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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL GREETED BY PROTESTERSWoman confronts Sen. Mitch McConnell about welfare and coal jobs in Lawrenceburg | 0:56

A woman confronted Sen. Mitch McConnell about too many Kentuckians having to rely on welfare while accepting that coal jobs are dwindling due to mechanization. Sam Upshaw Jr./CJ

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Several hundred protesters gathered outside the American Legion Post in Lawrenceburg to rally against Sen. Mitch McConnell. Sam Upshaw Jr./CJ

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Several hundred protesters rallied outside of Sen. Mitch McConnell speech in Lawrenceburg.

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Woman confronts Sen. Mitch McConnell about welfare and coal jobs in Lawrenceburg

Several hundred protesters rally against Sen. Mitch McConnell in Lawrenceburg

Protesters rally outside of Sen. Mitch McConnell speech in Lawrenceburg

Jody Lambert of Georgetown, Ky. uses a megaphone to chant "Ditch Mitch" and other anti-McConnell sentiments outside the Louisville Marriott East with around 500 protestors Wednesday. McConnell spoke at the Jeffersontown Chamber of Commerce luncheon.(Photo: Matt Stone/The C-J)Buy Photo

When Victoria Keith came home to Kentucky a decade ago, she didnt expect to be leading a self-described resistancemovement against the president of the United States.

But the 72-year-old former documentary filmmaker, who lives on her family's farm a few milesoutside Hopkinsville in the western part of the state, said she is horrified byPresident Donald Trumps agenda.

"Its hard just to sit back and listen to all of this and not want to at least begin speaking up, Keith said.

Much like the conservative tea party groups that sprung up in the aftermath of President Barack Obama's election in 2008, citizens who see themselves as liberals,progressives or libertarian-leaning have organized to oppose Trump's policies.Many have used an online document called the Indivisible Guide" produced by a group of former Democratic congressional staffers as a blueprint.

The guide has reportedly spawned about 7,000 groups nationwide, and the main website shows Indivisible chapters oraffiliated groupsin all 50 states.

According to the website of Indivisible Kentucky, which is what the Louisville chapter calls itself, there are roughlya dozen groups in the commonwealth, with representationin all six congressional districts. There are more than four dozen in Indiana.

The 26-page guide, which has been downloaded more than 1 million times, "has made it easy to get going, said Keith, who joined with more than a dozen neighbors to form Pennyroyal Indivisible Kentucky named after an indigenous plant in the region.Its not just completely left up to you, theres a lot of support and help from this network of people.

Indivisible Kentucky was founded by Kim Hibbard and the Rev. Dawn Cooley after the 2016 election results left many in the community feeling angry. 2/22/17(Photo: Marty Pearl/Special to The C-J)

The Louisville chapterwasfounded in Januaryby the Rev. Dawn Cooley and Kim Hibbard, a computer systems administrator, before Trump even took office. It has since protested outside the offices of Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, drawing 300 people to McConnell's office in one demonstration.

It also encouragesmembers to get involved in other events,includingMayor Greg Fischer's pro-immigration event last month that attracted roughly 5,000 people outside the Muhammad Ali Center downtown.

Cooley, a Unitarian Universalist minister, and Hibbard met online just as the latter registered the group's website."I reached out to her and said, 'I've got people, and you've got tech,' and about a month ago she and I met and decided to work together and Indivisible Kentucky was created, Cooley said.

McConnelllikened the movement's rise toa tantrum thrown by liberals upset overTrump's victory. He said the protesters "did not like the result of the election,"during a speech in Lawrenceburg, Ky., where he was met with about 1,000demonstrators.

Scott Lasley, a political science professor at Western Kentucky University, said: "It was a pretty hard-fought, bitter election, and part of what you're seeing is a result they (the protesters) did not see coming. ... I wouldn't use the word 'sore losers,' I'd usethe word 'surprised losers.' "

Others have accused liberal megadonors, such as investor George Soros, of bankrolling the demonstrations. Sean Spicer, Trump'sWhite House press secretary,said during an interview on Fox News recently that unlike the conservative opposition to Obama, the anti-Trump protests are an"Astroturf-type movement" made up ofwell-paid activists.

"I mean, protesting has become a profession now," Spicer said. "They have every right to do that, dont get me wrong. But I think we need to call it what it is. Its not these organic uprisings that we have seen over the last several decades."

Hibbardsaid hergroup hasn't received anyoutside fundingand is made up of volunteers. The group sets up a donation box at meetings, she said.

"This is a strictly organic group of people that are willing to give money out of our own pockets to maintain our common goal," Hibbard said. "We are the constituents of Kentucky.We have a voice, and we will be heard."

