WASHINGTON (AP) – Demonstrators upset over the election of Donald Trump have marched in cities around the country over the past week, and some are making plans to be in Washington for his inauguration Jan. 20. But whether marches will become a movement is an open question.
At this early stage, the protesters who have taken to the streets to brand Trump a bigot and a sexist and chant “Not my president!” appear to be mostly venting their frustrations and do not seem to have coalesced behind overall leaders or a common set of demands.
Columbia University professor Todd Gitlin, who as an early leader of Students for a Democratic Society helped organize an anti-Vietnam War demonstration that brought thousands to Washington in 1965, said the anti-Trump protests by themselves “are not the makings of a movement.”
“A movement requires that clusters of people take responsibility for creating vehicles that can carry through, focus energy, develop priorities, strategize, recruit, figure out how to govern themselves,” Gitlin said.
For that to happen, a critical mass of protesters has to “transform their mindset from protest into successful politics, which is much less exciting,” he said. Gitlin said that means “dirtying our hands in winning local and state battles which are instrumental to changing the national balance.”