Reading the news has long been hazardous enough to earn the term “doom-scrolling,” but it’s hard not to do at least some of that early in the morning, hot coffee in hand. Saturday dawn, however, the first item up was the warfare erupting between Israel and Iran, followed by the assassination of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband, and the wounding of two more, at their homes, by a Trump-supporting “Christian.” My already precarious mood immediately went dark. Today was to be the nationwide anti-MAGA “No Kings” protest, and I was slated for a doubleheader in San Francisco.
First up was a mass human-body spelling of yes, “No King” out on Ocean Beach, followed by the big gathering at Dolores Park with a march to the Civic Center. Seemed ambitious but I was committed, albeit already worried about violence by MAGA folks - the ones who believe Trumpian propaganda that illegal immigrants pose an “invasion” of dangerous criminals and that those Americans who don’t believe that, and who point to the fact that violent crime has long been decreasing significantly and that immigrants commit less crime than others, are evil socialists or worse. Warnings were already out to beware provocateurs inciting violence, wild anarchists doing likewise from the other side, and maybe even trigger-happy cops, National Guardsmen, even Marines. Who to fear most?
Nobody, as it turned out, at least not here. The protests were big and peaceful. Police presence was minimal, seemingly mostly directing traffic. On the bus down to the beach folks were getting on with their hand-drawn signs and the mood was celebratory. The bus filled up by the time we got to the end of the line, then emptied in a jubilant discharge of people. A short walk out to the sea wall and there was already a mass of humanity, mostly self-herding into the already-formed big letters, to be photographed by drone above. A couple organizers with bullhorns were directing foot traffic to where needed, sometimes joking “wow, where will we put you all, we should have insisted on RSVPs!” All ages represented, mostly white but all shades of skin too. Soon it was photo and filming time and chants and songs and that “wave” thing from sporting events started. I was cheering up some, as the jubilant mood was contagious. There was a mass singing of, at least partly, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.”
Guessing correctly that many of the couple thousand there had similar plans to catch the bus all the way back up to the main event at the Civic Center, I headed out while the drones were still up and walked up to my longtime beach snack spot, the TJ Cafe, right off the great highway on La Playa, where I’ve been going for decades now for tasty fish sandwiches from the nice couple who run it (yes, this is a small business plug). “You here for the protest?” they asked, and when I affirmed, they smiled and nodded. I took my fish burger back over to the bus stop where people were indeed already gathering and hopped on. Halfway up I jumped out to meet some longtime friends to eat my sandwich and have a quick coffee for fuel. Then it was time for protest part two.
Back on the bus, we commiserated about the mass corrupt craven cruel con job that is MAGA, wherein so many are convinced that a career criminal is their champion and thus vote against their own interests and, if young, futures. Or don’t vote at all, which was how Trump got back in office by a small margin with a third of voters not bothering. Democracy has its downsides too, especially given that FOX is now the most-watched “news” source despite multiple confirmations that it not only spreads more misinformation than facts and research showing that its viewers are less-informed than others. Thus Trump’s gloat that “We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.” But we’re not supposed to say such things now, even though true. So I just tend to quote JD Vance’s moment of candor, before he himself got hooked: Trump is “cultural heroin.” Although sometimes I expect meth is the closer diagnosis.
At the civic center we jumped out and walked into the plaza, where hundreds were gathered, waiting for the main crowd to arrive on the hike from the Dolores Park gathering place. And soon there was a rising cheer and the lead paraders entered in, and the chants and songs and general volume grew, and grew, with bullhorn shouts to move back so everyone could fit in, until I figured it was time to head homeward. Clearly it was to be a huge crowd. I said goodbye and started walking west, up Market Street which was a wide river of marching people. It was hard to even get across the street, and for blocks and blocks, people kept coming, as it turned out for hours. It was frankly amazing, and might turn out to be the biggest street protest ever, both in San Francisco and nationwide. I’d been to previous big marches in the same locale in opposition to the Iraq invasion and for reproductive rights, but this seemed bigger.
