Short Take: Hands off Our Democracy! The Protests

One unusual poster at the April 5,2025 Hands Off Our Democracy protest in Washington DC. It's a struggle as old as time or, at least, as old as the ancient Greeks

The protests in Washington, DC and around the nation went off completely peacefully. And that is with--by some estimates--as many as 3.5 million participants, all told. In DC, many of them were middle-aged to elderly white people.--putting the lie to the notion of older people being conservative MAGA types.

Though the protests alone won't make the Trump regime change its course, it is a good thing that so many have awakened and are beginning to take action. The day of going to the streets needs to be only the start. Citizens must think about what needs to be done next.

While we are thinking, here are a few photos from the DC event.

Some had very straightforward messages:

And some were quite clever:

This sign-holder is a member of the DAR. I asked her.

For those who were not able to attend in DC or, because they were at events in other cities and towns, did not see the speeches on the grounds of the Washington Monument or catch them on C-Span later, here are links to three of the best speeches made there. All are a pleasure to hear. Maryland Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin (When you click on Jamie, there will be a commercial you can skip before the video of his speech.)

Florida Democratic Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost

and

Voices of Florida Deputy Director Tsi Day Smyth (When you click on Tsi Day Smyth, it will appear that you must join or log into Instagram, but if you just click on the X in the upper right corner of that message box, her video will appear. You don't need to log in to Instagram to watch it.)

Enjoy.