Where Is the Resistance?
A multitude of excellent people speak on podcasts about the horrendousness of the White House administration. How outrageous. How bad for America. The next catastrophe. One single voice after another, while Trump and his cronies fill their coffers, break friendships and dismantle democracy.
The two âNo Kingsâ marches led to what I predicted: Absolutely nothing. They seemed to have had no goals, no long-term strategy and were not part of a standing movement.
Hence, as a friend from Europe, the question arises: Where is the resistance? The broad battering coalition?
A common factor behind successful political revolts âis that they succeeded in empowering a fairly broad cross-section of society,â as stated by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson in the book âWhy Nations Fail.â
Acemoglu and Robinson mention the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 as an example. It was empowered by a broad coalition of merchants, industrialists, landowners and members of the autocracy opposing King James II. None of these groups could have done it on their own. The revolution, among others, led to the Parliament taking control of taxes and property rights, paving the way for the Industrial Revolution.
Another example is from Brazil. In the 1980s, Lula da Silvaâs Workersâ Party secured support not only from labour unions but also from churches, studentsâ unions and social movements. As a result, the party contributed to restoring democracy after 21 years of military dictatorship. Furthermore, the Workersâ Party had a strong presence in rural and local communities. By doing so, the movement comprised the whole of the country, not just city elites.
And the latter is something the Brazilian party has in common with the Hungarian Tisza party, led by PĂŠter Magyar, which won by a landslide in the recent elections.
Apart from a string of opposition parties joining ranks behind Magyar, Tisza run a persistent campaign in rural areas. These were usually Orbanâs stronghold. In small communities, the party managed to break the spell of pluralistic ignorance: Everybody believed that everybody else was an Orban supporter. When people realised that wasnât the case, many of them turned their back on Orban and voted for Magyarâs Tisza.
What Magyar, Lula and all the others understood is that you need to put aside your normal battles, be it left-right, church-secular, urban-rural or ethnicity and take on the common enemy. âSomething more important is at stake here now.â
Focus on who you can work with, not who you can break down. Put your chest beating tendencies aside. Drop âwe and theyâ and your need to winâall the damn time.
A strong, broad coalition may not be enough, though, to depose an autocratic regime.
The coalition in Hungaryâs 2022 election was not united enough.
In Venezuela, the coalition behind Maria Corina Machado won the election in 2024, but was not strong enough to topple the Chavista regime led by now ousted Maduro.
However, a broad coalition is a prerequisite for producing political change in dictatorships and autocracies.
A good example of what happens when you have a fragmented opposition is Iran. The country has gone through uprising after uprising against the Islamic regimeâto no avail.
After 47 years in exile, the best the Iranian diasporas can agree on is Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the dictator the regime replaced. To be fair, the Iranians have only ever experienced brief periods of democracy. Building democratic coalitions is not easy if you have little practice.
That is certainly one excuse they donât have in America. The November elections may turn Trump into a lame drivelling duck if Democrats win a majority in the House and the Senate. But if Americans had managed to build a broad, battering coalition against Trump by now, there would have been much less hope and much more certainty about that happening.
Imagine if a united opposition had been established during Trumpâs first administration? Perhaps all of us could have been spared this orange nightmare.
But Americans didnât. Therefore, the best time to start is now.
So, to any American with an inch of influence: Stop wasting time on podcast after podcast about âwhat to do about Trump.â Start talking to each other. Come up with a plan. The world is waiting, and here in Europe, we are gradually losing patience with you.
Thanks for reading! Hit the subscribe button, and consider what you can do to push back against sinister forcesâother than listening to podcasts.
LINKS
How Venezuelaâs opposition proved its election win: âA brilliant political moveâ
WHAT HAPPENED IN HUNGARYâS ELECTION? (2022)
How PĂŠter Magyar Defeated Viktor OrbĂĄn
Britannica: Luiz InĂĄcio Lula da Silva
âWhy Nations Failâ by Daron Acemoglu and James. A. Robinson
Why Iranâs opposition is fracturing â and how to fix it
How to spot âpluralistic ignoranceâ before it derails your team