Constituency and Leadership in the Evolution of Resistance Organizations
This chapter examines the way old and new movement organizations addressed strategic dilemmas regarding constituency and leadership in the Trump Era. This chapter examines two case organizations to illustrate how long-standing and new organizations grappled with two particular challenges: (1) How would they define their constituencies, and what is the extent to which they will put questions of race at the center (or not)? And (2) Will they invest resources in leadership development, and how will that investment be balanced with strategies to mobilize “at scale”? The cases are ISAIAH, a long-standing faith-based community organization in Minnesota, and Indivisible, a new national organization that emerged after the 2016 election. This chapter thus illuminates the way two organizations reacted to changing political conditions in the Trump Era and the key strategic dilemmas that emerged.