Are Protests a Viable Path to Blocking Trump?

I tend to doubt it, but I’m eager to be persuaded otherwise

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during a rally on March 21, 2025 at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado. Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are holding a series of rallies they are calling the “Fight Oligachy" tour and will include stops in Tucson and Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Chet Strange/Getty Images)

A little more than two months into the second Trump administration, the United States finds itself in a bad place. The elected president, expanding executive power on multiple fronts, is seeking to govern in an explicitly authoritarian manner. Yet the primary means laid out in the Constitution for checking his power grabs is the legislative branch, the members of which are uninterested in fulfilling that duty.

That lack of interest has multiple causes: the president’s party holds narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress; the parties have been thoroughly sorted in ideological terms; the ideology affirmed by the GOP is synonymous with the agenda and person of the would-be authoritarian president; Republican voters are more loyal to and approving of him than they are to and of Congress or the GOP itself; members of the House and Senate feel threated by their most ideologically militant constituents; it’s more enjoyable to appear on television and gain likes on social media than it is to take a risky stand against the sitting president and his billionaire handmaiden, who has promised to fund primary challengers to torpedo any member who dares to defy the president.

Put it all together and we’re left with a Congress that would never pursue impeachment, let alone a conviction at an impeachment trial; has done nothing and is unlikely to do anything to push back against the president’s defiance of congressional prerogatives (like shutting down congressionally authorized agencies and departments); and has even voluntarily voted to eviscerate its own power to override the president’s unpopular tariff policy.

On every day since January 20, the second Trump administration has displayed overabundant energy in the executive. And on every one of those days, the country’s legislature has demonstrated lethargy and complacency about what’s happening.

That leaves us with the judiciary as the only branch of the federal government standing up to the Trump administration. But courts have weak enforcement powers unless the Congress backs them up, and they could be weakened further if Congress chooses to side with the president against them.

So here’s the question I’d like to explore in this post: How do we jump-start Congress, waking it from its civic slumber? And is a popular protest movement the answer? I’ll highlight two thoughtful essays published over the past few days that make the claim that it is. I’m skeptical of their arguments, and I want to explain why. But not because I want to convince you I’m right so much as because I want to hear from you, dear readers, about why I’m wrong. (If you’re a paying subscriber, you have access to the comments function; if you’re not, you’ll have to become one in order to read the entire post and leave your response for me and the rest of my paying subscribers to read.)