for Social Self-Defense need to pressure Democrats to find their backbone. For example, they can develop multi-issue ratings of courage vs. cowardice in standing up to Trump – with the obvious implication that money and support is more likely to flow to the resolutes than to the wishy-washies.
How can the pressure to make elected officials fight for Social Self-Defense be generated? In the aftermath of Trump’s election in 2016, current and former congressional staff members created Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, adapting the strategy of the Tea Party movement to the Trump Resistance. They called for targeting members of Congress by attending town hall sessions, calling congressional officials, visiting their offices, and showing up at public events. Within two weeks of Trump’s inauguration, more than thirty-eight hundred local groups identifying as “Indivisibles” had formed. These local groups held tens of thousands of actions—playing a major role, for example, in blocking Republican plans to gut the Affordable Care Act.
Shortly after Trump’s election in 2024, the same group issued Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink. Recognizing differences between the first and second Trump eras, it provides detailed recommendations for resisting the current MAGA onslaught in the electoral arena. The Indivisible plan is based on what it calls “constituent power.”
Your electeds care first and foremost about getting reelected and growing their own power. Some of the good ones care about doing good, and some of the bad ones care about doing bad, but regardless, they all know they can’t do anything unless they grow or maintain their base of support to win reelection or win higher office.
Elected representatives care about what makes them look good, responsive, and hardworking to the people of their district. By “making enough of a public ruckus” to endanger their local reputation as an upstanding elected, their constituents can “shift their behavior and/or soften them up” for the next election.
Indivisible says that the best vehicle for doing this is a local group, whether or not it is formally affiliated with Indivisible. Such groups are rooted in geographic communities – a neighborhood, a town, a congressional district. They are volunteer organizations that include multiple leaders with different and overlapping roles. They can coordinate with neighboring communities and statewide. Indivisible includes detailed guidance for such local groups.
Indivisible focuses on undermining Trump’s coalition and building the opposing coalition over the two years leading up to the 2026 elections. Their “playbook” emphasizes three “plays”:Say no to Project 2025.Stop what we can and pick strategic fights to drive national backlash to win in 2026.
Push Democrats in local, city, or state office to block, delay, and challenge MAGA’s attacks – and support them when they do.
Protect and win elections bydefending against election deniers in swing states and turning national backlash into an electoral majority coalition that delivers big wins in 2026.
State elected officials can be pressured to:Sign executive orders to protect residents under MAGA attack.
Form alliances with other states on issues like climate change, data privacy, and healthcare.
Use their economic leverage by setting procurement and contracting standards that prioritize civil rights, environmental responsibility, and fair labor practices, and by refusing to do business with companies that don’t uphold progressive values.
File lawsuits against harmful federal actions.
Decline to implement federal policies.
Implement sanctuary policies for out-of-state visitors.
Create legal funds to protect residents.
Implement policies that make their state a thriving, healthy, and desirable place to live.
Similarly, city elected officials can be pressured to:Adopt sanctuary policies.
Expand protections for vulnerable communities through policies and ordinances that protect housing rights, fund community health programs, and ensure that LGBTQ+ residents feel safe and supported.
Invest in local environmental and climate policies like banning single-use plastics, promoting renewable energy, and creating green infrastructure projects.
Partner with state and regional governments and other allies on issues like transportation, affordable housing, and voting rights.
Make your city a thriving, healthy, and desirable place to live.
Republican state officials and federal officials may care more about Trump’s support than the wishes of their own constituents. But either to change them or to remove them they must be forced to answer for every single action the Trump administration takes that hurts their state and its people.
Indivisible recognizes the threat of what it calls “authoritarian creep.” Fighting this requires building volunteer local infrastructure for mutual aid and support for people under threat. This could include working with immigrant rights groups on deportation defense, raising money for, or volunteering with, local groups helping patients access abortions, or supporting a local teachers union in their fight against a new draconian education policy.
Indivisible observes that Trump has promised to prosecute his political opponents, weaponize the justice system, and unleash hell on his preferred targets, from immigrants to people of color to racial justice advocates to Muslims to people with disabilities to trans kids. It also notes the threats to shut down the pro-democracy side’s activists, institutions, and bases of power. Its prescriptions for dealing with these threats are more general than its concrete and well thought out approach to the electoral arena. It primarily points to lessons from global historical fights against fascism:Build broad coalitions
Wage nonviolence, such as protests and civil disobedience
Develop independent media and communications
Strengthen community ties
Document and publicize human rights violations
The next two chapters will discuss how Social Self-Defense can address both creeping and galloping authoritarianism when they cannot be stopped from within the electoral arena alone.
