A protester holds a sign and the American Flag as demonstrators gather to protest against President Donald Trump's executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven primarily Muslim countries during a rally in Philadelphia, February 4, 2017. Tom Mihalek | Reuters

It's easy to miss amidst Donald Trump's frenetic pace of activity and nonstop media coverage, but the most important story in American politics right now isn't about what Trump's doing: It's that the opposition is working. The millions of people who marched in Washington and other cities around the world on inauguration weekend and then demonstrated again at airports the following weekend are making a concrete difference in the world. So are the tens of thousands who've called members of Congress or showed up in person at their events. Trump is getting things done, but all presidents do that. Look at what he's not getting done. A Republican-controlled Congress bowed to public outrage over an attempt to water down an ethics office. Trump dramatically downscaled his own executive order barring entry to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries. He's having unprecedented difficulty getting his Cabinet nominees confirmed even though the Senate's rules have changed to make confirmations easier than ever. Conservatives in Congress have put their big plans to privatize Medicare and public lands on hold. And the drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act is running into very big trouble. More from Vox:

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9 superb owl facts you need to know None of this is based on the discipline and self-restraint on the part of the White House. It's thanks to bold acts of resistance. The result is lives have been saved, many more lives have been demonstrably improved, and the proven template for future success has been created. Not only have the resisters already markedly altered the trajectory of public policy, they have begun to make a difference in each other's lives and their own conceptions of themselves. And this is the greatest threat to the Trump movement. For the moment, Trumpism holds the vast preponderance of political power despite its thin electoral base. That means Trumpism will make progress, even in the face of effective resistance. But for the positioning to hold, Trump needs to convince his opponents that they are failing, so the prophesy will become self-fulfilling. That is why it's crucial for Trump's opponents to be aware that protestors' efforts are not futile. We know they can succeed because they are already succeeding. What's needed is for Trump's critics to continue to resist the siren song of sectarianism and keep at it. If they do, Trumpism will be buried.

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It is telling that in most of these cases, the Trump administration is committed to pretending that resistance isn't the cause of the reversals. Trump has attempted to argue that he — rather than public outcry — is responsible for the OGE reversal. And the administration has tried to sell the public on the idea that his orders were never meant to apply to green card holders, and the "confusion" around this and other subjects is the fault of the media. Those of us who lived through these events owe it to ourselves and to others to remember them correctly. In all cases, Trump acted in response to public outcry, not in advance of it. Things changed because people paid attention, spoke up, and made a difference. A flood of telephone calls to members' offices has suddenly imperiled Betsy DeVos's confirmation as secretary of education. More important than her personal fate, the fight over DeVos has gotten multiple Republican senators — including very conservative ones like Jerry Moran of Kansas — to come out swinging against the idea of a federal voucher program, a key Trump administration promise. None of that means progressives should feel complacent about the Trump administration — just the opposite. But recognition that mass mobilization is making a real difference is critical to keeping up the pressure on fights to come, especially the looming battles over Obamacare repeal and the fate of the DREAMers protected from deportation by the Obama administration.

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