The Resistance Rumbles

Elaine Godfrey - The Atlantic - 06/04
The “Hands Off” protest in Washington, D.C., drew thousands of people with a lot of feelings—but as-yet-inchoate anger at the Trump administration.

The opposition arrived in a flurry of painted cardboard.

Until this week, the 11th of Donald Trump’s second presidency, the resistance has not exactly been upper-case R. Any show of dissent by Democratic leadership has been virtually nonexistent, and protests against Trump’s policies have been small and sporadic. Citizen frustration with the new administration has registered nationally as little more than a distant rumble.

Today’s “Hands Off” protest, organized by a coalition of left-wing groups, was an attempt to raise the volume.

People carted their megaphones and rainbow flags to more than 1,200 sites across the country today—in D.C., of course, but also in Helena, Montana; Daytona Beach, Florida; and Dubuque, Iowa. The events spanned all 50 states, the organizers said, plus a few more exotic locales, such as Guadalajara, Lisbon, and Paris. Washington had expected to draw about 10,000 protesters; in the end, several times that showed up.

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