Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:56 pm
In an open letter, 22 national progressive leaders called Donald Trump’s candidacy a threat to democracy and urged the formation of a national voter resistance movement to stop Trump.
The letter states:
This is a five-alarm fire for our democracy.
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A hate-peddling bigot who openly incites violence is the likely presidential nominee of one of our nation’s two major parties. It is alarming and dangerous.
Donald Trump’s candidacy is a threat to the America we love, and we must respond to him and what he is stoking as such—with a nonviolent movement grounded in love and community that ensures that he never comes anywhere near the White House, and perhaps even more importantly, makes clear to every other politician and every person in the United States that racist demagoguery is a dead-end political strategy that most Americans reject.
We do that by being ourselves—by demonstrating the kind of resilient, diverse, prosperous nation that we must build for the sake of our lives, our families, and the potential of our country.
That’s why today we are calling for a massive nonviolent mobilization of working people, students, immigrants, children of immigrants, great-great-grandchildren of immigrants, people of color and white people, the unemployed and under-employed, people of faith, retirees, veterans, women, and men—anyone who opposes bigotry and hate and loves freedom and justice—to stand up to Trump’s bullying and bigotry.
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We call for:
– Non-violent mobilization and organizing. What could this look like in your community? 500 families rallying against hate at the high school football stadium, or 50,000 marching in the streets of your city for love and against hate. Door to door conversations about the values that make our democracy thrive. Teach-ins on the importance of confronting hate. Letters to the editor. Vigorous social media presence. Prayer vigils. Yes, yes, and yes.
– Asking every media outlet, corporation, and office-holder—from the school board on up to Congress—“Will you condemn Trump’s racism, misogyny and xenophobia?†No one’s off the hook. Decades of dog-whistle politics from political, corporate, and media elites rigging institutions and the economy in their favor at most people’s expense have fertilized the ground that Trump is now tilling for his own gain.
– A voting renaissance. We know that a majority of Americans reject hate-baiting and racism—if we vote, we stop Trump, and we show that our country is better than this. We can do that while building an even more powerful progressive majority. We need to build a massive volunteer effort to door-knock, phone bank and have real conversations with voters of color, new U.S. citizens, women, Muslim-Americans, working class voters and white voters. It’s that simple.
The letter was signed by Anna Galland & Ilya Sheyman, MoveOn.org, Ana Maria Archila, Center for Popular Democracy Action, Deepak Bhargava, Center for Community Change Action, May Boeve, 350 Action, Michael Brune, Sierra Club Rea Carey, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, Judith Browne Dianis, Advancement Project, Alexandra Flores-Quilty, United States Students Association, Cristina Jimenez, United We Dream Action, George Goehl, National People’s Action Campaign, Sarita Gupta, Jobs With Justice, Ilyse Hogue, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Annie Leonard, Greenpeace USA, Heather McGhee, Demos Action, Ai-jen Poo, Domestic Worker Legacy Fund, Rashad Robinson, ColorOfChange, Angelica Salas, CHIRLA Action Fund, Linda Sarsour, MPowerChange.org, Eveline Shen, Forward Together Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Miya Yoshitani, APEN Action.
As Sarah Jones and Jason Easley discussed on the most recent Politicus Radio podcast, Trump is waging a culture war that he and the Republican Party will lose:
The letter was not an endorsement by the organizations listed above but signed by leaders of these organizations. The progressive leaders are correct on every count. The rise of Donald Trump is about more than winning or losing an election. The Republican Party has demonstrated that it is powerless to stop Trump. The movement to stop Trump is going to have to come from a coalition of voters themselves.
It doesn’t matter if the Democratic nominee is Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. The left, middle, and moderate right will have to unite behind the Democratic nominee to stop Donald Trump. The open letter is the first step in the forming of a national anti-Trump voter coalition, and you can add your name to the letter by clicking here
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
