How to Place Rural Communities at the Heart of the Anti-Trump Movement

Democrats and other left-wing parties must put workers, farmers and rural communities at the center of efforts to defeat Trumpism. There is no doubt that rural activists are ready to take their place and play their role in the coalitions that form. This was evident during protests that took place in hundreds of villages and towns across the country on the No Kings Day of Action on October 18.

But there’s a lot more going on at the grassroots level. In September, for example, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) joined activists in more than 30 states to address the urgent need to invest in rural and working-class communities and to propose transformative policies – like the Rural New Deal – that will combat outsized corporate power and help level the playing field for American workers.

Since the launch, a dozen additional events have been held as part of the campaign, ranging from town hall-style meetings in rural Appalachia to virtual rallies focused on what the left needs to do to win back working people.

Local, regional and national organizations have joined the campaign, each organizing a series of actions and events that center the concerns of the working class and rural areas in different ways. Campaign partners include the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, Progressive Democrats of America, Rural Democracy Initiative, Field Team Six, Public Citizen and a dozen others.

The current resistance to Trump has managed to organize thousands of events with millions of participants. However, it has two significant shortcomings that have hampered its effectiveness in building a broad enough base to end its most destructive actions: a lack of sustained attention to the serious harm caused to rural populations and workers, and the absence of a clear vision for workers and rural areas, a policy platform and an action plan. This was evident again at the No Kings rallies, where — outside of the rural communities where activists began framing the debate — signs, chants and social media posts largely ignored the intense pain small-town farmers and working families are experiencing under Trump. These missing pieces are at the center of the Beyond Resistance campaign.

As Jared Abbott, director of the Center for Working Class Politics, said: “The Beyond Resistance campaign is exactly what we need right now: a clear appeal to the empty promises the Trump administration has made to American workers, coupled with a credible, forward-looking vision for helping working class and rural America – a vision sorely lacking in both major parties. »

The campaign has four main elements: First, showing working and rural people that the left is committed to them by constantly elevating their struggles and the harms done to them by the Trump administration. The campaign created a “Treason Tracker,” regularly updated to include some of the many ways this administration is undermining and harming workers, unions, family farmers and small businesses, manufacturing jobs, and consumers. It also offers suggestions for slogans and statements to use at resistance rallies and other events. While the common course of these protests is to mock Trump’s many flaws and defend seemingly abstract principles, our slogans are laser-focused on the concrete issues that matter most to working people.

The second element of the campaign highlights “rural success stories,” examples of local organizations and businesses making a real impact on health care, small town revitalization, economic and agricultural revitalization and much more. The campaign provides links to these groups, as well as suggested language to help increase and strengthen support for them.

The third element of the campaign is to propose a clear vision, supported by concrete policies, to dismantle the system and respond to the grievances of rural populations and the working class. It is essential that the millions of Americans who believe, rightly, that the system is rigged against them see the left propose specific actions and policies that will build a new system, one that levels the playing field and reins in unchecked corporate power. To do this, the campaign now offers two major policy platforms – the Rural New Deal and the Rural Policy Action Plan – and others are also in the pipeline.

The final element is supporting and expanding local engagement efforts designed to rebuild trust across ideological divides through concrete, practical local actions. The Community Works initiative, currently operating in six states, is a successful model of local trust-building efforts that Democrats and progressives are undertaking in rural counties. The campaign provides opportunities, including a national Community Works summit held on October 22, for people to learn more about this approach and take steps to start local chapters wherever they are.

Beyond Resistance was fortunate to attract a number of GenZ and other young participants. One of these young leaders, Lily Forand, who founded The new populistsummed it up well: “There has never been a more important time for the left to connect with rural and working-class voters. This campaign is doing essential work to bridge these two worlds and launch a movement that builds real working-class political representation.” This is what the left must do now to stop Trump, and it is what we must do in the long term if we want to build a country for the many, not the few.