It’s been 18 months since Donald Trump started his second term in the White House. Since then, his Administration has limited our civil liberties, cut our social services, targeted immigrants, and attacked scientific integrity and the scientific process. Americans have responded with unprecedented levels of protest. In fact, there were three times as many protests in the early months of the second Trump administration compared with the same period eight years ago. But what gets people out in the streets pushing back to attacks on our democracy again-and-again and how do we support them?
During the first Trump Administration, Lorien Jasny and I studied what explained Persistence in the Resistance to the first Trump Administration. We analyzed data collected from multiple large-scale protest events to understand patterns of repeat participation in resistance during the cycle of protest against the Trump Administration and its policies.
After the first Women’s March in 2017, which was the largest single day of protest in US history (to that point) and mobilized many new protesters–a third of participants reported never protesting before that day–most participants in subsequent protests during the first Trump Administration were not first timers (see the figure above). Our research found clear patterns regarding who turned out again-and-again: persisters were already civically engaged and were motivated particularly by the issue of reproductive rights in America.
As we approach the Midterm elections and we continue to see numerous coordinated days of protest, we are seeing similar patterns of repeat participation: very few people whom we have surveyed in the streets report being first-time protesters and most are already very civically engaged. My team and I are working to analyze if the same patterns hold during this cycle of contention.
In the meantime, we also need to think through how to and limit burnout during this marathon to protect our democracy. I had an important conversation with Katharine Wilkinson about how to support activists in the current moment and her new book: Climate Wayfinding. Although the book is focused on supporting sustained participation in the climate movement, the takeaways are useful for all of us as we try to stay motivated and engaged as our world warms and democracy struggles to survive.
Katharine spoke at length about protecting against burnout and how we can support one another as we work together to save ourselves. Tune in below (or wherever you Pod):
Dana R Fisher 