After the shock of losing the White House and failing to take the majority in the House and Senate, Democrats quickly regrouped and developed a new approach. From town hall protests to sometimes violent demonstrations, they're fighting the Trump agenda at every step. Hillary Clinton recently emerged to announce she's "part of the resistance." We sent our Full Measure cameras to meet the some of the people in the field organizing the resistance.
Sharyl: They’re organizing in Berkeley, California where violent clashes and street brawls broke out. They’re organizing at town hall meetings held by members of Congress.
Town Hall Meeting: Do your job. You suck.
Gene Stilp: I think there’s more energy now that they realize what has happened in this election.
Sharyl: What has happened is, after liberal donors shelled out more than $700 million to put Hillary Clinton in the White House, Donald Trump won. And that prompted
Woman: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Sharyl: a national freak out on the left.
Woman: NOOOOO!!
Brave New Films: If you’re like me you’ve been pretty freaked out by Trump and his agenda.
Sharyl: Since the election, hundreds of groups have formed to convert the disappointment and tears into something more productive: organized resistance.
Brave New Films: You will have three simple targets: your two U.S. Senators and your Representative.
Sharyl: Gene Stilp is Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party Congressional Campaign Coordinator. We caught up with him at a rally he helped organize in March on the steps of the state capitol.
Gene Stilp: We have basically an idiot running the government right now, or attempting to run the government, or he governs by Twitter. So that’s why my screw says screw Trump because I think he’s one of the worst presidents we’ve ever had. And that’s why he’s not my president, so therefore... but how do you stop him?
Sharyl: For many, the answer lies in taking a page from the enemy
Protest: Throw the bums out. Throw the bums out.
Sharyl: The conservative Tea Party movement that caught the nation by surprise in 2009.
Protest: You work for us. You work for us.
Sharyl: Tea Party advocates overran town halls, lashing out against big government and Obamacare. The movement was stoked by tens of millions of dollars from conservative and libertarian Koch Brothers groups.
Protester: I have a question. You are a fraud. You’re sentencing this person to death.
Sharyl: Now in 2017, a mix of new and established liberal organizations have partnered to use Tea Party tactics to stop the Trump agenda.
Brave New Films: Once you’re part of a team, there are four simple tactics to engage in.
Sharyl: We repeatedly asked national organizers for interviews, but they declined. So we sent our cameras to some field events to meet local organizers.
Andrea Walker: I’m thinking of easy and fun ways to focus on keeping our country’s values and constitution intact.
Sharyl: We were at the first anti-Trump meeting organized by Andrea Walker in Arlington, Virginia. She’s a retired federal worker and Hillary Clinton supporter.
Andrea Walker: There’s an incredible amount of things that we can do including pick up marches... you get an email and it says for you just to go and you know, tomorrow show up here!
Sharyl: In Wye Mills, Maryland, we found organized opposition at a raucous town hall.
Rep. Andy Harris: If we have quiet and a show of respect
Protesters: Boo Hoo. You work for us.
Sharyl: Afterwards, we caught up with the target: Republican Congressman Andy Harris.
Rep. Harris: It’s just people came out and they expressed their frustrations. That’s part of the American system.
Protester: Keep it going.
Sharyl: And on the state house steps in Pennsylvania, we met organizer Terrell Bryant.
Terrell Bryant: Well, this goes back to what one of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, he wanted active citizens and this is what we’re doing, what Thomas Jefferson wanted to see in our Democracy. You have moveon.org, getting involved with the resistance hashtag and you’ve got a whole lot of other groups getting involved.
Sharyl: Behind the resistance across the country, there are some big money names. For example, one sponsor of the movement is MoveOn.org. It’s top donors in 2016 were Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife. They gave $2.5 million. Another top MoveOn donor is environmentalist and hedge fund mogul Tom Steyer who has given $160 million to liberal causes since 2014.
Sharyl: As an outsider, I see Republicans in charge of the House, the Senate, and the White House. And yet, I feel like Democrats are able to, through their organization, direct the conversation right now.
Rep. Mark Meadows: Well, they are directing it, and of course that, that makes me a little uncomfortable here in my chair, you know, as you see that, because you're seeing what is actually the case.
Sharyl: Republican Congressman Mark Meadows.
Rep. Meadows: We're seeing at town halls across the country a real organized effort to not really change policy as much as it is to get videos to go viral. I'm very familiar with the Tea Party activists and grassroots activists. I would say that this is a different type of group; highly organized, but not as much content driven. It's really a factor of just not accepting a new President.
Sharyl: Beyond the public town hall opposition that we see, some people think there's sort of a shadowy version of this opposition going on inside government. What's your take on that?
Rep. Meadows: Well we do see some of that. I mean unfortunately we've seen a lot of that. They certainly have a name and they certainly have a face, but they do things in a way that is nameless and faceless.
Sharyl: It’s referred to as the “Shadow Government” or “Deep State:” The notion that “influential members of government agencies or the military are involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy.” It may sound like the stuff of conspiracies, but liberal and conservative analysts are among the believers. “The deep state is a very real thing—it’s the civil service” writes one. “Two Cheers for the Deep State” says another. “The defense establishment is part of the Deep State. So are the courtsthe FBI and the CIA”
Sharyl: Republican Senator Ron Johnson.
Sharyl: Besides these public protests with the town hall meetings, a lot of people think there is sort of a shadowy effort underway, as well, by Democrats to influencing control of government.
Sen. Ron Johnson: Well I, I think they're trying to sabotage it quite honestly. It’s pretty obvious.
Sharyl: Johnson says the Tea Party movement inspired him to run for office in 2010 and he isn’t dismissing the new, organized resistance.
Sen. Johnson: I would say it's somewhat similar. I think there is an awful lot of organization in ginning up with that movement, but there's also some real strong firmly held beliefs on that, some real concerns. So, I mean you have to take all that seriously.
Sharyl: There is a twist to this organizational plot.
Speaker at meeting: excuse me, please sit down.
Sharyl: Democrats, too, are being targeted by resistance on their own side who blame weak leadership for their net loss of more than a thousand state and federal seats in the past 8 years. Protesters interrupted this February forum hosting incoming Democratic party leader Tom Perez.
Speaker at meeting: Please respect the forum and the way this night has been organized.
Sharyl: In April, there were jeers from Bernie Sanders’ supporters at a Democratic rally in Maine. As entrenched and visible as the resistance may be, it’s worth noting that it doesn’t necessarily translate to results. After all, the Tea Party didn’t stop Obamacare or dial back big government.
Sharyl: Has anything really changed since then, in terms of the big government?
Sen. Sen Johnson: No, it's gotten worse. It's gotten worse. It just continues to grow.
Sharyl: Still, the Democrats’ resistance vows to sustain a tireless campaign.
Brave New Films: To make this work, we all need to be in this for the long haul. A real resistance movement is a marathon, not a sprint.
Sharyl: They hope to stop Trump at every turn and win Congressional seats in the 2018 midterm elections.
Andrea Walker: What I’m hoping for is then to make this as easy as possible for people to have a sustained protest. Let’s go on for two years, you know, without swooning with fatigue.
Gene Stilp: The demonstration season isn’t even in full swing yet, ok. This is coming up, the spring and summer. You’re gonna see people really get active. These guys are gonna be afraid to even cross the state line and come back into Pennsylvania.
Unlike Hillary Clinton, President Obama hasn't directly joined the fray. But his website does link to Organizing for Action, one of the primary groups supporting anti-Trump events.
