Following Donald Trump’s reelection to the Presidency on January 20, 2025, the Democratic Party has employed a strategy of retreat while Trump abuses executive power. As Trump unleashed his tirade against education, immigrants, free speech, social services, the environment, and human rights, a united front of opposition is vital to preserving a democracy that sits on the very precipice of authoritarianism.
A Lack of Resistance
While Trump has emerged as a single demagogue through charismatic leadership of his new authoritarian administration, the Democrats have failed to turn to a similar personality to combat Trump’s persona. Kamala Harris has slunk into the shadows of political obscurity, emerging occasionally to criticize Trump’s tariffs and running for California’s gubernatorial race.
Yet, for all her blazing rhetoric about the perilous state of democracy during her election campaign, she has failed to be an opposition leader that people can rally behind now that the republic is actually falling apart.
Former President Biden, who in his 2020 campaign emerged as a leader of Democratic resistance, has lost support of the people and from his party. His replacement is nowhere to be found.
The lack of resistance is most striking when compared to the outrage and defiance that defined Trump’s first term.
In 2016, the Federal government was filled with career employees who maintained their jobs throughout changing administrations. Having dedicated their lives to orderly non-partisan government, they played a major role in protesting Trump’s disregard for the law.
In addition to specific outspokenness, a general atmosphere of noncompliance was abound from 2016-2020. The #MeToo movement flourished and the Black Lives Matter protests swept the country.
Liberals, leftists, and centrists came together to form an united front against Trump. Even Evangelical magazines, such as Christianity Today, and Republicans, like Liz Cheney, condemned Trump for his blatant disregard for the Constitution and rule of law. Although his place at the head of the executive branch was troubling, in 2018 the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives. Harnessing the power of the legislative branch, Trump was impeached twice for abuses of executive power and incitement of insurrection.
The Trump Administration has learned from its trial run in government. A main aspect of Project 2025 is the firing of long-term federal employees and replacing them with Trump loyalists. While allegedly Trump has said that he has nothing to do with Project 2025, it was written by former Trump administration officials and has been so far followed in this new government.
The People’s Protests
Despite the lack of resistance from the Democratic Party–and in many cases because of it–the people are taking matters into their own hands. The working and middle-class, the ones most affected by Trump’s disastrous social and economic policies, have made it clear that they are not going to wait for action from passive Democrat elites in the government.
While during Trump’s first term, protests erupted across the United States from day one of his presidency, in this term it took months to awaken the people’s political conscience to the urgency of action. Seeing social security gutted, unconstitutional and unethical deportations occurring all around the country, and attacks on students and education all without sufficient resistance inflamed the population. In many ways, the inadequacy of the opposition in government finally drove people to the streets.
On April 5th 2025, tens of thousands of protesters flocked to the Nation’s capital to participate in the “Hands off Protests” organized by a plethora of coalitions, including American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Campaign, National Women’s Political Caucus, Shut It Down for Palestine, Democratic Socialists of America, and many more.
For hours people took to the gardens and streets of Washington D.C., carrying posters that read “Hands of Social Security,” “The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go,” “U.S. is Sending Weapons for Genocide,” and “Hands Off Education,” signaling to the Trump administration their distain for its oppressive control over social welfare, civil rights, and government funding.
All across the U.S., similar protests erupted. From Los Angeles to New York City, an estimated five million people took to the streets to denounce Trump’s policies.
My mother, Dr. Nadejda Tsankova, a cancer research scientist, wore a shirt that read “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun-ding for Research” as a response to the Trump Administration’s defunding of the National Institutes of Health) (NIH) at an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference later in April 2025. In the lecture hall, over a thousand cancer researchers stood and held signs saying “Cancer Research Saves Lives” in protest. “It felt empowering to have ten thousand people in one room holding signs in solidarity for funding cancer research,” said Dr. Tsankova.
