For those who haven’t left the bed since the morning after Nov. 5, it’s time to yank the curtains open. Time to open that window to a blossoming world.
For those whose morning greeting has been, “All is lost,” time for some winning, like this:
— Wisconsin voters turned back Heil-On Musk’s attempt to buy a crucial state supreme court seat, the most expensive judicial race in history thanks to Heil-On’s millions. The result, as pertains to redistricting, could deliver two newly minted Democrats to Congress.
— Way-closer-than-expected special elections in two ruby-red Florida congressional districts revealed stunningly diminished support for MAGA and its mouthpieces.
— Sen. Cory Booker stopped the Senate in its tracks, speaking for a day and an hour for the millions outraged by Republicans’ kowtowing to a felon’s destructive whims.
— A bipartisan bill passed the Senate to denounce the tariff wackery that has caused global markets to lose unimaginable wealth.
All these responses should make you feel better.
No better therapy exists, however, than what I observed the other day: an army of Americans talking with their feet.
A reported 5.2 million participated in the April 5 Hands Off! marches – 1,200 rallies staged in every state to protest the maniac-in-chief and his manic enablers. This would contend with the 2017 Women’s March for the biggest single-day protest in U.S. history.
Hands off Social Security. Hands off Medicare. Hands off our fragile safety net. Hands off women’s bodies. Hands off peaceable, productive immigrants. Hands off trans people. Hands off science. Hands off higher education.
Choose a state and look at the pictures, the throngs. Take a trip on Google to see what I saw in person.
The hairs on my arms stood in salute as I turned the corner on South Howes Street in Fort Collins, Colo., and it wasn’t from the cold. There in front of the county courthouse, brightly bundled against a flurry of spring snowflakes: 3,000 upbeat citizens, ready to march.
Talk about a vibe – neighbors high-fiving, hugging, flexing in the cold, listening to inspiring voices like Congressman Joe Neguse, one of the prosecutors of the second impeachment of the fraud merchant whose role in an insurrection should have barred him from every public office, even dog catcher. The Colorado Supreme Court said as much about his second bid for the presidency.
The signs held by those gathered. Oh, my:
“If what they’ve done to this country hasn’t broken your heart, you don’t love her enough.”
“Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Which word is the problem?”
“So many outrages. So little cardboard.”
“ORANGE LIES MATTER.”
“They’re eating the checks! They’re eating the balances!”
“Mind your own uterus.”
“Billionaires are the real parasites.”
It was time to march. Time for passersby on placid North College Avenue to have their minds blown.
What I observed was not just performative art. I was seeing collaborative citizenship — the working kind of citizenship, the networking kind, the tireless kind, the multiplier kind being practiced by activist group Indivisible, key organizer of Hands Off.
This movement is past the germination stage. It’s an American spring on the move.
Inspired by the “Fight Oligarchy” tour, a foray into red districts and elsewhere by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — events that drew staggering crowds — congressional Democrats are soon to stage rallies in districts that were barely won by the MAGA king.
They are mining the anger of citizens from whom Republican members of Congress now are hiding, and for damn good reason.
By the way, the next national protest is April 19 — the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, when plainclothes patriots arose against an overlord in dainty duds.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
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