Opinion | Want Trump to Go? Take to the Streets - The New York Times

Bingo!

"On Nov. 9, 2016, the day after Donald Trump’s election, Obamacare looked to be doomed. Millions of Americans, it seemed, were going to lose their health insurance.

Trump had campaigned on a promise to repeal the law, as had many other Republicans, and their party was about to control every branch of the federal government. All Republicans had to do was pass a law that Trump would sign. Democrats had no way to stop it.

Or at least they had no way to stop it using only the inside game of politics — congressional hearings, committee votes, presidential vetoes and so on.

Fortunately, some progressives understood that politics isn’t only an inside game. The outside game — of public protest and grass-roots lobbying — matters, too.

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Even before Trump took office, activists began planning a strategy to make repeal as politically painful as possible. On the day after Trump’s inauguration, some four million Americans took to the streets for Women’s Marches (which obviously were about much more than repeal). In the months that followed, groups like Indivisible organized people to attend town halls, visit Capitol Hill and inundate members of Congress with phone calls.

The efforts transformed the debate. Obamacare repeal was no longer a bloodless legislative matter, in which public opinion was measured merely with poll results and pundit analysis. The story became rawer, more human and much harder for politicians and ordinary citizens to ignore.

In the end, just enough Republican senators responded to the pressure, and Obamacare survived. The outside game had changed the math of the inside game.

The impeachment inquiry has reached the stage when it needs an outside game. We all know where the inside game is likely to lead: House Democrats will impeach Trump; Senate Republicans will acquit him; and he will claim vindication. But Trump’s presidency has become too dire for Americans to accept that outcome without trying to change it."

Opinion | Want Trump to Go? Take to the Streets - The New York Times