[1] Domenico Montanaro, “Trump falls just below 50% in popular vote, but gets more than in past elections,” NPR, December 3, 2024. https://whyy.org/articles/2024-presidential-election-popular-vote-trump-kamala-harris/
[2] Ballotpedia, “Party affiliation of the mayors of the 100 largest cities,” Ballotpedia, November 2024. https://ballotpedia.org/Party_affiliation_of_the_mayors_of_the_100_largest_cities
[3] John Blake, “This fiery evangelical pastor offers a blueprint for Democrats’ revival in Trump’s second term,” CNN, November 24, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/24/us/reverend-william-barber-democrats-cec/index.html ; Poor People’s Campaign, “Waking the Sleeping Giant: Poor and Low-Income Voters in the 2020 Elections,” Poor People’s Campaign, October 2021. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/waking-the-sleeping-giant-poor-and-low-income-voters-in-the-2020-elections/
Jeremy Brecher is a co-founder and senior strategic advisor for the Labor Network for Sustainability. He is the author of more than a dozen books on labor and social movements, including Strike! Common Preservation in a Time of Mutual Destruction, and The Green New Deal from Below.
The mission of the Labor Network for Sustainability is to be a relentless force for urgent, science-based climate action by building a powerful labor-climate movement to secure an ecologically sustainable and economically just future where everyone can make a living on a living planet.
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers. Donate
COUNT EVERY VOTE RALLY at McPherson Square at 15th and I Street, NW, Washington DC on Wednesday evening, 4 November 2020 by Elvert Barnes Photography via Wikimedia
Part 5 of this series contains the following chapter:
6. Electoral Opposition
Defending Society Against MAGA Tyranny: A Prospectus for Action is a report from the Labor Network for Sustainability, co-published by ZNetwork.org.
Click here to read the report in full: Defending Society Against MAGA Tyranny: A Prospectus for Action
Electoral Opposition
Even when, as in Milosevich’s Serbia or Bolsonaro’s Brazil, democracy has been severely undermined, institutions of representative government can still play a major role in ending a tyranny. While Trump and the Republican party have already restricted voting rights and other democratic practices, the electoral arena remains crucial for Social Self-Defense.
Trump won less than 50% of the popular vote.[1] Republican margins in the House and Senate are extremely narrow. If the electoral system is not further corrupted, a very small shift would swing the House and/or the Senate to Democratic control in 2026 and elect a Democratic president in 2028. A very small swing to the Republicans, conversely, might solidify para-fascist governance for a very long time.
There are serious obstacles to defeating MAGA simply by electoral means. The first is that Trump has already used and will now augment the use of extralegal, violent, unconstitutional means that can’t be countered just by voting. That will include further undermining the electoral system itself, repressing opponents, and using all the instruments of an authoritarian, plutocratic government to secure unlimited power.
The second is the inadequacy of the Democratic Party as a vehicle for countering MAGA power. Disillusion with Democrats played a major role in Trump’s victory. Corporate and fossil fuel domination of the Democratic Party made it impossible to present a clear alternative to Trumpism that could appeal to the great majority of voters on the basis of their anger at the status quo. These weaknesses of the Democratic Party will facilitate Trump’s march to permanent MAGA domination.
Overcoming these obstacles requires a two-pronged strategy. On the one hand, the Democrats must be pressured to function as a real opposition party, to fight for Social Self-Defense, as discussed in this chapter. On the other hand, extra-electoral forms of action must help mobilize popular opposition and fight back against MAGA domination, as discussed in the next chapter.
Democratic elected officials retain significant power bases both in Congress and in states and cities. There are 15 states where Democrats control the governorship and both houses of the legislature. These states produce nearly half of the national gross domestic product. As of the 2024 elections, the mayors of 64 of the country’s 100 largest cities are affiliated with the Democratic Party, only 24 with the Republican party.[2]
Democratic politicians and elected officials can begin taking the steps that are necessary to resist Trump and defeat MAGA in the electoral arena. For example, they can do what is necessary to mobilize those currently unrepresented in the political system. According to Rev. William Barber, 30 million poor and low-wage people did not vote in 2020 because they said, “nobody talked to their issues.” In the 2024 presidential and vice-presidential debates, not one candidate was asked “how would their policies affect the issues of people dying every day from poverty and low wages.” Not one candidate was asked whether they would they raise the minimum wage.
