(So do I)
“What we were hearing throughout the day,” Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible told MSNBC’s Ari Melber, “was the biggest problem … that organizers of these marches were having around the country, was that too many people were showing up, too many more people than they had planned on.” Five to seven times more than had signed up in advance, she said.
That was Saturday, April 5.
Bookmark this clip. You’ll want to come back to it.
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Saturday was just the beginning. The next events are scheduled for Saturday, April 19 (details coming). Newsweek:
50501 is again calling for protests in all 50 states against the Trump administration on April 19.
In social media posts, the group stated that they want 3.5 percent of the U.S. population—more than 11 million people—to participate. They cite this figure as the threshold for “sustained resistance in order to make a difference.”
50501 said the April 19 demonstration will be to protest against what they describe as a “hostile government takeover” overseen by the Trump administration.
Organic is better
Our protest here on Saturday was coordinated by 50501, Indivisible, and several other groups. (I actually don’t know how it came together.) Although a local Democratic elected official was the first speaker, someone noted that lack of Democratic Party presence. One reason is that these activist groups are better at this kind of organizing on the fly, and their contact lists cover a wider regional swath than a county party’s. Another is that branding it a Democratic Party event would be less likely to draw a crowd to what people, a majority registered independents, would rightly expect would be a party rally (not what they’re looking for).
What I hope we are seeing is a movement building of the sort that ousts authoritarian leaders in other countries. If ours was a parliamentary system, a no-confidence vote could do it. As is, we in the U.S. are sailing uncharted waters that may give a whole new meaning to “haul in your sheets.”
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Have you fought autocracy today?
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense