Opinion: Can This Democracy Be Saved?
By • April 7, 2025 0 207
Like so much about that man, Saturday’s protests were unprecedented. Who would have imagined that this newly installed administration (has it only been 10 weeks?) could provoke such fierce and heartfelt opposition to policies that are themselves unprecedented. Random acts of cruelty that have upended lives and livelihoods, destroyed institutions, shattered a global economy and shown the ugliest face possible to our allies and the world.
It’s unprecedented, alright. Also immoral. And untenable.
At my location—one of many throughout D.C.—several hundred of us (mostly boomers, mostly women, mostly white) gathered loudly to register our anguish at the spectacle our nation has become. As we chanted and waved our signs, traffic up and down the avenue honked in support. Even Teslas!
As we walked through the crowds, we overheard variations on the same conversation. People are pissed off and afraid. They feel helpless and vulnerable, unprotected by the very lawmakers they elected to represent them but who have abdicated their Congressional duties to hold power accountable. Even if they had expected the worst from this regime, they were certainly never prepared for this.
It’s doubtful that anyone thought these protests would cause the scales to fall from Trump’s squinty little eyes or that he’d reverse course. But in an all-too-rare display of community, five million of us across the country stood together as citizens exercising our right to assemble, speak and perhaps save our democracy or what used to be proudly called “the American way.”
Photos from the Hands Off Protest in D.C. this weekend are by Bill Starrels.
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- Photo by Bill Starrels.
