What a Glorious Saturday! The Question is What's Next?
News on this weekend's protests and some answers to What's Next?
On Saturday, about 1,500 American cities and towns held protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s savaging of the United States and their goal of turning this country into a Russian-style oligarchy. The turn out was impressive, not so much for the number alone but for the crowds that showed up in a wide variety of cities and towns.
The big cities: Cincinnati, Boston, New York City, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Houston, Austin, Indianapolis, Chapel Hill, Sacramento, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Madison, Pheonix, Las Vegas, and Denver are a few of the burgs that participated.
Salt Lake City, which one does not picture when you say the word “protest,” held a huge rally. In San Francisco, the draw was a bit south of 10,000, small for the city, but there’s a reason why: Organizers held simultaneous protests in Oakland, San Jose, San Rafael, and plenty of the smaller localities that surround San Francisco, all very well attended.
There were also rallies in a host of “minor cities” such as Erie PA, Richmond VA, Charleston WV, Somerville SC, Topeka KS, Fayetteville, AK, Appleton WI, Ames IA, Nanuet NY, Durham NC, Asheville NC, Raliegh NC, Buffalo NY, and Duluth MN. Many people turned out St Augustine, Florida, a town of 14,000 in a solidly red county, and in Corning, New York, a town where Trump won by 20+ points.
Bolivia, North Carolina, population 227, described as a “wide spot in the road on the way to Myrtle Beach,” held a rally that drew about a hundred people. Hamilton, Montana’s rally capped at 800 people. The total pop of that red-state rural town is 4,659, which means that almost a sixth of the town’s population showed up.
Two overgrown towns in California’s Central Valley – Woodland and Visalia – held protests with great attendance. Woodland is in blue Yolo County but often votes Republican. Visalia in the south end of the Valley is reliably red and solidly Trump, until now.
And there were rallies in cities in other countries: Lisbon, Berlin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, and Paris are a few of the cities that protested in solidarity with us. There were even protests on a few Greek islands!
The day’s protests went on without any notable violence, either from protesters or MAGAs. No surprise that the protesters were mellow. Despite the mass media’s constant worrying about “left wing violence,” it is rare that American protests turn violent. Sure, it happens but when it does its almost always provoked by police overreaction and/or right-wing provocateurs. Protesters weren’t behaving as much as they were simply doing what they intended to do: Peacefully gather to protest Trump and Musk.
I am also not surprised that there was little MAGA violence or provocation. Like Trump, MAGAs tend to be bullies – or, rather, the little rats who hide behind the big bully, urging them on and getting their kicks in when the bullied falls. One thing that we know about bully boys is they loath direct confrontation, especially when the numbers are against them. A van load of ten MAGAs primed for violence is going to keep on cruising when they see a crowd in the hundreds.
There’s also this: In the real world of grocery bills and retirement funds, MAGAs are hurting, too. Like Trump’s tariffs and Musk’s destruction, the stock market spares no one when it crashes. Whether he admits it or not, Joe MAGA is pissed off that his attempts to log on to the Social Security Administration’s website result in a 408-error code. Jane MAGA looks at her 401K shrinking and shrinking and says to herself, “Oh shit!” None of that drives them to protest Trump and Musk, but it does keep them from standing up for him in public…and that is enough.
A number of people on social media remarked about how chilled out the cops were. Again, no surprise. I’ve organized and attended plenty of protests, rallies, actions, etc. One thing I learned is that the police generally do not care about the subject of protest unless they think it’s anti-cop. Protest for the environment or against war and the police could go either way, but usually they just play security guard.
Sure, police react when provoked (or think they are being provoked), but that is human nature. And, yes, there are hyper-aggressive cops looking to bash heads, but they need a catalyst to turn violent. A bunch of White, middle-class protesters – some of whom they know – protesting to save Social Security, angry that libraries are being big-footed, and worried that their retirement fund is kaput, well, that is not going to entice a cop to start swinging. They might be cops, they might agree with Trump 98% of the time, but they do not support having the value of their investments cut in half and the idea that they might have to put off retirement because Fecal Midas struck again.
Self-interest is an important motivator, especially in a country that champions individualism and greed. Much of that self-interest is rooted in fear, i.e. “If I don’t take care of myself, no one else will.” This is especially true at a time when Trump’s predatory avarice and Musk’s attack on empathy seem to be carrying the day. But self-interest doesn’t have to mean atomization and lashing out at the other.
Mass protests, especially in places that don’t see protests, send a message that “We want what all of us need, the basic things like an affordable place to live, decent medical coverage, good schools, a fire department, help when disaster strikes, infrastructure that works, safe food, clean air and water, and enough money to retire on without worrying about growing old on the streets.” That message is universal and when people get worried, really worried about the basics, they, at the very least, stop looking at protesters as the enemy and are less willing to give unconditional support to those people who want attack that message. Again, they don’t have to join the protests, they simply need to not obstruct us.
This is one reason why I condemn shaming and blaming, two things that are go-to’s for lazy, immature leftists, especially keyboard warriors. Shame and blame are attacks on people, at least that is how they are felt. Humans tend to react to attacks by either retreating into themselves – which doesn’t help us – or digging in and fighting back – which makes our job much harder, unnecessarily. Shame and blame accentuate divisions, while throwing up a wall between the shamer and the shamed. Shame and blame foster resentment, which can turn into anger and hate. Shame and blame further Musk’s campaign against empathy. And, shame and blame give pride a chance to dominate self-interest, preventing people who are concerned about the same things we are from speaking up or silencing their support for Trump and Musk.
