IT WASN’T ABOUT U.S. POLITICS, OR EVEN ABOUT LEFT OR RIGHT. … SATURDAY’S WOMEN’S MARCH WAS A MESSAGE TO MISOGYNIST DEMAGOGUES EVERYWHERE: WE AREN’T GOING BACK TO THE BAD OLD DAYS.
A protest march of this scale could so easily have dissolved into a motley assortment of grievances. Everyone was welcome at the women’s marches around the world, and indeed there was space for anyone to say what they wanted to say.
Yet the picture formed by this enormous and diverse mosaic emerged with stunning clarity: If you try to violate women’s rights, we will stand and oppose you. Indeed, paradoxically, the global scope and mindblowing scale of Saturday’s marches kept the focus narrow. It wasn’t about U.S. politics, or even about left or right. The one thing these millions of marchers had in common, in towns and cities around the world, was support of women’s rights. This march was a message to misogynist demagogues everywhere: We aren’t going back to the bad old days.
Going backward is the thread that runs through Donald Trump’s plans. He has promised to undo the progress of the past half-century, in ways that completely unnerve reasonable people on both the left and the right in every country. Undoing decades of trade liberalization and market-friendly policies that have brought unprecedented peace and prosperity to humanity. Undoing the legal and cultural reforms that affirm an individual’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Overturning the Cold War victories of so many around the world who declared, sometimes at great personal cost, that a free press and an open government were the better way.
Some of the most hilarious and cutting signs on Saturday were carried by old women. “I’ve been holding this sign since 1960” or “I can’t believe I still have to protest this s--t.” These are women who remember what it was like to have no recourse against a boss who could grab their crotches and chortle about it with impunity. They aren’t going to let Trump turn back the clock. They aren’t going to let his odious personal example embolden the smirking misogynists their daughters and granddaughters will encounter.
I don’t know whether all the people who marched for women’s rights will stand for the rights of Muslims, of trans people, of indigenous people, of black people, of disabled people. I hope so. The slogan “women’s rights are human rights” works in both directions. We the people are all in this together — the trick of democracy is not letting someone convince some of us otherwise.
One of the paradoxes of populism is that a demagogue doesn’t actually need the support of most people, especially when electoral systems incentivize geographic or demographic targeting over mass appeal. Trump won the election despite getting nearly three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. He got more of the votes of white people with family incomes of more than $50,000 a year; 53 per cent of white women and 62 per cent of white men voted for him.
He doesn’t need to appeal to all Americans — he just needs to keep his committed rump of supporters feeling persecuted and afraid.
But he needs to keep them feeling that way by keeping them comfortable in the lie that they are the masses, that everyone who criticizes anything about the Trump administration belongs to a tiny fringe of elites, Hollywood celebrities and habitual or paid protesters. It is awfully hard to spin the Women’s March that way, although the usual mouthpieces have been trying. Trump apologists were trotting out the “why don’t feminists protest about Saudi Arabia’s policies” argument on Saturday, an argument that relies on ignorance of the fact that feminists do. These were not partisan opportunists. There were people at these marches who never go to protests. This was a day to stand and be counted.
Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, has said, “there’s a difference for voters between what offends you and what affects you.” The implication is that while a female Trump voter might well cringe at his boasts about grabbing women or the accusations of assault against him, at the end of the day people vote based on what they think will affect their lives and livelihoods.
The women who marched on Saturday weren’t just offended, though. They were worried, and the more Trump gives all women reason to worry, the less his strategy will work.
The political strategists outside the U.S. who are cribbing from the Trump playbook ought to take note. Yes, it is possible to win an election in a democracy without the support of the majority.
But the bigger and louder that majority gets, the harder it will be. And in 2017, the notion that women are people is an idea that will bring millions of people out to the streets in support.
That, at least and at last, is reason for hope.