How to Take Heart From What Really Worked in the First Resistance

For many Americans who voted against Donald Trump, the national news right now is hard to take, as Republican winners make over-the-top claims, business leaders bow down, and U.S. senators endorse dangerously unqualified Cabinet nominees. Worst of all are headlines like Politico’s postelection “The Resistance Is Not Coming to Save You. It’s Tuning Out.” If streets and airports are not immediately mobbed with demonstrators, as happened in 2017, many pundits seem to presume that opponents of Trumpism are throwing in the towel. But this misreads the moment. Across the country, many are resolved to resist using effective tactics that will not backfire.

As a political scientist who tracked citizen efforts in the first anti-Trump resistance and visited eight counties repeatedly to talk to leaders and observe meetings, I realize the place to start is understanding what really worked back then. Although marches and lawsuits sent powerful signals, they did not power the key victories. National Women’s March organizers who tried to mount annual reruns soon fell into factional infighting; airport demonstrations followed by lawsuits failed to stop the 2017 Muslim Ban, which the Supreme Court upheld. What worked instead were persistent, community-based efforts by 2,000 to 3,000 grassroots Resistance groups in every town, city, and suburb across virtually all congressional districts. 

Women and men in these grassroots groups met regularly, informed themselves about the local implications of Trump initiatives—above all about his push with Republicans to repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Then they spelled out the dire consequences for patients and hospitals and health clinics in their communities and states, speaking in plain English to neighbors, friends, and co-workers. National surveys showed that, in just one year, their efforts dramatically increased public understanding and support for the ACA, helping Senator John McCain turn thumbs-down on its repeal and discouraging Trump and the GOP from trying again. Beyond that big victory in 2017, many local grassroots resisters also ran for election to school boards, state legislatures, and Congress, or supported good candidates, helping propel the Blue Wave that crashed against MAGA in special elections and in November 2018.    

Flash-forward to now, 2025, when a more ruthless MAGA Republican regime newly installed in Washington wants to ram through an even bigger tax cut to boost the mega-wealthy; paid for by shrinking Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, the ACA, and many public school programs on which masses of Americans depend, in red states as well as blue. Trump and allies want to push this all through in one big, hastily assembled partisan bill, before most Americans even know what is hitting them.

Who will warn people? Local news outlets are few and far between, lies will spread on right-wing media, and Washington press will mostly focus on Trump’s latest outlandish threats, lawsuits, or arcane congressional procedures. But regular citizens need clarity about ways D.C. actions impact local communities and everyday people. Grassroots resisters offered such clarity during the first Trump-GOP administration—suggesting a straightforward four-step game plan for new grassroots citizens’ groups today:   

1. Ignore most Trump antics and cast the spotlight on GOP enablers. Many Americans are tired of Trump bluster, and there is no need to track every theatrical twist, most of which are mere distractions that quickly fizzle. Trump will not be on the ballot again; Republicans will be on their own. If critics focus on harmful actions by congressional and state Republicans, they can set the stage to hold these real perpetrators accountable to better-informed voters in 2026 and beyond.

2. Form or join a “truth and consequences team” where you can enjoy companionship and work with a few citizens meeting in person or by Zoom, or perhaps both, in paired teams spanning districts or states. Create a division of labor where members find and share reliable information about the likely actual results of measures on the verge of enactment. Find out what specific pending changes will mean on the ground for your neighbors and your community’s hospitals, schools, and businesses. 

3. Be imaginative about outreach to fellow citizens. One resistance group I visited raised money to set up billboards on the highway. Others wrote letters to publications, visited district congressional offices, and called into radio programs. But it also works to get vivid facts into daily conversations—at church, at sporting events, in your workplace, at the local diner. Share examples with well-connected people sure to talk with others. 

4. Push good people to run for office as Democrats or independents, at all levels in every district. And urge candidates to use plain language. Avoid vague D.C.-speak like “Representative Smith may go along with reconciliation.” Instead, say, “Representative Smith is on the verge of voting to close down the drug rehab programs and an entire wing at our Memorial Hospital,” or “is voting to eliminate education funding that supports after-school programs and 10 teachers at Jefferson Elementary.” Name names, be vivid, don’t pussyfoot. Help everyone connect the dots.

If “truth and consequences” teams swing into action across the country, they can make a big difference. But let me tackle one final issue: Is there a role for a national center or big donors? Perhaps a modest role. As widespread local groups get going, it would help to have an electronic place where citizens can easily access, in real time, accurate information about specific D.C. measures on the table and exactly what they would mean in each local district or state.

This kind of information clearinghouse would not cost much and should not enshrine donors or staffers who control resource flows or issue orders to grassroots groups. The last thing needed by Americans who want change from MAGA pathologies is yet another central directorate shaping the agenda. To quote a recent president who championed democracy and inclusive public policies, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” True enough, and we better get to it ASAP.