It was dangerously cold outside on Monday, which necessitated that Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony be held inside the Capitol Rotunda. Four years ago on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump’s MAGA followers attacked the Capitol with the goal of keeping him in office and nullifying the results of the 2020 election. They carried the Confederate Battle Flag. During the Civil War, that symbol of white supremacy and treason never flew inside of the Capitol. Four years later, Trump would stand in the Capitol building and take his oath of office as the country’s first elected autocrat who has promised to rule as a dictator on “day one.”
One of Trump's first official acts on Monday was to either pardon or commute the sentences of nearly all the MAGA followers (approximately 1,600 people in total) who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 in his name. They will likely be his most zealous foot soldiers and enforcers. At The American Prospect, Ryan Cooper summarizes: "This has two immediate effects. The first is to set loose a large number of dangerous insurrectionists who may well form the core of a Sturmabteilung-style paramilitary force. The second is a signal that federal law enforcement will almost certainly not hold anyone who commits crimes or violence on behalf of Trump accountable so long as he is president." In addition to freeing his Jan. 6 MAGA people, Trump would sign many dozens of Executive Orders as part of his shock and awe campaign to destroy President Biden's legacy (and multiracial pluralistic democracy more broadly) and then build the foundations for his autocratic rule as the country's first elected de facto dictator.
Donald Trump and his MAGA movement and their agents are much more dangerous than they were during his first presidency. The MAGA movement and the larger right-wing and the neofascists now have a much better understanding of the weak points and other vulnerabilities in American government and democracy and civil society. Perhaps most importantly, the Supreme Court has made Trump a de facto king who is above the law.
In all, the MAGAverse and the Trumpocene are a type of never-ending horrible story and epic, one that is overwritten and contains so many plot twists and genres that if it were fiction few people would read or watch it. Unfortunately, this never-ending horrible story is the reality that the American people and the world must now navigate for (at least) the next four years.
What of the Resistance to Trump and the MAGA movement that was the focus of so much praise and discussion during his first time in the White House?
The Democrats are not acting like an opposition party. Instead, they are trying to find ways to cooperate (or more accurately collaborate) with Trump and his MAGA Republicans. The mainstream news media is preemptively surrendering to Trump as well. Civil society organizations are on the defense, afraid of how Trump’s administration and its agents will use lawfare and perhaps even go so far as to declare them supporters of terrorism or find other ways to take away their funding and tax-exempt nonprofit status as “enemies of the people.” This is in addition to how threats of violence and intimidation will create an overall chilling effect on attempts to organize in opposition to the Trump administration and the MAGA agenda and in defense of American democracy and freedom.
What about the activists, large protests, marches and other such actions? The everyday Americans who comprise the base of the Resistance are tired, exhausted and frustrated and, for now, at least, appear to have tapped out of a rematch with President Donald Trump before it has even begun.
Ultimately, the Resistance, in whatever form it is going to take, will have to use new approaches (which will necessarily mean (re)learning lessons from successful pro-democracy movements both here and abroad, such as the Black Freedom Struggle and the civil rights movement) to confront and hopefully slow down Trumpism and American fascism’s advance.
The Resistance is quickly running out of time. President Trump’s “shock and awe” and “trauma” campaign is no longer a hypothetical. It is real, here and will gain great momentum in the days and weeks ahead.
In an attempt to gain some perspective as we navigate Trump’s return to power and the rise of MAGA America, I recently spoke with Virginia Kase Solomón, president and CEO of Common Cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization driving systemic change and holding power accountable through grassroots advocacy and legislative action. Since 1970, Common Cause has championed government accountability, ethics and the removal of big money from our nation’s political system. Today, the organization represents over 1.5 million members and 23 state offices.
This is the second part of a two-part conversation.
What is democracy? Why should Americans want to protect and preserve it?
As shown by the outcome of the 2024 election, real democracy is not something that many Americans appear to embrace or are willing to defend. Cheap gas and eggs and “the border crisis” were more important than the Constitution, democracy and the rule of law for those Americans who put Trump back in power.
