KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF PROTEST
Saturday was a “Keep Your Hands Off” protest by Democrats across the country against Trump and the MAGA slashing at the size of the Federal government and undermining social programs. Yet Asheville protest reminded me of some ways to the people whose photographs I took at the MAGA Trump rally in Asheville in August.
What struck me as being similar was the cheerfulness of the participants in each case. The MAGA protesters were decked out in red, white and blue with nasty signs mocking liberals and Kamala Harris often casting dirty sexual slurs. And yet the MAGA people were all ordinary looking Americans, often older Americans, who were having the time of their lives, smiling and whooping it up and feeling important. Most of them were not from Asheville and many had traveled long distances to be here and had attended a number of rallies. They treated me, with my MAGA Trump hat on, as a brother, and posed eagerly for photographs. They were fired up.
The people at the Democratic rally on Saturday were mostly from Asheville, it appeared to me. Many were here with their children. They were also cheerful, but I had the feeling that was more because of the ability of finally being able to express their strong feelings about Trump’s policies that cheered them up. While the Trump supporters were filled with grievance, the signs of the those at this Democratic rally were not filled with anger at a social class, except for some anger at billionaires. Their signs were almost all concerned with issues such as cutting support for veterans, or cutting support for social security, or cutting support for protecting the environment, or threats made against immigrants or LGBTQ people. The Democratic ire was directed almost exclusively against Trump and Musk and not the people who voted for them.
The MAGA people seemed more engaged in a class war and the Democrats were more interested in political issues.
There were a lot more people at the Democratic protest than there were at the MAGA Trump rally and I think they will be back again next month.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 