I’m not optimistic enough to call it the death of indifference, but recent events prove there may be signs of life in the democratic republic Americans call exceptional but too often take for granted.
Last weekend’s “Hands Off!” rallies have come and gone. And while it’s not known if they signal the start of a lasting movement, it’s hard to discount the crowds that gathered in big cities and small towns across the country, with protesters in countries such as Austria, Mexico, Canada and the Netherlands joining in solidarity.
While more than 100,000 protesters showed up in Washington, D.C., according to organizers, and close to that number in Boston, the hundreds in smaller cities such as Rock Hill, S.C., were just as impressive, considering how red and Republican that state reliably has been in recent elections.
Having lived in Arizona for a few years, I know the pride the people place in being unique individuals, and how much they hate anyone telling them what to do or how to live. So, I expected the state to have a particularly good showing. And it did.
According to Elon Musk, not a popular figure in weekend rallies, they, along with the rest, were paid “puppets.”
All of them?
In my current swing-state home of North Carolina, I saw signs to match every cause in a Charlotte protest that despite humid, 88-degree weather drew thousands: “Protect Our Votes,” “No Kings” and “How can I be expected to send silly little emails during a hostile takeover by FASCIST NAZI OLIGARCHS,” which pretty much captured the sentiment of the day.
It’s true the city is a blue splotch in a purplish-red state, but thousands showed up and were plenty fed up.
That attitude extends to the state’s attorney general, Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, who is joining state officials across the country to sue the Trump administration over the federal government’s decision to cut more than $11 billion in health care funding.
That’s money states use to fund things like mental health services, addiction treatment and tracking the spread of infectious diseases, particularly bad timing when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is providing uncertain leadership and confusing messages during a measles outbreak.
Did some of Saturday’s discontented perhaps choose to sit it out last November or vote for Donald Trump because the Democratic brand had become “toxic”? Possibly. But it was golf-playing, tariff-imposing Donald Trump and his sidekick, the job-killing, chainsaw-waving Elon Musk and his DOGE boys put in the hot seat by a wide cross section of Americans.
About that “toxic” label: Chief among those sharing that message and not providing much pushback to podcast guests Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon and those following their election-denying, race-baiting lead has been California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose political instincts seem to have abandoned him.
In Newsom’s quest for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, something he hasn’t owned up to, at least not yet, he is surrendering when the party base, according to polls, wants fighters, like Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.
Booker’s recent attention-grabbing Senate speech was denigrated by Republicans as a stunt. Well, sure it was. But as he stood and talked about issues like health care and read letters from concerned voters, it was also a sign of life and resistance — with the added bonus of taking down the Senate’s former reigning champion talker, South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond, whose segregationist stand held the record for far too long.
As Trump’s disapproval numbers are rising almost as fast as the stock market is sinking, it’s clear that at least some Trump voters who may not be big fans of tariffs and the resulting high prices now declare that this is not what they voted for.
But wasn’t it candidate Trump who talked more about retribution than anything he would do to help voters’ lives? As president, as expected, it has taken him little time to return to the chaos of his first term, with guardrails off and loyalists in.
It’s all about the vengeance, even against Harriet Tubman, whose role as the most famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad was downplayed on a recently changed National Park Service webpage. Apparently, the abolitionist and American hero’s prominence helping enslaved men, women and children escape bondage and travel north into freedom fit some twisted definition of DEI.
But the pushback that greeted the news, mostly from citizens who respect the truth and believe Americans can handle it, forced a restoration of respect for an icon.
Like many, I expected the Trump administration’s moves on immigration, the economy, national security, diversity programs — the list goes on; he had telegraphed each and every one. But the quickness of execution, the sometimes gleeful, sometimes fearful compliance by those who know better and the resignation of opponents who seemed to lack the energy or the will — that was surprising.
Maybe his actions finally came too close to home. But isn’t that often what it takes?
Americans are paying attention, and remembering that the only thing that stops a bully is someone, or a lot of people, standing up.
Reprinted with permission from Roll Call.