There’s not a battleground state where poor and low-wage people don’t make up more than 40% of the electorate. There’s not a battleground state where if just 10% of poor, low-wage people were to vote around an agenda that they wouldn’t fundamentally shift the outcome of the election.[3]
Democratic politicians and officeholders need to begin right now to highlight such issues. Where mainstream politicians fail to raise such issues in the Trump era, they will have to be raised by direct action highlighting policies and actions that hurt poor and working people – and alternatives that could help them.
Democratic politicians need to help defend society against Trump’s attacks. Although Democrats are in the minority in both houses of Congress, they still have significant powers. They can hold confrontational hearings on appointments, legislation, and executive policy; speak out and campaign around the country against Trump’s actions; in the Senate they can filibuster; if President Trump commits high crimes and misdemeanors that provoke public and congressional outrage they can move to impeach him. They need to use every available power to expose, condemn, slow down, weaken, and to the extent possible, halt Trumpism’s anti-social plans. They need to build a unified force to oppose Trump’s agenda and to hold each other accountable not to sell out.
An obvious objective is to take back the House and/or Senate in 2026. That requires driving down Trump’s public support. Anti-Trump representatives need to show the disastrous effects of Trump policies and expose Trump’s corruption and stupidity.
Some Democrats have already indicated that they are willing to work with Trump; some, like New York mayor Eric Adams, are already doing his bidding. There must be redlines for any such cooperation. There can be no compromise when it comes to human rights, protection of the climate, constitutional limits on the power of government, or global cooperation to protect the human future. Even Trump’s most “progressive” programs are laced with threats to equality for women and minorities, labor rights, and the environment – and so there can be no compromise with them. And any cooperation with Trump’s agenda – or even failure to oppose it – risks legitimating and normalizing his regime and offering him credit for winning bi-partisan cooperation.
Democrat officeholders can also begin laying out attractive alternatives that meet the needs of those to whom Trump appealed but who he is now dissing. Many Democrats have laid out programs, including but not limited to the Green New Deal, that have wide support, not only within the Democratic Party but even among many people who eventually voted for Trump. Many aspects of these programs can be implemented right now by state and local governments.
What elected representatives do will depend heavily on what the people do. Social Self-Defense needs to define the Trump agenda not as a slight variation on “normal politics” but as an attack on society. We need to use petitions, letters, calls, and social media to urge government officials, the media, and institutional leaders to deny that Trump’s agenda is anything but an attack on human rights, the natural environment, constitutional government, and global survival. We need to protect the protectors, ensuring money and support for those in Congress, local and state government, and the political system more broadly who are demonstrably fighting Trump.
Finally, Democrats who may be tempted to compromise with Trump must be made to realize that they will be risking their own political future to do so. Advocates for Social Self-Defense need to pressure Democrats to find their backbone. For example, they can develop multi-issue ratings of courage vs. cowardice in standing up to Trump – with the obvious implication that money and support is more likely to flow to the resolutes than to the wishy-washies.
How can the pressure to make elected officials fight for Social Self-Defense be generated? In the aftermath of Trump’s election in 2016, current and former congressional staff members created Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, adapting the strategy of the Tea Party movement to the Trump Resistance. They called for targeting members of Congress by attending town hall sessions, calling congressional officials, visiting their offices, and showing up at public events. Within two weeks of Trump’s inauguration, more than thirty-eight hundred local groups identifying as “Indivisibles” had formed. These local groups held tens of thousands of actions—playing a major role, for example, in blocking Republican plans to gut the Affordable Care Act.
Shortly after Trump’s election in 2024, the same group issued Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink. Recognizing differences between the first and second Trump eras, it provides detailed recommendations for resisting the current MAGA onslaught in the electoral arena. The Indivisible plan is based on what it calls “constituent power.”
Your electeds care first and foremost about getting reelected and growing their own power. Some of the good ones care about doing good, and some of the bad ones care about doing bad, but regardless, they all know they can’t do anything unless they grow or maintain their base of support to win reelection or win higher office.
Elected representatives care about what makes them look good, responsive, and hardworking to the people of their district. By “making enough of a public ruckus” to endanger their local reputation as an upstanding elected, their constituents can “shift their behavior and/or soften them up” for the next election.
Indivisible says that the best vehicle for doing this is a local group, whether or not it is formally affiliated with Indivisible. Such groups are rooted in geographic communities – a neighborhood, a town, a congressional district. They are volunteer organizations that include multiple leaders with different and overlapping roles. They can coordinate with neighboring communities and statewide. Indivisible includes detailed guidance for such local groups.
