Anti-Trump groups don’t plan to budge
Activists to stick to tactics after shooting
DENVER—Liberal groups resistant to Republican policies say they have no plans to change their tactics or approach after a gunman apparently driven by his hatred of President Donald Trump opened fire at a GOP baseball practice, grievously injuring a House Republican leader and several others.
Within hours of the shooting, leaders from both parties called for unity rather than recriminations, and many liberals—most notably former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders—immediately condemned the attack. A resistance group in the Louisiana district of the injured lawmaker, Rep. Steve Scalise, asked its members to call the congressman’s office and wish him a speedy recovery.
But online and on talk radio, several conservatives questioned whether aggressive opposition to all things Trump had created a dangerous climate, and some faulted those on the left. Rush Limbaugh said the shooter represented the “deranged base of the Democratic Party” and Michael Savage tweeted in caps, “I warned America the Dems constant drumbeat of hatred would lead to violence.”
The attack creates a difficult dynamic for a movement opposed to violence but urging its followers to challenge lawmakers at town halls and district offices, as well as write and call them on issues such as the environment, health care and gun control. Leaders on the left say they are emulating the tactics used effectively by the tea party movement at health care town halls in 2009; their work helped Republicans win majority control of the House in 2010.
“We will continue to lawfully and peacefully resist,” said Anna Galland, executive director of the liberal group MoveOn.org.
Activists argue that because Republicans are pressing ahead on their agenda, with dismantling President Barack Obama’s health care law a top priority, they cannot afford to stop.
Authorities have not officially disclosed a motive in the attack by James T. Hodgkinson, 66, who was killed in a shootout with police after he wounded five in the Wednesday assault. Hodgkinson left a trail of anti-Trump and anti-Republican postings on social media, but there has been no evidence that he was part of the more mainstream anti-Trump efforts.
Hodgkinson also had the names of several Republican lawmakers, but investigators aren’t sure of the significance of the names.
Sarah Dohl of Indivisible, the resistance group that has thousands of affiliate groups nationwide, say the attack “is antithetical to the progressive movement more broadly and Indivisible’s core values. Non-violence and peaceful protests are essential to who we are.”
Dohl said the group sees no need to change tactics, unless they need to respond to Republicans being even less willing to hold town halls after the attack.
“They were already inclined to not have town halls. Now we’re going to see much less in ways of public events,” Dohl said. “We’re starting to think about ways we can shift tactics… That’s definitely a concern that they’ll be less available now.”
She said she hopes her members are being respectful when they call.
It was the Indivisible affiliate in Metairie, Louisiana, that urged its members to offer Scalise support.