As a history enthusiast, my favorite poster was from a college student in The Women’s Movement who carried a large sign that read, “They Want 1939 Germany, Let’s Give ‘Em 1789 France.” However, I would have changed it to 1973 France when the people truly began to rise up and establish a republic with no concessions to the King.
On May 27th 2025, “We the Students,” a grassroots and student-run organization, led a high school walkout protesting against Trump’s anti-democratic policies. Posters read “I pledge allegiance 2 the law,” “It’s Not About Left or Right It’s About What’s Wrong and Right,” and “We Respect the Constitution so Should He.”
Non-partisan and pro-American, the demonstration featured students with American flags, red, white, and blue face paint, and pro-law posters. “This is our future to protect and our future to lose,” said Bronx Science graduated senior Nava Litt ‘25, who helped to organize and gave a speech at the protest.
Lone Resisters
On the progressive outskirts of liberal politics, Bernie Sanders was vocal in his dissent against Trump from the very beginning. Following the 2024 presidential election results, Sanders argued for immediate reforms to the Democratic Party, specifically policies to appeal to the working class, such as increased taxes on the ultra-rich to pay for more social welfare programs.
“In politics you can’t fight something with nothing,” said Sanders. “The Democratic Party needs to determine which side it is on in the great economic struggle of our times, and it needs to provide a clear vision as to what it stands for. Either you stand with the powerful oligarchy of our country, or you stand with the working class. You can’t represent both.”
In his “Fighting Oligarchy Tour,” Sanders has visited a multitude of states including Utah, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and other swing states that voted Republican in the election. Sanders launched the tour in February 2025 as a response to the lack of resistance by the Democratic Party in the wake of Trump’s Presidency.
At his rallies, Sanders directly calls out Trump for his authoritarianism, something most Democrats have failed to muster the courage to do. “We will not allow you to move this country into an oligarchy,” Sanders said. “We’re not going to allow you and your friend Mr. Musk and the other billionaires to wreak havoc on the working families of this country. No, you’re not going to destroy Social Security. You’re not going to destroy Medicaid. You’re not going to destroy the Veterans administration.”
At 83 years old, Sanders has said that he has not expected to be leading such an important resistance movement at this stage in his career. “This is like presidential campaign rallies, isn’t it? But I’m not running for president, and this is not a campaign,” said Sanders to a reporter at The Associated Press. As an independent—not technically affiliated with the opposition party–Sanders has emerged as the leader and initiator of the anti-Trump movement.
Stepping into Sanders’ place with the energy needed in this moment is 35-year-old Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez has joined Sanders as a special guest in many of his “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies.
Ocasio-Cortez denounced Trump’s crackdown on immigration and praised students and teachers of universities who stood up to his administration’s deportation of international students and meddling in college affairs. Furthermore, on the subject of tariffs, she said, “Donald Trump is a criminal. A criminal found guilty of 34 felony counts of fraud. Of course he is lying and manipulating the stock market too. He is making himself, the billionaires who back him and the members of Congress who trade with him rich, not you, not me, not the people.”
What Is To Be Done?
According to Sanders, the Democratic Party’s decline stems from their loss of working-class support, which can be regained by abandoning ties to oligarchical donors and supporting policies such as demilitarization, increasing the minimum wage, increasing social security and welfare, and reducing the cost of higher education.
The Democratic Party has a year and a half to rebuild their base and campaign for midterm elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate. Winning back the legislature will provide the Democratic Party with a platform to legally oppose Trump’s executive orders and to potentially begin the process of impeachment–the third time’s a charm.
At a Fighting Oligarchy Rally, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged people to build community to combat Trump’s oppression. “We do our work, we set the board, but in the meantime and during, throughout, before and after all of that, we need to build our bonds with each other as communities. Building community, block associations, neighborhood groups, volunteer groups, church organizations, PTAs, because community is the most powerful building block we have against fascism, to defeat authoritarianism and to root out corruption.” Now is the time to set aside differences and gather the courage to fight for democracy.
“They Want 1939 Germany, Let’s Give ‘Em 1789 France.”