I was there today for what looks like might have been the largest march in the history of our country.
There were 750,000 people in downtown Los Angeles today. There must have been about 749,837 signs, too. It was absolutely incredible. Everyone was so polite, so respectful, so vocal, so passionate, so peaceful. There was not a single arrest today, I’ve read. Oh, and it was seriously at least 80% women.
Truly, truly incredible.
You’re not alone. If you ever doubt that, remember today. Look at the photos. Read the news stories. You are not alone. When they tell you that “identity politics” is dead, remember today. Today proved absolutely 100% unequivocally that’s not true. It’s simply not true. This was the LARGEST PROTEST IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY.
I’m blown away by what I saw today, and what happened elsewhere across the country. Blown away. It’s the first political march I’ve ever been to, I’m sad to say. But happy to say, because now I’ve been to one. I tell you, if Trump did one thing positive for me personally, it was that he woke me up to the fact that I have to be involved, that politics will not take care of themselves, and that I cannot and must not take my country’s well-being for granted. Apparently, a lot of other people feel the same way.
Yes: it is going to be a CHALLENGE to keep that motivation and momentum all the way into the elections in 2018 and 2020. Clearly. It’s that very same challenge that led us to having Donald Trump as our president. But, today gave me some hope that it CAN be done. We can come together in massive numbers and affect change in our country.
There’s a website that I signed up for today, that I definitely want to look into a bit more and make sure they’re going to have an effective strategy beyond just donations, meaning actual boots-on-the-ground methodoligies, called www.swingleft.org which has a zip code locator that allows you to find your closest swing district for congress. I was SHOCKED to find that there’s a red swing district just miles from where I live. I say that in all seriousness…and therefore feel friggin stupid.
So, anyway, you find your closest congressional swing district and you can sign up for an email mailing list – which they promise to not share and not send more than 1 email per week – that’s dedicated to action items surrounding making sure that “swing” district votes blue (democratic) in the 2018 election. Because THAT SHIT IS WHERE THE FIGHT IS, you guys. Not the presidential race (for now). It’s Congress. It’s the House, and it’s the Senate. The people who actually make laws and have the most power to directly affect us at the congressional level. After that, it’s the Governors races.
We
Have
Got
Work
To
Do.
A couple more thoughts about what I saw today: I was stunned, absolutely stunned to see no anti-march protestors today. Nobody from those anti-abortion churches, telling us we’re all going to hell. No Trump supporters. Not a single soul. I wonder why that is?
Secondly: I’m going to be very interested to see how the GOP minimizes what happens today. Again, I’m not being facetious. I’m legitimately curious what their tactic is going to be. The more we can understand the kinds of rhetoric that will be used against us, the more we can prepare to defeat it in the future.
Your political blogger, signing off. Good night.
