The Morality of Sustained Socialist Organizing in the Aftermath of “The Trump Bump”

Drawing on anthropological approaches to morality, this paper examines the moral sources that underpin sustained socialist organizing among organizers in the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) following the 2016 presidential election. Based on narrative interviews with highly engaged NYC-DSA organizers, the analysis shows how organizers draw on two primary moral sources in their accounts of becoming political organizers, imbuing their continued political engagement with meaning. First, the paper highlights how organizers articulate moral positions that predate their political engagement, offering insight into how recollections of earlier moral concerns shape their narrated trajectories into organizing. Second, the narratives reveal the importance of the 2016 presidential election as a shared moral reference point. The analysis identifies two properties that define the “ethical affordances” of this event: in organizers’ accounts, Sanders’ campaign created a structured moral space that helped coordinate existing values, while Trump’s election infused political engagement with a sense of urgency, framing action as a moral obligation. The findings suggest that organizers’ narrative accounts of their political trajectories provide insight into processes of collective moral coordination and the formation of coherent moral frameworks that sustain ongoing activism. The study underscores the juridical and formative dimensions of morality in social movements, showing how narrative interpretation brings together a confluence of moral sources that orient continued political engagement. By illuminating the dynamic relationships among prior moral concerns, politically consequential events, and collective action, the paper advances cultural approaches to social movements by foregrounding the role of narrative moral interpretation in sustaining activism over time.