Over the course of just two weekends, the power of protest was revived and brought home to Americans with two very different marches: The Women’s March on Washington, which morphed into the largest protest march in U.S. and global History, and yesterday’s Pro-Life March, which was filled by about 18,000 marchers.
But the two marches, both peaceful and filled with rousing speeches aimed at President Trump and unifying the public in general (Women's March), and in the Pro-Life March, aimed at fighting to make abortion once more illegal, were very different not only in subject but in focus.
The Pro-Life March was one that had one specific message that steps in tune to the new administration: Ban Abortions.
The Women’s March had a much broader, far sweeping and anti-administration drumbeat: Civil rights are for everyone, and American women demand equality not only for themselves for but all races, cultures, religions and sexes.
Another striking difference between the two marches was the public virtual support of the President, who tweeted “You have my full support“ to the Pro-Life March and the very physical presence of both Vice President Pence and Kellyanne Conway, spokesperson for Trump. Pence and Conway spoke to the crowds, sharing their own freedom of speech and right to agree with Pro Life while also sharing the endorsement of their boss, President Trump.
Yet, during the Women’s March in Washington, which also simultaneously occurred across the nation as millions of women, men and children marched, there was no tweet from Trump and no support, other than a confused tweet saying “under the impression we just had an election” and then “Why didn’t these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly.”
With the President’s support of Pro-Life, fully and publicly endorsing it, his misunderstanding and belittling of the re-born civil rights movement that was birthed during the Women’s March on Washington and across the globe is striking in its insolence.
Trump's hyper-focus on lies about election fraud (100% proven by facts, yet still about to be a major investigation) offers a glaring and frightening view of a leader not in tune with his country - or reality.
But it's not the first time a leader employed confusion and attacks on media as a power play.
Sales of dystopian novels such as “It Can’t Happen Here” and “1984”, both works from decades ago about a future where the government ignores science and just creates unreal facts along the way, is now a surreal yet very dominant force in the U.S.
With the President’s own spokesperson Conway saying this administration has “alternate truths”, an international march larger than any other on the planet in history, and a much, much smaller Pro-Life March supported publicly by the administration, the new word of the year will surely be “protest”.
With science and lies presented as "alternate truths" and the media under fire by Trump as part of a war to create confusion among the American public as to who to trust, Democracy is under fire.
On the bright side, newspaper subscriptions are up.
Updates to follow.
