A number of 670 worldwide protests is not normal the day after a United States President takes office. It’s not normal for over 3 million people – many women – to feel an impending threat looming over their civil rights, looming over their democracy, that they’re compelled to go organize in crowds of hundreds of thousands. It’s not normal for protests to outnumber inauguration attendees either – but this is no normal “Republican” president. The threat does not stem from his political affiliation, but rather from his pathological dishonesty, cavalier attitude about nuclear weapons, exploitation of those most vulnerable in our society, complete disregard for our democratic institutions and the Constitution, temperament of a chihuahua, political illiteracy, complete disregard for science, and well-documented vitriol he’s shown for minority groups and women. So here we are, standing at roads end the day after the largest, peaceful one-day protest in U.S. took place, vowing to resist the demagogue and his historically inexperienced, swamp monsters who strive to destroy the agencies and principles that brought this country to its greatness.
The President Electoral said it best, it’s simply “unpresidented,” He came in with a the lowest approval rating in recent history of 32%. To put things into perspective George W. Bush left office with an approval rating of 62% after leaving the country to die in two wars and the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Obama, even after fervent obstruction from the conspiracy-nut right, managed a 60% rating. And the rating was reflected in his pathetic side-show of an inauguration with an estimated attendance of 250,000 people, compared to Obama’s 1.8 million in 2009 and 1 million in 2012. He also had ratings lower than Obama’s and Reagan’s. Instead of quieting fears, the narcissist-in-chief threw a classic tantrum over a non-issue. First taking to Twitter, then he had his rabid mouthpiece attack the media for accurately reporting crowd size and declare it the “biggest inauguration”, shut down the Interior Department’s Twitter for retweeting crowd difference photos, had his other spin-artist call it an “alternative-fact” on live television, and then in classic Trump fashion attacked the protestors that outnumbered his crowd (before an intern snatched his phone.)
Conservatives, feeling a bit shaken-up, drew every excuse from the book for the giant two-day flop – liberals don’t have jobs (blue states are the economic engines of the country?), conservatives are regular people that can’t afford “$1000/night DC hotels, it was cold, D.C. is blue. That’s cute, the inauguration is a D.C. holiday, they sure could take days off to attend 20 Trump rallies, and the protests were on a Saturday. And we know who brought us the weekend, whiny protesters who dared feel entitled to a two-day weekend. Furthermore, Obama was inaugurated on a Tuesday in 28-degree weather but had a turnout of 1.8 million. And Republicans like George W. Bush managed to get bigger crowds. Also, I thought they didn’t have jobs that’s why they voted Trump?
Favorability aside, 74 million people voted against him and he lost the popular vote by 3 million votes. This march was a reminder that he has no mandate, and the people will not lay idly-by as he undoes 50 years of progress.
The president Electoral continues to be a stain on American society with no sign of doing the – much speculated by Trump apologists – 180 into a new person. Because it wasn’t for show and people are starting to realize that and unite. He has delivered on one thing -r he managed to unite us, unite us against him. As Bernie Sanders said, “By trying to divide us up by race, religion, gender and nationality you actually brought us closer.”
The fact is, he hasn’t magically become more “presidential.” His use of the American nazi slogan “America first” in his inauguration speech is proof of that. It’s a vile throwback to the WWII isolationist, anti-semitic movement.
The true majority has spoken, and it needs to maintain the momentum for however long this administration lasts. It must remember that the “power of the people is stronger than the people in power.” People must remember that citizens rose up from not just coast to coast, but everywhere in between. (There goes the coastal elite narrative.) And that politics doesn’t end once somebody gets elected.
Political protest made the United States the world power it is today, it is one of the greatest facets of our democracy that has held those in power accountable in order to progress forward. Without it religious persecution would exist, we’d still be an english colony, debtor’s prisons would exist, people would be allowed to own & exploit other human beings, workers wouldn’t have any rights, children would die in factories, women would be second-class citizens, and segregation and hate crimes would be de jure. The Women’s March formally outlines their vision here but it was about visibility. It was about sending a message of resistance, because there is no compromise on with hate, no compromise with a side that rejects science, with a side that chooses to see the world through revisionist history, no compromise with a cabinet that wants to let Wall Street ruin the economy again, that wants to defund public education, that wants to strike down voting rights, that wants to add humans to a nazi-Germany like registry or go back to the age of Japanese internment camps. These are just some of our fears. Conservatives fears’ when they protested – because they did protest – were conspiracy dreams of FEMA camps, sharia law, and socialism – all on the basis of Obama’s skin color. Silence is consent; standing still in the face of impending injustice is siding with the oppressor.
To belittle, and dilute the message down to “reproductive rights” is dismissive and reflective of the echo-chamber detractors live in. I personally am not a third-wave feminist and morally (not religiously) disagree with abortion, yet I stand for these peaceful demonstrations because I’m not tone-deaf.
Time after time, he’s shown us who he is. What are we giving a chance? As President his administration and he have already put forth the first move of any authoritarian regime – “his own security and intelligence community,” casually desired another war and a war crime ““We should have kept the oil. Maybe we’ll have another chance,” sided with Putin over our 17 intelligence agencies, lied to us about releasing his tax returns, waged a war against the first amendment because the media dared report his own verbatim, offered us “alternative-facts” for frivolous issues. Are we supposed to wait around and see what happens because the President’s words “don’t mean anything”? Are we supposed to let people die from a lack of healthcare? Encroach on our civil liberties? Allow creeping authoritarianism to rise under the guise of “making America great again when it’s already great? Let him and his cabinet of deplorables dismantle the founding values on which this country was founded on?
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
Leave a Reply