Progressives have been angry since the election of Donald Trump. Some have taken to the streets and protested. Others have even resorted to rioting and destroying private property.

Still others have decided to channel their opposition into more productive avenues. For example, after the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education, some leftists began threatening to pull their kids out of public schools and start homeschooling them:

Confirming DeVos as Education Secretary may have been the GOP's best move to convince all Dems to home school their children. @JoyAnnReid — Sergio Grant (@sgrant525) February 7, 2017

Homeschooling isn’t the only thing that’s traditionally been associated with conservatives and libertarians and is now getting attention from the left. Since the election, progressives have been buying guns to protect themselves. The Liberal Gun Club, which is a group that represents left-of-center gun owners, told Rare that they have seen their membership steadily increase by around 10 percent every month since Trump’s election. According to Liberal Gun Club spokeswoman Lara Smith, there has been a steady increase in traffic on both the website and the group’s Facebook page.

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There has also been an increase in gun ownership and other forms of self-defense among minorities. Rare reported in January of this year that Chinese immigrants were on a gun buying spree in California. Some of that was due to new gun control laws taking effect, but some of it was also motivated by fears of anti-immigrant hate crimes in the wake of Trump’s election.

Meanwhile, Vice profiled the Dallas Black Women’s Defense League, a group of black women taking up arms to fight “racism and misogyny.” It was founded after members were subjected to abuse in other black gun clubs.


Finally, there has been increasing interest in federalism and even secession among some on the left. California has hired former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder to help it in court fights against the Trump administration on numerous issues. Washington state, backed by 16 other states, is currently suing the Trump administration over its recent ban on immigration from seven predominately Muslim countries. In response to Trump’s pledged crackdown on “sanctuary cities” that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement, the New York State Assembly declared the entire state a “sanctuary state” (though it faces opposition in the GOP-controlled New York State Senate). Finally, Rare reported last year that California now has an active secessionist movement.


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It is good that some on the left are recognizing that big, centralized government is not necessarily a good thing—at least as long as Donald Trump is running it. I genuinely hope they will continue to acknowledge that reality once Democrats are back in charge.