American Resistance, by Dana R. Fisher (preface)

PREFACE

MY MOM

died on the day of the 2018 midterm elections after

an agonizing battle with dementia. After voting with my kids in the morning, we were waiting for the returns to begin coming in when I got the call from the hospice nurse. Although my mom wasn’t particularly civically engaged, she was an outspoken progressive who voted regularly, kept up with national politics, and adored Rachel Maddow. My mom had not paid much attention to my work on this book, although she had read my previous books, underlining as she made her way through them. In one of our last real conversations in early fall of 2018, she made it very clear that she thought the title “American Resistance” was a stinker.

Before the dementia had overtaken her, my mom would tell people that her greatest success was that she had raised three strong-willed and independent daughters in a changing world.

PREFACE

Coming of age in the 1950s, she grew up during the era when being a woman in America changed substantially: she was neither old enough to be comfortable following through with traditional expectations, nor young enough to feel comfortable marching in the streets and burning her bras.

Even as she tried to find a path that made her feel fulfilled, she infused my sisters and me with an understanding that being a woman in the United States required that we create our own identities, speak up for ourselves, and pay attention.

Thanks to these efforts by my mom, my sisters and I have all created lives that involve clear professional identities that are interwoven with full personal lives that include families. As every working woman with children will tell you, every day is a challenge. But I believe it is one that we were more prepared for thanks to my mom.

Although my sisters and I took different paths, we all fit the profile of the majority of the participants in the Resistance: highly educated, white women, with varying levels of civic engagement and political experiences. At the same time, our participation in the Resistance (and the ways my sisters and I have gotten involved and stayed involved over the past two years) varies substantially in what we each have done and where and how we have focused our efforts.

On November 6, 2018, the people of the United States elected a diverse class of legislators into the House of Representatives, a group that included more women and more people of color than ever before. The outcome of the election would have made my mom happy. At the same time, the 2018 election was plagued with allegations of electoral inequities around the country that

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were linked to voter suppression and gerrymandering. Clearly, there is still much more work to be done.

This book began as a side project that took advantage of the fact that I had a lot of experience surveying at large-scale demonstrations and a big protest was coming to Washington, D.C.—the January 2017 Women’s March. My colleagues and I put together our survey specifically to see how many of the different factions of the progressive movement made it into the streets for the Women’s March, but as the Resistance grew the project expanded along with it.

In many ways, studying the American Resistance over these past two years has been therapeutic. It has also reinforced my belief in the need for strong social science research, which is the reason I left politics in the first place. Although there are numerous indicators of growing problems in our country, the American Resistance documents how many Americans woke up after the 2016 election, and it has reminded me of the beauty and resilience of our unique (and flawed) version of democracy.

This book is the product of hundreds of hours of observation in the streets of Washington, D.C. as hundreds of thousands of people marched again and again. It includes meetings with civic leaders and activists and numerous conversations with representatives of national progressive groups that were working to cultivate and channel this diverse and unwieldy movement.

It tells the story of American democracy as it works to better itself and reminds us all that democracy is a work in progress; it is only as good as the people who take the time and energy to participate in it.

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“American Resistance is an important book, not only as a portrait of our moment but also as a challenge to traditional understandings of protest politics. Dana R. Fisher shows how wrong it is—especially in the Trump Era— to draw sharp lines between protest and electoral action. She details what drove millions to come out in revolt against Trump, explains who they are, and demonstrates how the early marches translated into the unprecedented political engagement of 2018. There are lessons here for 2020 and beyond.”

— E. J. DIONNE, JR., COAUTHOR OF ONE NATION AFTER TRUMP: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED, THE DISILLUSIONED, THE DESPERATE, AND THE NOT-YET DEPORTED “American Resistance charts the course of the anti-Trump surge in activism and organizing, shedding light on crucial realities and busting myths along the way. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the people-powered movements that are changing American politics in the Trump era.”

— LEAH GREENBERG, CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INDIVISIBLE

P ra is e fo r

e c n a t s i s e r N AMERICA “After the shocking 2016 election, millions of Americans took to streets and meeting halls to fight President Trump’s agenda and revitalize U.S. democracy. Using interviews with the leaders of national political groups and surveys of thousands of participants in D.C. protest marches, Fisher offers a window into their passionate, loosely coordinated efforts to boost 2018 Democratic fortunes in Congress and the states while proclaiming a very un-Trumpian vision for the country’s future.”

— THEDA SKOCPOL, DIRECTOR, SCHOLARS STRATEGY NETWORK, AND VICTOR S. THOMAS PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT AND SOCIOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY “More than just a fascinating piece of sociological research, Fisher’s study will be a valuable resource for movement activists, helping them better understand the inner dynamics of their organizing work .”

— JAMES ZOGBY, FOUNDER OF THE ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE AND BOARD MEMBER OF OUR REVOLUTION

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS / NEW YORK cup.columbia.edu Printed in the U.S.A.