Opinion | ‘Of Course People Are Angry’: Four Columnists Unpack What the Democrats Are Missing

Gessen: All of the above. But that wouldn’t be enough. A lot of what you are asking about, Patrick, is already happening. There are protests — Erica Chenoweth, a very interesting political scientist who studies nonviolence, has shown that there are many more protests than there were in 2017, when it felt like the resistance to Trump’s first presidency was more robust. And pushback in the courts, on the part of judges and, of course, the lawyers who are challenging a range of executive actions, is something to behold.

So the question is: What’s missing? Why does it feel like resistance is absent or weak or futile?

Let’s start with who is missing: the Democrats, as a legislative force and as a political force. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are the literal exception that proves the rule, because their evidently very resonant tour is not an expression of the Democratic Party’s position. In the two-party system, when the opposition party is absent, it means that there is no broad understanding underlying the opposition to Trump. You can’t make up for that by creating a group that would defend trans Americans, a group that would stand up for the universities and a group of young Democrats — though, organizationally, all of these may be good ideas.

Tufekci: I think a lot of the anger is over the incompetent, inept opposition people witnessed since Trump took power. There is a similar dynamic in Turkey, now embroiled in protests after the popular, charismatic mayor of Istanbul expected to challenge Recip Tayyip Erdogan was recently arrested and may not be able to run. Many people are in the streets and they’re fuming at this arrest, but they are also angry at the opposition parties which did not strategize and organize effectively during two decades of Erdogan’s rule when he had less concentrated power.

And I’ll say this as someone who wrote a book on protests and has studied them (or participated in them) for decades: There is no magic in the streets or in large numbers showing up for protests unless it’s part of a smart, strategic and organized mobilization over time. Nowadays, politicians routinely survive large street protests that aren’t part of a larger, effective and long-term strategic action by ignoring them, repressing them, criminalizing them or even just by shrugging their shoulders and organizing counterprotests.

Kristof: Opposition can and should take many forms. But I think we also need to take a deep breath. During Trump’s first term, his outrageous behavior moved many of us — me included — to the left in ways that diminished our effectiveness in countering him. When Trump was tearing apart families at the border, I was ready to embrace every immigrant I could find. And as a result, we didn’t pay adequate attention to the tens of millions of Americans who were saying they wanted some tighter lid on immigration. And if you consistently ignore voters on an issue that is a priority to them, you lose elections.