This is a really great question and it’s one we discuss a lot at Common Cause. From a values standpoint, it really is about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as described in the Declaration of Independence. At its core, democracy is a system of government where the public elects leaders to advocate on their behalf. In theory, it was created to empower everyday people and to prevent the consolidation of power by any one despot or monarch. Although we know that American democracy has always been flawed and has never fully met its promise, most Americans still support this system of government and we know for a fact that they will protect it when they think it’s being challenged. It is not just partisan battles we should keep a close eye on but also inaction from lame-duck legislatures that failed to codify voter protections for disenfranchised voters before leaving office.
It’s also true that millions of Americans don’t feel our democracy can deliver for them right now. For that reason, many people are willing to take a chance on political leaders who attack democratic norms and promise a full overhaul of our system. These people have every right to be concerned and as we begin a new term in Washington, it’s on all political leaders in both parties to show Americans that our democracy is still able to address the most pressing challenges of our time.
Democracy is something we do. Part of defending democracy in this time of American autocracy and ascendant fascism will mean doing things in one’s own immediate community that on the surface do not look like “politics." This will be a very long struggle and not one measured in a few years or one election cycle.
It’s true that all politics is local, and over the next few years, I expect we’ll see a lot more young people taking action at the community level to address the issues that they feel are overlooked by our leaders in Washington. People can do amazing things when they come together.
I can speak from firsthand experience about the impact of community organizing. When I was 22, I helped launch the Hartford Youth Peace Initiative in Connecticut, a nonprofit to provide a safety net and educational support to youth. I came out of a community with only a 56 percent high school graduation rate. We had more people living in public housing per capita than any other city in the country. This was a time — and a community — that was very economically disenfranchised and over-policed. We weren’t getting help from adults or elected leaders, so we took action and got organized. We saw that there were not enough social programs, so we fundraised and built programming to help young people improve their education. This is democracy in action, people organizing to yield power and make positive change. This work wasn’t unique. It happens to this day in communities all around the country and it requires investment.
Is Donald Trump a populist? Is MAGA a populist movement?
In short, yes. Trump is a populist. He has the ability to speak to broad voter anger and voters are very angry. They feel like the system doesn’t work, so they’re willing to put their trust in someone who speaks to that anger. However, grassroots organizing was created to empower everyday people, the kind of folks who don’t have a lobbyist fighting for their interests in Washington. The MAGA movement has hijacked the traditional tactics of grassroots organizing but used it to advance an agenda that serves our country’s richest citizens.
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If we’re going to defend democracy and unite an electoral majority behind important policies in D.C. and in states across the country, we need to meet people where they are and address the issues that impact them most acutely every day. Some of the most common issues are affordability, access to healthcare, safety, freedom of expression and so much more. Too often, political leaders fall into the trap of lecturing their constituents when they should actually be on the ground, in their communities, listening to people talk about their problems.
Using the exact same strategies from the last time Trump was in power will likely not be effective given how he has expanded his base of support, has professionalized and expanded his attack on democracy, the country’s institutions and the rule of law and has the Supreme Court, almost literally, in his back pocket.
The next four years will look a lot different than the last Trump administration. However, the president is still fundamentally the same person he was when he was elected in 2016, even if he has a more professional operation around him. We can learn a lot from the first term and shouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the past as we work through these next four years.
A few high-level lessons:
1) criticize the politician and/or the policy, but not the voters
2) don’t get so lost in fact-checking that you amplify the president-elect’s lies to a larger audience
3) focus on bringing people together around issues where we agree
4) make it plain and simple for people to understand the impact of issues on them and their lives and why they should care
The right-wing and “conservatives” and other actors spent decades building parallel organizations, institutions, media, think tanks and interest groups. What can the Resistance and others who want to help defend and renew American democracy learn from the opposition?
The GOP was much better at using non-traditional media spaces to reach voters in 2024 and politicians on both sides of the aisle have fully embraced the power of podcasts and Substack as a means of mass communication.
In general, I think legacy media as a whole needs to do a better job of reaching people. For many voters, the intervention of Jeff Bezos in The Washington Post’s endorsement decision was deeply concerning. So many great papers and networks have shuttered, consolidated, or been bought out by billionaires. Over the next four years, I’d encourage folks to really focus on identifying independent newsrooms, responsible voices on social media and new platforms to communicate and build new coalitions.
