Those upset about the election of Donald Trump are using secret groups as a means to mobilize against what they fear could be a wild conservative agenda

Some say they now want to run for office. Others plan to write to their local mosques to express solidarity with American Muslims and refugees, or to start preparing for the midterm elections in Congress. They are organizing in secret Facebook groups they consider safe spaces with tongue-in-cheek titles like Pantsuit Nation and Bitches For Hillary – not just to mourn but to mobilize.

“This is a huge wake-up call,” said Meghan Myszkowski, 36, of Donald Trump’s win last week.

Myszkowski, a single mother and who runs a social media agency in Pasadena, California, is a member of several invitation-only Facebook groups where disappointed voters – particularly women – are pledging to ignite a novel liberal comeback in the US.

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Pantsuit Nation was started during the Democratic primary and now has 3 million members, all by invitation only. A new group, Still Stronger Together, was created last Wednesday, just 12 hours after the election result became clear, and already has more than 6,000 members.

It specifically urges members to suggest ideas for fighting back against what they fear could be a wild conservative agenda from President-elect Donald Trump.

“Liberals were in an echo chamber and not listening to people outside the bubble. I want to start organizing for people to donate to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the National Organization for Women. A friend of mine has started designing shirts with the proceeds going to these groups and we are talking about it in the secret groups. It’s a start, at least,” Myszkowski said.

In her concession speech, Hillary Clinton gave a nod to such groups and called for them to be part of a comeback, saying: “And to the millions of volunteers, community leaders, activists and union organizers who knocked on doors, talked to their neighbors, posted on Facebook – even in secret, private Facebook sites – I want everybody coming out from behind that [to] make sure your voices are heard going forward.”

Prior to the presidential election, Pantsuit Nation was a rallying place for support for Clinton. Since her defeat it has become a haven where devastated Clinton voters commiserate, but also seek advice about related problems and brainstorm about next steps.



One female member in Pennsylvania posted that she went jogging after the election and passed a group of workmen, one of whom yelled: “We own your pussy now” – a reference to the audio tape that surfaced during the campaign of then candidate Trump boasting about grabbing women, unbidden, by the genitals.

Many Pantsuit Nation posters called themselves “blue dots in a sea of red” after voting for Clinton in deeply Republican areas such as Wyoming, Kentucky, Tennessee or Mississippi. They have been sharing stories of Trump voters gloating aggressively at them in the workplace since his victory, or harassing them because they are Mexican. They then receive moral support and advice from other members.

As the Thanksgiving celebration approaches, many posts discuss how – or even whether – to face gathering around the dinner table with family members who voted for Trump.

“It’s been a way to touch base with people who are struggling with hate crimes and it’s a resource to get support because I feel like liberals are going off a cliff,” said Ivory Rieger, 46, a supermarket business analyst in Portland, Maine. She joined Pantsuit Nation about three months before the election and joined Still Stronger Together last week.

She said she was an enthusiastic voter but was now inspired to become a lot more vocal and active in protest against the Trump agenda.

“We are going to kick up a lot of dust and I’m hoping these groups can be a galvanizing power to get boots out on the ground. The Democratic party needs to be resculpted,” she said.

She said a lot of her extended family had voted for Trump, and she understood that her relatives in more rural areas felt they had stalled economically and were struggling to afford basics like insurance.

Criticism that the Clinton campaign did not fully understand or reach those people outside urban areas “is a fair point”, she said.

She called for a progressive version of the grassroots Tea Party to emerge from the passion and resolve ignited by Democrats’ stunning election losses.

Other members of secret groups are urging pressure on politicians who opposed Trump to push back against his legislative agenda, and calling for a new grassroots movement to get out the liberal vote in the 2018 midterm elections in Congress.

Natalie Miller, a yoga teacher in Takoma Park, Maryland, co-founded the secret feminist group Bitches for Hillary during the Democratic primaries, when arguments between supporters of Clinton and those of Bernie Sanders became uncomfortably fierce. It currently has 10,000 members.

Since the election result, she said of the online community, “I see people comforting one another, people angry and venting and I see those interested now in taking different types of action, whether that’s looking to the midterms or examining the workings of the electoral college.”

She said Bitches had become “a refuge” for Democrats “stranded in Trump country”.

It was originally a group in which women and some feminist men could gather online to discuss Clinton’s campaign without being attacked by the type of aggressive Sanders supporters known as “Bernie bros”, who often resorted to misogyny and racism.

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“Bitches for Hillary arose in the very painful fight between Bernie bros and Hillary feminists. We got sick of explaining sexism 101, getting harassed online or even doxxed,” said Miller.

Now the group’s members are soul-searching, she said, and figuring out a political comeback for progressives rooted in “social justice and economic fairness”.

Adam Poltrack, an adjunct lecturer in New York, created the secret group Still Stronger Together – a play on Clinton’s election slogan “Stronger Together”.

He had only two main criteria for invited members: be civil and include a suggestion for a practical way forward when you post, he said.

“Like half the country, I was devastated by the election result. For a good 12 to 24 hours, I think people were in despair, thinking: do I emigrate to Canada or what? Once that abated, the solution for me was to stay and fight the Trump agenda with everything I have. I created the group and it blew up pretty quickly,” said Poltrack.

He said members so far have suggested organizing “Two dollar Tuesday” to donate to progressive causes every week; non-Muslims registering as Muslims in case Trump makes people register by religion; and Democrats becoming online “pen pals” with Trump supporters to try to bridge the political divide.

“Trump should be a galvanizing and unifying force for those of us in opposition. And as a male, white millennial, I wanted to make sure this isn’t just going to be slacktivism, it’s going to be real action,” he said.