I’m standing in a sea of pink hats in the middle of Fifth Avenue, in front of Trump Tower, in solidarity with thousands of people in New York City. It’s January 21, 2017, and there are millions more like us gathering in cities and communities all over the country and world to protest the presidential inauguration of a professed pussy grabber.
An estimated 3 to 5 million people attended rallies in the United States and over 7 million worldwide; it was well organized, civil, and deeply poignant. There were more attendees at the Washington, D.C. march than Trump’s inauguration the day before.
Those protests were peaceful. Sure, we brought righteous anger, anticipating what a Donald Trump presidency would be like. It turned out to be so much worse than we could have imagined, especially when it comes to agency over our bodies.
Why this memory? Why now?
After Trump said – including recently to podcaster Joe Rogan – that radical liberals and people who disagree with him are the “the enemy from within” and he vowed to use the military on American citizens if he becomes president again, that day in 2017 popped into my head. It’s a perfect example of what would change if he got anywhere near the White House again. I want you to envision it in a new way.
My group of friends, in our 50s and 60s, gathers on the steps of the New York Public Library. Some of us have signs. There is a child with us. We’re lightly bundled on this brisk winter day. We’re serious in our mission, but lighthearted as we unify to make a statement as citizens.
Before we move off the steps on to Fifth Avenue, we hear shouts and sirens. A mix of police officers and military personnel are encroaching on us and all the marchers near us. They goad us until we’re yelling. The closer they get, we tell them to back off, not to touch us. We’re not armed. We haven’t done anything wrong.
But they have their orders. There will be no protesting Trump. No marching. Peaceful or not, they’re there to round us up. They want names. The ones who get worked up when provoked will wind up in jail. The others, well, they just want to be able to track them in the system.
It’s not just happening in Manhattan. Women and the men who are there to support them are being corralled by law enforcement and military in San Francisco and Denver, Chicago and Miami, Dallas and Albuquerque. Not to mention the little towns with zealous sheriffs amped up because the president they revere has unleashed them.
No march happens. Just violent unrest. My group doesn’t wind up walking even a few yards. Mostly women across America rack up criminal records for exercising what was once a constitutional right in their country. They are at the very least scolded and demoralized, at the most in a jail cell or a hospital.
Let’s face it. There are those among us — Trump voters in our families, at our jobs, in our communities – who think he’s just blustering in this campaign phase because they can’t picture the circumstances of using the military against American citizens who disagree. Even they know it sounds preposterous. Others, of course, would relish the opportunity to ‘own the libs’ by cowing them into agreement.
I’m giving you a scenario here that’s based on a real event.
How would it go? What is your Trump-supporting mother or MAGA neighbor (you know, the one with his house festooned in red, white and blue Trump banners) thinking at that point? That you deserve this? Do they realize they’re responsible for unleashing this behavior? Are they wondering how they didn’t see this coming? Or are they sticking to their years-long conviction that Trump is all-knowing and that giving him limitless power is a noble goal?
Seriously, what goes down at this point?
All the family, friend, spousal, work relationships jeopardized and blasted apart by this guy who has been deemed a fascist by non-political, respected, committed generals and called unfit by his own vice president and others. How do those Trump supporters respond to this unconstitutional turn of events?
Are they laughing their butts off? Haha, serves her right for ripping on Trump and then taking to the streets to protest. Lock her up! Or are they wide-eyed and repentant for not seeing his authoritarianism sooner?
I’m really asking.
