We Marched, It was Great! Now What?

We don’t need anybody with a white savior complex; it’s inherently divisive and reactionary.

I took this.

The most common estimate of Saturday’s Hand’s Off turnout was that 3.5 million people in over 1100 locations came out to say Not Us. The major market media generally downplayed the significance of so many people willing to show themselves for the cause of democracy. Local media did a lot better, mostly because having (mostly) been hollowed out by private equity, this was an easier story to cover.

For those of us who showed up to protests were gratified by the numbers, having largely existed in a world siloed out since Covid, humans connecting was a positive act. In-person events and marches can really fill up people’s fighting tanks, so to speak. And this regime has handed us a really really long, tedious, and difficult fight. This weekend was a victory, but more like the end of the beginning than the beginning of the end.

The kinds of spirit-killing responses many people feared, either by police or MAGA pinheads, didn’t happen (with the exception of a couple of feints by the faint-hearted). The day wasn’t marred by much other than logistical problems caused by larger-than-anticipated turnouts.

Lamest commentary award goes to Axios San Diego: “Festival organizers estimate crowds about 2.5-3 times that size.” Festival, indeed.

Even Fox news mentioned the lack of acts of violence and destruction of property. Some outlets chose to frame their stories around how “angry” protesters were, but anger wasn’t the emotion being projected on the streets. Determination, amazement, and solidarity were on display everywhere I looked, including many videos of protests in other cities.

The best answers for why people were on the streets all had to do with “everything.” Hands Up was –dare I say it– so inclusive as to make a white nationalist tremble. It’s not that there aren’t differences in how people see things or what they’d like to see done; it’s widespread agreement that “something” needs to be done.

Two national networks and a host of regional alliances have emerged in leadership roles over the past weeks, namely Indivisible and 50501. They don’t need to be anything more than an organizing infrastructure/mechanism for communication. My point is that anything tangible and substantive at this point begs to be used as target practice by authorities who no longer feel bound by constitutional protections and the rule of law.

An Abbie Hoffman-type character, for instance, could be swept up in an immigration sweep. Given that the Trump administration’s concept of due process as ‘no process,’ he could be swearing to be a citizen all the way on the plane to El Salvador. We don’t need anybody with a white savior complex; it’s inherently divisive and reactionary.

I ventured into MAGA cyberland on Saturday, and the responses were along the lines of all “those” people must have been duped by George Soros funded agitators. The cult kool-aid is very powerful with those folks, and they simply can’t conceive of people who see danger ahead.

Or maybe they can and don’t care. Lack of empathy among the billionaire fan clubs is, after all, a common trait.

My view of where things are at is that there is no return to “normal.” Trump’s attempt at projecting power to the world will fail, if for no reason other than the irrationality baked into the math surrounding it. America is done. Our reputation is forever tarnished in the world.

The respect is gone, and countries will no longer rely on the US. Canada will divert away from us, so will Germany and the rest of Europe. We’ll have no credibility south of the equator because we couldn’t honor even the most simple agreements. No longer will the US “soft power” and economic deal-making stand in the way of Chinese deals on infrastructure and natural resources.

Again, this dilemma presents opportunities that should be part of a post-Trump world. What would a non-market driven foreign policy look like? I don’t know any specifics, but the possibilities are worth a look.

Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Democratic consultants who think they’re just waiting for an opportunity to make things right (ala 2026 elections) don’t get it. The boundaries of behavior that were agreed upon in yesteryear have been erased. The pieces of the programs smashed by Mr Chainsaw and his incels won’t be easily put together again, and we should recognize the opportunities this affords for a reconstruction that won’t be undermined.

There is a grassroots movement aiming to fill the ranks of those willing to serve their communities. Over 2000 people signed up for the advice and support given by the Run For Something group in the days after the inauguration, and the ranks of recently departed federal employees have swelled recruitment in recent weeks.

I started out writing this piece thinking that the next big mobilization needed to be cautiously considered as a response to Trump’s next round of evil-doing, but events on Sunday made ASAP a realistic option. Whether its the revelations about the deliberate deception at the root of the deportations of Venezuelans to El Salvador, the next stage treatments for cancer that were dumped, or the increasing peril to people’s savings, stuff is hitting the fan so quickly that there’s little doubt Americans are going to be ready for another expression of opposition to the Trump regime.

The 50501 folks are saying April 19th is their target date for another round of widespread protests. We’ll see if that holds up in the face of logistical challenges, but the appetite for doing something more is definitely there.

I suspect that Trump’s inner circle will encourage him to turn up the heat with more executive orders that read like royal proclamations aimed at making life miserable for any individual or group they don’t like.

It’s obvious that repeated instances of defying court orders are happening. Up to now, the Trump administration has been bobbing and weaving, mouthing the “normal” responses while weaseling away any way they can. I think they’ve run out of room to maneuver and are looking for the most lethal (to the rule of law) case possible to get before the Supreme Court.

