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When the camera panned to the audience during Vice President Kamala Harris’ concession speech on Wednesday, many of her supporters literally cried. If cameras had been able to look into homes across the country, they probably would have found plenty of tears there, too.
“Sometimes the fight lasts a while,” the defeated 2024 Democratic presidential candidate said as she concluded her remarks, perhaps with these very people in mind. “That doesn’t mean we won’t win. Most importantly, never give up. Never give up. Never stop trying to make the world a better place.”
The plea had a certain poignancy, coming from the second woman in a decade to run for president and lose to Donald Trump. It also happened in a very different context than Hillary Clinton’s 2016 concession to the Republican. Trump has become more extreme and unbalanced in the intervening years. His 2024 campaign featured “naked racism and misogyny,” as my colleague Nathalie Baptiste wrote this week, as he promised mass deportations of migrants and a radical overhaul of the federal government. Members of his previous government even called him a fascist.
Harris wasn’t the only Democratic leader to urge resilience in the face of Trump’s victory. “We all get knocked down, but the measure of our character, as my father would say, is how quickly we get back up,” President Joe Biden said in a speech at the White House on Thursday. “Remember that defeat does not mean we are defeated.”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) colored her plea, delivered via social media, with a warning. “We are about to enter a political period that will have consequences for the rest of our lives. We can’t give up,” she said.
Of course, such exhortations are standard when losing political cases: We lost today; we will win tomorrow. Keep up the good fight. But these words may be unusually necessary now, given the crucial role that political opposition played after Trump’s last election victory — and the open question of whether such opposition will arise again.
What 2017 was like
It’s been almost a decade, so it’s easy to forget the sheer sense of shock that followed Trump’s election in 2016. Many people simply couldn’t imagine that Trump could actually win the White House. And then he did it.
The immediate effect on the political left was paralysis. But that quickly gave way anger and determination. An organic response took shape – in small social circles, online and offline, until it eventually coalesced into a loosely organized national movement led by groups like the newly formed Indivisible Project.
When Trump took office in 2017, there were demonstrations at airports against his travel and immigration restrictions, as well as a march for women’s rights in Washington. When Trump attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, an outpouring of opposition emerged in Congressional town halls across the country and ultimately on Capitol Hill itself.
This setback almost certainly made a difference. The protests against Obamacare helped save the law, which still exists today. Immigration protests changed the politics of the issue in a way that — as host Chris Hayes recently noted on MSNBC — likely forced Trump to reverse family separation later in his term.
The Women’s March on Washington did not stop Trump from installing the Supreme Court majority that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide. But it laid the activist foundation to keep abortion rights and gender issues in the public eye, fueling the political wave that elected Democrats in the next two midterm elections and then Biden in 2020.
What 2025 could look like
Now Trump is on his way back to the White House. This time there is no jerk on the left side, or at least not the same kind of jerk. Everyone knew him could win, not just because the polls were so close, but simply because he had done it before. Many of his opponents had prepared for this possibility months ago, when Biden was still the Democratic nominee and far behind in the polls.
But there are also signs of despair and fatigue, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. The Democrats and their allies have been at this for almost ten years, in the fight against Trump and Trumpism, only to be back at the starting line.
“The Second American Republic (1868-2024) is over,” Democratic Party advocate and advisor Dmitri Mehlhorn wrote in a letter ending social mediawhich stated what some others said in private. “I gave everything I had to defend it. That fight is over. … I’m going back to the private sector.”
In some ways, such resignation is part of a natural process. Some activists and advocates make a career by promoting their causes. But many will only do it for a while, often in their 20s and 30s, when they are full of post-college idealism and relatively unencumbered. Then they move on to other pursuits, a new generation of energetic idealists take their place, and the cycle repeats.
The cycle could continue — it’s only been a few days — especially if Trump keeps his promises, such as his vow for mass deportations after he takes office next year. The sounds and images of officers taking friends and neighbors from their workplaces and homes and tearing families apart have the potential to be more polarizing than the images of separated children that consumed the American consciousness during Trump’s first term.
It is even possible that this new generation will have certain advantages. Younger activists may better understand how to combat Trumpism in the areas where it flourishes, whether that’s lifestyle podcasts or male-oriented social media platforms. Their willingness to accept Trump and Trumpism as just another part of American politics could help them reach the many voters who clearly feel the same way.
And exhausted or not, it’s clear that many of the old activists – and quite a few new ones – are already preparing for battle.
On Thursday evening, a group of progressive organizations, including MoveOn.org and the Working Families Party, held a virtual meeting led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). Indivisible was also part of the effort.Leah Greenbergthe co-founder and co-executive director, told me that the statistics more than showed that There were 137,000 people on the line, which is more than 8,000 registered as ‘host’ for local organizing efforts in the future.
“What we’re hearing from people is both sadness and determination,” Greenberg said. “And what we see from the statistics is that people who were previously engaged and who are not engaged are re-engaged. Other people are just starting to do it or are thinking about taking it a step further.”
Of course, hope can be a strategic move. In one video released online after Trump’s victory this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — who became the inspiration for a battle cry during Trump’s first term – called not just for resistance to Trump, but for resistance to despair.
“The far right wants us to feel powerless. Extremists rely on apathy, cynicism, heartbreak or all of the above as their rocket fuel,” she said. “I absolutely refuse to give them that satisfaction.”
Nevertheless, the Americans will have to wait and see whether the resistance will continue.