There’s long debate about what political demonstrations really “do.” Some say they are primarily performative and for some that’s undeniably true. But in crisis times they serve multiple purposes. Showing solidarity is one, and that does matter. People didn’t know how big and wide the opposition to racial oppression or the Vietnam War was until massive crowds gathered to demonstrate. In those cases the huge rallies sparked revolt against the status quo. On the other hand Bush Jr. invaded Iraq anyway and reproductive rights have been reversed. In the current national fiasco, showing and seeing what majority opinion is - anti-MAGA - does matter. The first months of Trump.2 have been a disaster for the nation and world, by most any measure, but these demonstrations might come to be seen as marking a turning point.
The signature Trump efforts are, almost without exception, being revealed as incompetent and counterproductive even for their misguided aims, and are turned back by courts over and over. Trump’s tariffs - the stupidest ever, said the conservative Wall Street Journal - have been chaotic and rolled back seemingly randomly, with the negative economic impacts only starting. Likewise the cruel blundering immigrant purge, once big (and small) business started to protest that they were losing good workers and prices would spike, if people could still find things to buy (and Trump’s own head of the Joint Chiefs of staff recently said No, we are not “being invaded” by immigrants). DOGE will turn out to have cost the nation more than it saved, and desperate efforts to hire needed people back in many sectors are now common, with Elon Musk on to ruining other organizations and lives (including those of some of his many Baby Mamas - “family values, of course). On the health front, many will lose access to care and anti-science moves by the likes of RFKJr. and other new officials are provoking loud protest among actual scientists and physicians (including a forceful uprising in favor of anti-Trump activism, including an investigation of RFKJr’s anti-vaccine moves at a minimum, at the recent AMA - the AMA! - annual meeting).
Overseas MAGA diplomacy hasn’t been going too well either. Though Trump promised to “fix” the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, and with China, it’s easy to see how those are going. Trump’s Greenland, Denmark, Mexico, etc forays only provoke mirth and eye-rolling. America is suddenly an international laughingstock, and the expert projections emerging in medical, public health, economics, and other professional journals is that the net result is and will be increased suffering, death, and more poverty, both international and domestic. This is the truly tragic reality of MAGA in action.
By fortuitous chance Trump attempted a bizarre military parade on the same day as the protests, his birthday, costing at least $45 million in taxpayer funds, with commercial branding of course, and from all reports and photos it was an embarrassing disaster. So much so that Putin’s Russia, who Trump seemed to want to emulate, is already mocking it as an amateurish effort. Even many GOP and military leaders wanted nothing to do with it. Trump himself seemed to be far from happy at it and looked to fall asleep. Given how much he’s insulted servicemen and been exposed as clueless by his own military leaders, one wonders how many of them felt about the absurd forced march. The Wall Street Journal, again, said “We” - meaning the USA - “don’t do that.”
The contrast with the No King rallies was undeniable, as evidenced by desperate-sounding White House efforts to spin it otherwise - and of course threaten those who pointed out the Emperor’s sad clothes. But it seems likely that Trump himself doesn’t really care much about all MAGA’s signature crusades, just using those as red meat to his low-info fans, as it’s reported that, true to form, his family is profiting so heavily from his Presidency, using crypto scams, bribes, you name it, that it will take years to figure all that out, by then they’ll all be cashed out and gone from public office, and that’s for them that’s really what it’s all about. And if you get in trouble due to any of the greed and grifting, for the right amount of cash you can just buy a pardon.
It was a long uphill walk home, as few buses could get through for hours and the underground trains were sure to be far too crowded for me. But the fog had rolled back and the sun came out for the first time in at least a week so all was fine. I stopped at a fine music shop where I know the owner and we chatted while I browsed through the jazz cds and reggae albums. I told him how I’d spent the morning, and we agreed that the giant protests - already being called the biggest ever - were a good thing. “But do you think it will really help?” he mused, seemingly as much to himself as to me. I don’t know, we’ll see, I replied. But Saturday was the first time I actually felt patriotic in some time, and that’s something. Isn’t it?
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