Much media attention and that of the engaged public has been focused on Project 2025 for example. But Project 2025 is just one part of a much larger revolutionary project by the American right to remake society in their vision. What are some of the other initiatives and projects that you and your colleagues are monitoring?
While all eyes are on Trump and the imminent threats of Project 2025 and Agenda 47’s egregious policies, we must not lose sight of the democracy denialist threats playing out in state legislatures and city halls across the country. These hyper-local policies will have massive implications for our democratic processes.
Take a look at the Allison Riggs-Jefferson Griffin race for state Supreme Court in North Carolina. Griffin, the Republican candidate and North Carolina appellate judge, lost the race to Democratic Supreme Court incumbent Allison Riggs. He lost by just over 700 votes, with over five million ballots cast. The Republican Party is demanding that 60,000 lawfully cast ballots get thrown out despite two recounts and weeks of litigation — an attempt to silence voters and interfere in North Carolina’s democratic election system. This challenge disenfranchises voters and calls the entire state’s election system into question. A Republican-controlled Supreme Court in North Carolina will now decide the winner of the race, which could create a dangerous precedent for other state legislatures.
It is not just partisan battles we should keep a close eye on but also inaction from lame-duck legislatures that failed to codify voter protections for disenfranchised voters before leaving office.
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I also think that we have to pay close attention to the role of billionaires and corporations in our government and how they are influencing policy, elections and our courts. Far too many of our elected officials, and even a few Supreme Court Justices, are — dare I say — being bought and paid for by those whose very interests are not aligned with the American people. While this is not new, this level of corruption is at an all-time high and we cannot look away. The role that money has in politics has gotten so out of control that we now have people questioning if Donald Trump is just a proxy for Elon Musk. That’s both sad and embarrassing for our country.
What will it require for the Democrats and other mainstream political actors, including the news media, to adopt a posture of being the opposition? I have deep worries that the Democratic Party, given its present leadership, is even capable of operating in that manner.
The country is very polarized right now. But when you remove the parties, there’s broad consensus on a lot of issues. People want the same things: they want to earn a living, have freedom over their bodies, have access to adequate health care and live free from fear or intimidation. These are universal values shared by a broad spectrum of voters. These are values that both parties should be holding sacred while looking for real solutions.
Remember, a lot of the people who voted for Bernie Sanders also voted for Donald Trump. We must hold both parties accountable and realize that we must save ourselves, no political party or politician is going to do that for us.
What is the role of big money and moneyed interests in Trump 2.0?
Well, Trump has accepted millions and millions of dollars from CEOs and billionaires to fund his inauguration and pay off his campaign’s debts. Additionally, the new Cabinet has over 20 billionaires in it to date. It’s fascinating because the involvement of elite corporate interests has been a Republican talking point used to critique the Democratic party, but the same standard does not exist for Trump’s administration. This needs to be addressed.
There’s an expression: tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are. When Trump is surrounding himself with billionaire donors and tech leaders, he is separating himself from the American people, especially the middle and working class. When the founder of SpaceX is put in charge of regulating NASA, you have a serious conflict of interest.
What do you want to prepare the American people for in these weeks and months ahead?
We will see injustice. We will see inequity, oppression and unjust laws. This is not new in America. However, for many, this is the first time you will have experienced this for yourself. Be reminded that far too many have experienced these things their entire lives. It is okay to feel sadness, anger and even despair, but you cannot sit in it. Use those emotions as motivation to be part of the change. Find ways to engage and be in community with others. There, you will find the inspiration you need. There, you will find joy and hope — both of which are active forms of resistance.
A few years ago, I was arrested with the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. We were engaging in civil disobedience with the Black Women’s Roundtable protesting at the Senate in an effort to get them to eliminate the filibuster so we could pass voting rights legislation. She was one of my cellmates. As we sat in our cell talking, she said, “Isn’t this great?” I responded, “Isn’t what great? Being in jail?” She responded, “Yes. How fortunate are we that we get the honor and the blessing of doing this work for so many people?” Perspective. Even in a jail cell, she took pleasure in doing something that just might make people’s lives better. We didn’t win that battle, but we both left that day knowing that we had done our part — with joy, to fight another day. There will always be another day and one day, we will win.
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