I was standing in the River Valley Co-op parking lot catching up with a friend I had not seen in a while.
“How are you?” she asked me. “Oh, you know …,” I replied. “Aging … trying to both confront and combat aging, and resisting Trump. Same old, same old.”
“Oh Andrea,” she looked downtrodden. “I think I have given up. I don’t know if it makes a difference. He’s winning, and I’m exhausted,” my friend said.
My friend is not alone. People who marched in pink hats in January are now weary in October. It is called “protest fatigue,” and it is taking a toll on our work to fight the dangerous, immoral, maniacal, relentless steps President Donald Trump is taking that make us all less safe and secure, our country more imperiled and divided, and our democracy more threatened and threadbare. In some areas, resistance meetings are smaller, hits on progressive websites are fewer, marches are more meager, and, for many activists, a sense of being tired mentally, emotionally and spiritually has set in.
And some believe that Trump may be affecting people physically and medically as well. A Washington Post columnist wrote last month that Trump’s presidency is causing folks like him to experience high blood pressure, disturbed sleep, weight gain, and depression; dentists report that orders for night guards have increased because more people are clenching and grinding their teeth; and psychotherapists report that more and more clients are talking about Trump.
It is no wonder that my friend feels like giving up in her efforts to resist this administration. We are tired, sick and feel defeated.
The co-op parking lot exchange made me think about what has made us so tired and so sick so fast. The friend I spoke to is my age, in her mid-60s, and a veteran of many movements for social change. Why has Trump caused so many activists to burn out and head home after just nine months in office?
There are three primary factors contributing to this condition of activists’ weariness. The first is that full-out, straight-faced, unabashed lying has become so pervasive with Trump that our concept of truth is constantly under assault, altering our understanding of the world and robbing us of confidence in civic values. The constant lying has depleted our energy and deprived us of hope.
Since before taking office, and then continually since taking office, Trump has distorted facts, attacked “fake news” while spewing fake news of his own, ignored the reality in front of him, denied science, and fabricated conversations and interactions. The dismantling of truth has left activists wondering how to organize and how to keep talking about pressing world issues when simple truths are mocked and dismissed.
A second factor contributing to activist exhaustion is the rapidity of crises — the speed and confluence of major crises have made us feel overwhelmed and even disoriented. We cannot take one full breath between the crises unfolding at lightning speed.
And each crisis could demand our full attention: North Korea, climate change, killer storms, mass shootings, islands leveled, wildfires, immigration raids, the assaults on health care and reproductive rights — and the list goes on. It is a constant, unabated, terrifying drumbeat of horrible crises.
There are still people working on the crises Trump created during his first week in office. And yet there have been countless crises since then. At first it seemed that there would be some serious and awful breaking news every day. Now it is every hour. The crises are unrelenting and terrible and we don’t know which horrific issue to work on first.
A third factor contributing to activist burnout is we never really learned how to manage our anxiety, do our good work and take care of ourselves in a measured way along the journey. There seem to be two settings on the dial: full-out, nonstop, totally invested activism, or giving up and going home retreat.
But there has to be a third choice: working hard and caring deeply while still sleeping, eating something other than pastries, and heading regularly to the Y. The all-or-nothing mentality is not serving us well, and never will.
I do not have the antidote to activist burnout or the perfect litany of how to make a comeback and reengage. But I have been thinking about movement struggles from years past when people simply kept going because giving up was not an option. The abolitionist movement, the suffrage movement, the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay rights movement — all these were filled with people who stayed active in the struggle because leaving the movement was not a choice for them.
People marched, sang, wrote, organized, rallied, vigiled, protested, and carried on not just because it was what they did, but because it was who they were. Following in their footsteps, we must recognize that being defenders of democracy, lovers of humanity, and protectors of the planet is not simply what we do but who we are.
We cannot get tired and head home to hide. People’s lives are at stake, the future of the planet is in peril, and the very survival of our democracy is at risk. I am all for finding a balance, making time for renewal, and seeking out activities, spiritual experiences and time with friends that can refresh us. All that matters. But we simply cannot give up now.
Nothing coming out of the White House is normal, reasonable, sane, trustworthy, healthy for children, good for the environment, or acceptable — nothing. The assaults are coming at us on a daily basis and our resistance must continue. We must find ways to take hands, love and sustain one another, and encourage each other to stay in the struggle. The alternative makes me shudder.
If we give up, we lose. If we keep fighting, there is hope and we may see change. We are in this together. And we have to keep going — supporting one another so we stay sane, embracing truth, showing courage and maintaining some sense of balance along the way. Ever onward.
Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian is a pastor in the United Church of Christ, and the founder and director of the movement-building school, the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership (www.truthschool.org). She writes a monthly column on the intersection of faith, culture and politics and can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.