TRUMP BLOWBACK GROWS: PROGRESSIVE UPDATE

By Ronald T. Fox

In my previous post on overcoming Trump Fatigue, I argued that the multiple horrors of Trumpism have awakened American progressives, who are energizing a wide array or movements on the left. The movements, while not radically progressive, are pervasively so, as political scientists Lara Putnam and Theda Skocpol have shown. They’re more bottom up than top down and more face-to-face than virtual. The movements may not be a harbinger of transformative progressive change, but for now they are certainly shaking up American politics.

Progressive activism has reshaped our national dialogue on such issues as immigration, climate change, woman’s rights, the rule of law, and gun control. Its greatest success so far, however, has been in flipping Republican seats in oft-ignored state and local elections.

To document the many ways millions of angry Americans are successfully fighting back against Trumpism, I will henceforth periodically report on progressive political victories springing up around the United States. Heaven knows we get enough Trumpism bad news; good news needs to be noted, if for nothing else then to assuage some of our Trump Fatigue. Let this be the first installment of the Phronesis “Progressive Grassroots Update.”

What encourages me most about the aroused grassroots political energy is that it appears to be focusing less on the outrages, insults and scandals of the Trump Administration, which has fatigued so many, and is now centering more on the policies and job performance of the Trump team and its opportunistic Republican enablers. A growing number of Americans are coming to realize the insidious nature of Trumpism. Most Americans don’t want to lose access to medical coverage. They don’t want unregulated banks and corporations and tax policies that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy. They don’t want dirty air, unsafe drinking water, and a warming planet. They don’t want to find it harder to vote. They don’t want to see immigrants who entered the U.S. as minors and have lived and worked in this country for years, deported. And, they don’t fathom the shamefully easy access to assault rifles, especially for kids.

Americans are waking up to what’s on the line and their acting to do something about it. Change is percolating, not yet within the Beltway, but in communities throughout America. This is the big story about Trumpism that the mainstream media is failing to report. So, let’s look at some recent grassroots-generated successes.

Democrat victories in previously Republican dominated districts continue to mount. In Wisconsin in January, for example, where Trump in 2016 etched out a very narrow victory that was instrumental in his election, Patty Schachtner, a medical examiner and school-board member, was elected in in a special election for the 10^th State Senate District. This was in a gerrymandered district the outgoing Republican had won in 2016 by 26 points. This result represented a 37 percent swing to the Democrats. In this same district, Trump ran 17-points ahead of Hillary Clinton.

Schachtner was the 34^th Democrat to flip a Republican state legislature seat since Trump took office. Signs are that gerrymandering, and tons of money, may no longer guarantee Republican victories, an especially encouraging development.

Progressive Candidate Training  Workshop

Even more impressive is that 22 of the 34 winners to this point have been women. The empowerment of women is perhaps the most encouraging response to Trumpism. More and more women are deciding to run for political office. Groups like Emily’s list count more than 26,000 women planning to seek federal, state or local office.

Red-to-blue flips are springing up seemingly everywhere. In Florida’s historically Republican House District 72, Democrat Margaret Good, an attorney and community activist, defeated Republican James Buchanan 52-45 percent, improving on the 2016 Democratic presidential performance by 12 points. Good’s robust campaign drew heavily on grassroots energy: volunteers reportedly made over 120,000 phone calls and knocked on 45,000 doors in the district. Signs of an anti-trump backlash were apparent, as national Republicans keyed on the campaign and even sent a key Trump campaign operative to help get out the vote.

In Kentucky, Democrats flipped a state House District seat Trump won by 49 points in 2016. Former state Rep. Linda Belcher defeated Republican Rebecca Johnson 68-32 percent. This amounts to an 86-point swing. Belcher’s win represented the 37^th red-to-blue pickup since Trump’s election.

A Progressive Surge

Grassroots activism from the left is not just centered on flipping seats, it is springing up in other areas where conservative policies have angered citizens. Activists are using showings of the film Black Panther to register blacks to vote. Others are targeting lawmakers associated with unpopular Republican policies. On climate change, for example, grassroots activism has pushed city and state lawmakers to act on their own for a clean-energy future. Aroused teenage survivors of the Stoneman Douglass High School shooting are demanding to be heard about the need for gun control and are taking their fight directly to elected officials. This has introduced a new dynamic into the gun control debate. It appears some conservatives are listening.

Less we get giddy about mushrooming liberal activism, it’s important to recognize the persistence of the conservative power structure, which is deeply entrenched in our national and state political institutions, court system, and the mass media. We need to also keep in mind that while Trumpism has indeed inspired a progressive blowback, it has at the same time strengthened the resolve of the President’s base. Polls show the scam “tax reform” has ticked-up his approval rating. Republican lawmakers who have criticized Trump in the past are falling in line behind the President. Few, at least those facing upcoming primaries, appear willing to disavow the Trumpster.

The road toward a rejection of Trumpism, and a surge of progressive politics, is, to be sure, fraught with obstacles, perhaps not the least of which will be within the Democratic Party itself. While surging progressive activism to this point has almost exclusively supported Democrats, this does not predict an easy road for establishment Democrats in the future. Several Democrat incumbents are facing serious primary challenges from more liberal younger women and minority candidates. The ideological battle to define the party is already playing out in overwhelmingly safe House districts around cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and Houston. Some long-serving Senate Democrats, like Diane Feinstein in California, are also being challenged from the Left. It appears the days of white men-dominated-clubhouse Democratic politics may be over.

The polls may be trending favorably toward Democrats as we approach midterm elections, but it’s hard to envision any transformative progressive change occurring unless the Democratic Party comes up with more than opposition to Trump, specifically a platform that seeks to restore its commitment to racial and social justice and to its working-class roots.  For the Democratic Party to serve as a vehicle for progressive change, it must break away from the suffocating elite consensus on national security, nuclear modernization, defense spending, economic libertarianism, austerity, and money in politics, to name a few.  Democrats cannot confront our obscene inequality, shrinking middle class, endless wars, and our plutocratic politics unless it builds a governing majority with elected officials dedicated to transforming this country.

All said, there is still good reason to be encouraged by progressive trends. Trumpism may be energizing his base and sapping the courage of establishment Republicans, but it is arousing a sleeping progressive giant. It remains to be seen, however, whether rising progressive forces will be able to overcome the hate-filled, anti-everything populist forces coalescing on the hard right.

We stand at a crossroad.  Will we take the Left path leading to a more inclusive progressive democracy, or the Right, leading to a fascistic autocracy? A middle path predicts endless gridlock.  There's a great deal at stake in the path we take.  For democracy-loving Americans, the choice is obvious.  Thank goodness for progressive activists.  Stay tuned