WASHINGTON, Pa. — In the winter of 2018, Cindy Callaghan knocked on doors. Lots and lots of doors. A new soldier in the sprawling ranks of the anti-Trump resistance, she spent her weekends in the small towns of southwestern Pennsylvania, telling strangers about Conor Lamb, the Democrat who was running for Congress in a district that President Trump carried by nearly 20 percentage points.
When Mr. Lamb won his special election in a narrow but stunning upset, it seemed that there was an opportunity, if enough people put in enough work, to change minds and thus change the country’s politics. “I felt like there was,” Ms. Callaghan said.
Now, as she watches the Republicans’ swift rebuff of impeachment charges, the meltdown of the Iowa caucuses and the infighting among the supporters of various Democratic presidential candidates, she feels that less and less. “It doesn’t matter — find any kind of totally corrupt thing that Trump did and it doesn’t matter,” she said. “Republicans are just unified. They’re a damn steel curtain.”
“I’m taking a break until this summer,” she said.
Three years ago, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protest of Mr. Trump, the resistance seemed immense. Two years ago, when legions of canvassers and postcard writers helped flip dozens of congressional seats nationwide, it proved effective. Now with the 2020 election approaching, the Democratic Party seems as disjointed as ever, while the Trump administration appears not only undismayed but emboldened.
And veterans of the four-year-old resistance, particularly in places where they remain outnumbered, are facing up to an unwelcome truth: This is going to be even harder than it once looked.
Meetings are packed, protesters still gather on freezing sidewalks and the big picture is repeated like a mantra: The goal is building a solid political infrastructure that will pay off in the long run. But in the back of crowded community rooms, activists murmur nervously about discord among the Democrats, the unshakable enthusiasm of the Trump faithful and the nagging suspicion that the mission of winning converts and allies might have reached its limits. The long run is nice, but 2020, as even the most patient concede, is The Big One.
RandyMarsh
Article URL : https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/trump-resistance-democrats.html