Nov 6

Nov 6 Failed Pied Pipers

Demonstrations, Donald Trump, Performances, Public Declarations, Signs and Posters, The Age of Trump

The folks who put together yesterday’s Refuse Fascism rally had announced that they would continue to demonstrate every day until Trump was removed from office. With that in mind, I booked a late flight back to Chicago at 8:30 PM today so that I could see what was in store for Day 2.

As I had assumed, the crowd returning for Day 2 was exponentially smaller than yesterday’s—maybe 200 of the faithful.

Today, the organizers had on tap a mid-day march from George Washington University to Georgetown University. They apparently viewed the now seasoned demonstrators who turned out yesterday as pied papers. The grizzled veterans would inspire youthful college students to join the mobilization against Trump’s agenda. Sadly, the march was a dud.

When the demonstrators tried to convince the students standing on street corners to join the march, the students responded by telling the veterans of anti-war demonstrations dating to the Sixties and early Seventies that they couldn’t take part because the students had afternoon classes. “But don’t you understand, this is about protecting and shaping your future?” The pleas fell on deaf ears. With tuition now sometimes exceeding $50,000 per year, the students were reluctant to skip class. Doing so would be like throwing a largely empty bottle of fine wine into the trash. Even a thimbleful of liquid should not go to waste.

True to form, many students momentarily paused on street corners as the marchers passed by. With smartphones in hand, the students captured video as the marchers passed. TikTok and Facebook will be inundated with these videos, but they will soon disappear from sight as newer videos of something even more mundane are uploaded, pushing what was captured today even deeper into the black hole that is social media.

Along the march route, we passed The School Without a Walls, which according to its website, “is a selective District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) magnet high school established in 1971. SWWHS has both 100% graduation and 100% college acceptance rates.” A few blocks later, a group of 10 to 15 students from the school caught up with the marchers. Apparently the students had been eating lunch outdoors when the marchers passed the school.

Apparently, high school students are the new role model when it comes to student activism. This group was enthusiastic, jumping up and down and taking the offered bullhorn to speak their minds as the march came to a temporary halt, permitting the organizers to showcase the high schoolers. Maybe some of the college students who were recording the event will take part in the next demonstration having been shamed by the youngsters.

Aside from this momentarily ray of sunshine, the march was a bust. The leaders had talked about marching around Georgetown’s campus, but altered the plan after realizing that Georgetown is a private university, which meant that university officials would deny the demonstrators access to the campus. Instead, the organizers said they would march around the campus’ perimeter on public streets. That never happened. Instead, after coming to a dead end at the campus gates, the marchers made the return journey to George Washington University.

I had bailed by the time the group reversed course, but I saw them approaching in the distance as I neared the White House. Once again, I don’t know why the organizers didn’t end the march in front of the White House.

Tomorrow, the Refuse Fascism folks are scheduled to stage a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices will be considering whether to hear a case challenging the landmark Gay rights decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the ruling that guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry. I won’t be present, and I suspect most of the people marching today won’t be there either.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It. The Images Are Not Necessarily in Exact Chronological Order]