Now, I’m not saying that we break bread with Nazi or turn the other cheek. No, what I am urging is that we give people the space to change, without expecting a total transformation. We disarm them with strategic grace, though without naivety or unearned trust. We recognize that many people who supported Trump with the vote did so out of ignorance or thinking about what comes next.
Seriously, how many Trump voters read Project 2025 or even heard of it? Fox News and other right-wing media outfits refused to report on P-2025, and when it was brought up to Trump and other Republicans, they all claimed ignorance. Reports on P-2025 made the mainstream press, but almost always in print. Casual voters don’t read the Washington Post or the New York Times. Most of what we know about P-2025 comes from left-leaning media and people like me. That and reading the document, which is not something the casual Trump voter did. Even now, if you asked the casual Trump voter what Project 2025 is they’d look at you as if they were a dog shown a card trick.
Remember that many of these folks voted for Obama, then Trump, then Biden, then Trump. While we would be fools to rely on people so primed to flip-flop based on the superficial, they must be recognized as a malleable force, one that, again, at the very least, we can move to standing silently on the sidelines, depriving MAGA of the numbers it desperately needs.
So, now the question is: What’s next? It looks like there are local and national marches and rallies scheduled for the next few weeks. Great, all for it, especially if the small towns and cities continue to protest. But we also need to keep momentum going by doing things other than organizing and attending mass events. Here’s something I wrote late night on social media:
People need to be engaged other ways. Organizers need to send folks home with things to do. Those who attend need to think and act for themselves, outside established organizations, and be creative about it. Power gets nervous when we start to color outside the lines, when we do stuff by our own initiative. If we protest, they'd rather have us follow some organization. It is easy for them to counter us when we are only "marching" under one umbrella.
I'm not saying that we abandon nationwide protests or established groups. No, not at all. We need those things and we need to add to them. And it is you who has to step it up. It doesn't take much. It doesn’t mean getting more radical or turning to violence. There’s a lot we can do. I'll give you an example, one that I hope you use.
Now, big protests like this make elected officials take notice. However, because they are national, it is easy for electeds to ignore them, especially if they are one-offs or just followed by another big protest. We know that Trump is not going to listen to us, no matter how many of us turn out. Fine. He's not who we are targeting. The goal of these protests is to get our electeds to act, to defend us (or to lessen their support for Trump). We are putting them on notice. Now is the time to take the next step. It is time to make it personal.
This week try to make some time - an hour is all you need - to gather four friends to go to your House rep's or Senators' district office. Take some of the signs you used last Saturday. Add a few with "(name of rep) Stop the Tariffs/Stop Musk" (for Democrats who’ve shown a spine: “Keep the pressure on, (name of rep)” or “Thanks for doing your job,” if you want to be snarky). Stand in front of their offices for a half hour or an hour, whatever you have time for. If you can do it during lunch hour, when people are out and about, great. If not, whenever the office is open. You are not protesting to a crowd. You are sending a direct message to your reps (whatever party). Post what you are doing on social media. When you go home write about it. And maybe plan to do it again next week and the week after.
Now why this? Because just by showing up at their office - peacefully, with signs - you are showing your reps that you are serious. It tells them that you are willing to go beyond calling them and attending a big protest when someone else calls it. They will know you are there, even if they are in DC, because staff will tell them. That will concern them. They will start to worry that you might organize against them come election time. They will know that you are serious about doing democracy, another thing that many of them fear. They'd rather have you quiet until election time, vote, and go silent for until the next election. No no no! You want them to know that you are here, you are engaged, and you are not going away.
People think that change comes from big protests and huge mass movements. Yes, sometimes and no, sometimes. It depends on what happens next. It depends on if you are putting pressure on the system in as many ways possible. It depends on how persistent and relentless you are. You don't need to get violent or do civil disobedience. You just need to show up over and over and over again.
That's tuff to do alone, but you don't have to do it alone. You also don't need hundreds or thousands of people. Like I wrote, for this, five people is all you need. If you can get ten, great. But don't get hung up on numbers. Just be smart and effective. Listen, some of the biggest successes I've had organizing was the result of doing the “small stuff.” A well-organized small group can stop bad developments or even scotch plans for a prison. They certainly can spoil an election. And when these actions come from you and I - normal everyday people - they get concerned enough to act.
They act not out of some higher ideal or dedication to democracy, but out of self-interest. These “small acts” are a threat. They stress that we have votes which means that we have power. They signal that we can make their lives miserable by showing up and showing up and showing up. And once they understand that we will stop showing up when they do what we want, they will move where we want them to go (but to get them to stay there, we have to be vigilant).
If this sounds like "squeaky wheel" shit, ding ding ding, you get a prize! What is that prize? Nothing, my lord, do your duty as a citizen! Where was I? Squeaking! Squeak! Squeak loud! Squeak a lot! And try to do so this week, because it is vital that you keep this going.
The only way we win this is if we do things new to us, which means stepping a bit out of our comfort zone and doing stuff that is not convenient. Of course, be mindful of your capacity, but do challenge your comfort level. If that means that doing a small protest this week is gonna make things tight for you, well, make things tight for yourself - and know that the discomfort you subject yourself to is absolutely nothing compared to what you will feel with no Social Security, no Medicare, no FEMA, no 401K, $25 for a bottle of olive oil, and $40 for a pound of coffee. You are investing in your future. Invest wisely. Do something.