Indivisible focuses on undermining Trump’s coalition and building the opposing coalition over the two years leading up to the 2026 elections. Their “playbook” emphasizes three “plays”:Say no to Project 2025.Stop what we can and pick strategic fights to drive national backlash to win in 2026.
Push Democrats in local, city, or state office to block, delay, and challenge MAGA’s attacks – and support them when they do.
Protect and win elections bydefending against election deniers in swing states and turning national backlash into an electoral majority coalition that delivers big wins in 2026.
State elected officials can be pressured to:Sign executive orders to protect residents under MAGA attack.
Form alliances with other states on issues like climate change, data privacy, and healthcare.
Use their economic leverage by setting procurement and contracting standards that prioritize civil rights, environmental responsibility, and fair labor practices, and by refusing to do business with companies that don’t uphold progressive values.
File lawsuits against harmful federal actions.
Decline to implement federal policies.
Implement sanctuary policies for out-of-state visitors.
Create legal funds to protect residents.
Implement policies that make their state a thriving, healthy, and desirable place to live.
Similarly, city elected officials can be pressured to:Adopt sanctuary policies.
Expand protections for vulnerable communities through policies and ordinances that protect housing rights, fund community health programs, and ensure that LGBTQ+ residents feel safe and supported.
Invest in local environmental and climate policies like banning single-use plastics, promoting renewable energy, and creating green infrastructure projects.
Partner with state and regional governments and other allies on issues like transportation, affordable housing, and voting rights.
Make your city a thriving, healthy, and desirable place to live.
Republican state officials and federal officials may care more about Trump’s support than the wishes of their own constituents. But either to change them or to remove them they must be forced to answer for every single action the Trump administration takes that hurts their state and its people.
Indivisible recognizes the threat of what it calls “authoritarian creep.” Fighting this requires building volunteer local infrastructure for mutual aid and support for people under threat. This could include working with immigrant rights groups on deportation defense, raising money for, or volunteering with, local groups helping patients access abortions, or supporting a local teachers union in their fight against a new draconian education policy.
Indivisible observes that Trump has promised to prosecute his political opponents, weaponize the justice system, and unleash hell on his preferred targets, from immigrants to people of color to racial justice advocates to Muslims to people with disabilities to trans kids. It also notes the threats to shut down the pro-democracy side’s activists, institutions, and bases of power. Its prescriptions for dealing with these threats are more general than its concrete and well thought out approach to the electoral arena. It primarily points to lessons from global historical fights against fascism:Build broad coalitions
Wage nonviolence, such as protests and civil disobedience
Develop independent media and communications
Strengthen community ties
Document and publicize human rights violations
The next two chapters will discuss how Social Self-Defense can address both creeping and galloping authoritarianism when they cannot be stopped from within the electoral arena alone.
[1] Domenico Montanaro, “Trump falls just below 50% in popular vote, but gets more than in past elections,” NPR, December 3, 2024. https://whyy.org/articles/2024-presidential-election-popular-vote-trump-kamala-harris/
[2] Ballotpedia, “Party affiliation of the mayors of the 100 largest cities,” Ballotpedia, November 2024. https://ballotpedia.org/Party_affiliation_of_the_mayors_of_the_100_largest_cities
[3] John Blake, “This fiery evangelical pastor offers a blueprint for Democrats’ revival in Trump’s second term,” CNN, November 24, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/24/us/reverend-william-barber-democrats-cec/index.html ; Poor People’s Campaign, “Waking the Sleeping Giant: Poor and Low-Income Voters in the 2020 Elections,” Poor People’s Campaign, October 2021. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/waking-the-sleeping-giant-poor-and-low-income-voters-in-the-2020-elections/
Jeremy Brecher is a co-founder and senior strategic advisor for the Labor Network for Sustainability. He is the author of more than a dozen books on labor and social movements, including Strike! Common Preservation in a Time of Mutual Destruction, and The Green New Deal from Below.
The mission of the Labor Network for Sustainability is to be a relentless force for urgent, science-based climate action by building a powerful labor-climate movement to secure an ecologically sustainable and economically just future where everyone can make a living on a living planet.
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers. Donate
Jeremy Brecher is a historian, author, and co-founder of the Labor Network for Sustainability. He has been active in peace, labor, environmental, and other social movements for more than half a century. Brecher is the author of more than a dozen books on labor and social movements, including Strike! and Global Village or Global Pillage and the winner of five regional Emmy awards for his documentary movie work.
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