While there’s no guarantee that they’ll get what they want from the supremes, it behooves those of us resisting to not assume anything one way or the other. But we should keep our eyes on the prize for the opportunity a decision will present for mass response.

For the time being, two things strike me as important: sustaining the small-ball protests against symbolic targets and having discussions about a post-MAGA world. While we can’t be absolutist about anything, given the economic and political uncertainties, we can and should start considering possibilities. In the end, we risk becoming what we oppose if negativity is our only mode.

Think about it; do we really want to rebuild military alliances based on nation-states as a primary objective? And how about the coming structural damage that will be brought on by climate change? Or wouldn’t we be better served (someday) by a parliamentary system? There is nothing the American people can’t do if they put their minds to it, and making a better world is not outside the realm of possibilities.

There are already a couple of groups formulating ideas for a post Trump future. And both are ultimately trying to repackage the status quo. On the right there are elements of the Never-Trumpers who cling to libertarian economic ideals. On the left there is a group of intellectuals who are selling a prosperity agenda based on stripping away political obstacles.

Where both fail, and the resistance writ large cannot fail, is acknowledging the de facto result of extreme wealth concentration. There may be a civil way to end this societal corruption by taxation of assets, but in any case if the cause of what led to the destruction of the US system of governance is not eliminated, we’ll end up repeating this banal process. We’ve had half a century of the providence of the market as an assumption rather than a consideration.

We should learn from the ultimate failure of post civil war reconstruction in all its representations, so as to understand what safeguards are desirable.

Excuse me for repeating myself, but I think the following could be a starting place.

How we get out of this hell and win the future by Jordan Zakarin offers up a three pronged* approach for moving forward that’s broad enough to include progressive and liberal interests.

• Take Back the Culture

• Give People Things to Do

• Give People Something to Fight For

A keep-it-simple-agenda could draw from FDR’s Four Freedoms:

• freedom of speech

• freedom of worship

• freedom from want

• freedom from fear.

Trump slammed for ‘covertly’ withholding FEMA funds from blue states by Eric Ubelacker for Courthouse News

• In March, U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued a preliminary injunction in favor of 23 states that sued the government over its plan to implement a broad pause to state aid. The Barack Obama appointee ruled that the plan “fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,” and ordered the Trump administration to “immediately end any funding pause” until further notice.

• But on Friday, McConnell found the Trump administration in breach of the court’s order. At least 19 states — all with Democratic attorney generals, and all of which had sued to stop the funding cuts — “presented undisputed evidence” that they were not receiving congressionally approved FEMA funding from the federal government, the judge ruled.

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Leave the Military - You're at risk of being told to betray your own values. By Hamilton Nolan at How Things Work

• You and I may disagree about many issues: about which past actions of the US military have been good or bad, moral or immoral; or even about the degree to which the US military is inherently moral or immoral. Those are important debates to have, but they are not why I am writing this piece today. I am writing this piece today for the simple reason that we are, right now, living under an extremely unstable, vindictive, and dictatorial Commander-in-Chief of the US military who is likely to order the military to do things that will be judged by history to be unconstitutional and immoral. And even if you are a soldier who has supported America’s wars of the past few decades, there is now a distinct possibility, verging on a likelihood, that within the next few years, the US military will be used as a tool to directly oppress Americans at home. For anyone who is of an age to be a member of the US military today, there has never been a higher risk that you will be placed in a situation in which you will be ordered to do things that will make you a villain.

• Not a villain by my standards. Not a villain by the standards of leftists or anti-imperialists who you, as a member of the military, might profoundly disagree with. A villain by your own standards—by the standards of someone who joined the military as a genuine act of patriotism and public service. Many members of today’s military are motivated by a belief in the necessity of protecting Americans from the world’s threats. Today, the greatest threat to America’s future as a free and democratic society is the Commander-in-Chief of the US military. The threat is inside the house. It is time to get out.

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Trump Will Get His Showy (And Likely Expensive) Military Parade in D.C. by Tom Sherwood at The Washington City Paper

• According to a D.C. source with knowledge of the plan that’s still being developed, Trump has commandeered Saturday, June 14—the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and, as it happens, Trump’s 79th birthday—for his military parade. It would stretch almost four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington to the White House, according to the source, who stressed that local officials are just learning of it.

• Arlington County Board Chair Takis Karantonis, who describes Arlington as a “9/11 city” that is proud of being home to the Pentagon, tells City Paper that no formal request for assistance has been made to the county. Karantonis says the county was given a “heads up” about the parade on Friday by the White House, but with no firm details.

• “It’s not clear to me what the scope of a parade would be,” Karantois says. “But I would hope the federal government remains sensitive to the pain and concerns of numerous [military] veteran residents who have lost or might lose their jobs in recent federal decisions, as they reflect on how best to celebrate the Army’s anniversary.”