Cooley attributes the movement'srise to people of different backgroundsfeeling threatened by Trump's action, such ascontroversial restrictions on the travelof immigrants from seven largely Muslim countries. She said the group has heard from immigrantrights groups and others who are forming a coalition and have participated in their demonstrations.

The Indivisible manual borrows from the tea party's early tactics that empowered grassroots conservatives who opposed Obamas $830 billion stimulus package and health care overhaul.The tea party movement'sinfluence was felt in the 2010 elections, when it propelled Republicans to take control of the U.S. House and helped secure Paul's Senate victory, among others.

Cooley said she wouldn't be surprised if members began to consider running for elected office in the near future but that it isn't part of their current strategy. She also isn't sure if those candidates would challenge local and state Democrats in primary elections, as Paul did,or work more closely with the party.

"One of the strengths of Indivisible right now is our very laser focus," Cooley said. "We're focused on stopping Trump's agenda through direct action and lobbying our own representatives."

Lasley said he doubts whether any liberal-leaning movementcan pry Kentucky from conservative hands, especially in rural areas. "Republicans are going to be in pretty good position for the next 30 to 40 years," he said.

Trumpwon Kentucky by 30 percentage points in November, and by even larger margins in large swaths of the state where many are hoping hecan make good on promises such as reviving the coal industry. One of Trump's first moves in office was a measure to end an Obama regulation protecting waterways from coal mining waste thatindustry leaders had said would lead to job losses.

Protesters greet Sen. Mitch McConnell with heated questions

Sen. Mitch McConnell hears it from protesters -- this time in Louisville

Against that backdrop, Hibbard said Indivisible Kentucky isencouragingmembers to get involved with anydemonstration that aligns with their beliefs. The Indivisible guide advisesconstituents to attend town hall meetingsand other public events where members of Congress appear, swarm district offices and clog congressional phone lines.In Utah,Indivisible-affiliated groups made news last month when about 1,000 demonstrators shouted questions at Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz during a town hall meeting.

In Louisville, Cooley and Hibbard said they planto continueprotesting outside McConnell's office every Tuesday for the first 100 days of Trump'spresidency. They call the protests "Trump Tuesdays."

Indivisible Kentucky memberstried toconfrontMcConnell when he arrived atLouisville's airport on Feb. 10 to no avail. Later, a larger group protestedoutside the Senate majority leader's Louisville houseover the nomination ofJeff Sessions asattorney general.The grouphas a "hunt for Mitch" section that alerts chapters across the state on his scheduled whereabouts.

Other chapters are planning to flood congressional offices with letters and postcardsand are looking for opportunities to rattle members of Congress anytime they return from Washington.

Deborah Hankins, a retired schoolteacher who founded Ashland KentuckyIndivisible, said her group ofabout 40 members want a town hall meeting with Congressman Thomas Massie. She said the congressman's district office said he wouldn't be backduring Congress' recess last week but that she saw a picture of Massie in Henry County, which is in thedistrict.

"I think he's forgotten there's an election coming up that he's going to participate in and thinksthat this movement isgoing away, and he doesn't have an answer that we'll accept," she said.

Massie spokesman Lorenz Isidro said last summer the congressman hosted nearly two-dozen events across Kentuckys 4th congressional district, which stretches from Louisville's eastern suburbs to Ashland.

"He plans to continue this unprecedented level of public accessibility and interaction both through public forums and on social media," Lorenz said."Constituents are encouraged to follow his Congressional Facebook page to receive notices of upcoming public events."

Asked about the rising protests, McConnell spokesman Robert Steurersaid his boss believes that the U.S. Constitution affords all citizens the right to peacefully assemble. "As Senator McConnell has said, 'Going back to the beginning of this country we've had a pretty open ability to complain about whatever you want to and it's about as American as apple pie.' People are free to express themselves," he said.

On Tuesday in Lawrenceburg, McConnell said he was "proud" of the protesters.

While exercising that right, Indivisible Kentuckyleaders stressed that members must avoid embracing anger. Many who carried signs at the McConnell protest in Lawrenceburg, for instance, held signs calling the senator a coward and comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler.

"We don't want to become our enemy," Cooley said. "... We've got righteous anger, but righteous anger is not the same as vitriol, as hate speech and so I don't want to get into thatwhich is against our values."

Hankins said the angeris already beginning to wane in her part of the state, and that it's important for progressive-minded voters and people who live in rural America to listen and persuade Trump voters who are their neighbors.

"We have to point out to people they need to vote in their own self-interests, which has puzzled liberals for years," she said. "And I don't think lecturing from the outside is going to do it, we need to learn how to speak to people."

Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courier-journal.com.

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Anti-Trump movement may be spawning liberals' answer to the tea party - The Courier-Journal