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Steven Beschloss: The "Hands Off!" protests on Saturday demonstrated the potential of collective action
Steven Beschloss - The Resistance Must Be Loud and Clear
The "Hands Off!" protests on Saturday demonstrated the potential of collective action
Steven Beschloss
Apr 07, 2025
On Saturday, a million or more Americans—including many of you—proved we are not about to let a despotic minority of self-serving oligarchs and kleptocrats, miscreants and sycophants determine our future without a fight. The “Hands Off!” protests in every state and hundreds of cities and towns across America were both an opportunity to express our anger and demonstrate the beauty of coming together to stand up and speak out.
The hand-made signs that I saw among thousands of motivated Chicagoans (I happened to be there over the weekend) stated it plainly: “We The People Will Not Be Silenced” and “In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!” and “Make America Generous Again” and “Hands Off Our Jobs” and “Save Democracy, Stand Up to Trump!” and “Due Process Is Our Process” and “My Dad Fought Nazis in Europe. It Sucks that I Have to Fight Them in America” and simply “Resist.” The chants included “We will not be silenced!” and “Rise up!” and “Fight back!”
I spoke to a bearded University of Chicago professor who was carrying a “Hands Off My Students” sign. “It’s important to show up,” he said, noting that he had already seen 20 or 30 of his friends at this demonstration in Chicago’s Daley Plaza. Another fifty-something man said that it’s important to “show them we’re watching, that we’re engaged—and that we all can feel a little less lonely.”
This was about joining forces, taking strength from a lively community, exchanging ideas and interests, expressing fears, frustrations, hopes and demands out loud—and yes, after several hateful, divisive and stark raving mad months of destruction, a chance to feel less alone. It was simply a beginning, among large cities and small towns, among younger and older protestors, that we Americans could begin to see anew our collective power to make our voices heard. This was a pick-me-up and a vivid reminder that we cannot give up.
Of course, we knew the nation’s top vandal was not listening. He was fiddling around on his Florida golf course, amusing himself with Saudi financiers and other golfers, and pocketing millions at Mar-a-Lago fundraisers. A White House announcement on Saturday underscored the depth of his indifference to the tariff-induced evaporation of trillions in the stock market or the mass protests against his fascist regime focused on dismantling our government and consolidating his power and wealth. “The President won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship today in Jupiter, FL, and advances to the Championship Round tomorrow,” the statement said.
/snip
The "Hands Off!" protests on Saturday demonstrated the potential of collective action
Steven Beschloss
Apr 07, 2025
On Saturday, a million or more Americans—including many of you—proved we are not about to let a despotic minority of self-serving oligarchs and kleptocrats, miscreants and sycophants determine our future without a fight. The “Hands Off!” protests in every state and hundreds of cities and towns across America were both an opportunity to express our anger and demonstrate the beauty of coming together to stand up and speak out.
The hand-made signs that I saw among thousands of motivated Chicagoans (I happened to be there over the weekend) stated it plainly: “We The People Will Not Be Silenced” and “In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!” and “Make America Generous Again” and “Hands Off Our Jobs” and “Save Democracy, Stand Up to Trump!” and “Due Process Is Our Process” and “My Dad Fought Nazis in Europe. It Sucks that I Have to Fight Them in America” and simply “Resist.” The chants included “We will not be silenced!” and “Rise up!” and “Fight back!”
I spoke to a bearded University of Chicago professor who was carrying a “Hands Off My Students” sign. “It’s important to show up,” he said, noting that he had already seen 20 or 30 of his friends at this demonstration in Chicago’s Daley Plaza. Another fifty-something man said that it’s important to “show them we’re watching, that we’re engaged—and that we all can feel a little less lonely.”
This was about joining forces, taking strength from a lively community, exchanging ideas and interests, expressing fears, frustrations, hopes and demands out loud—and yes, after several hateful, divisive and stark raving mad months of destruction, a chance to feel less alone. It was simply a beginning, among large cities and small towns, among younger and older protestors, that we Americans could begin to see anew our collective power to make our voices heard. This was a pick-me-up and a vivid reminder that we cannot give up.
Of course, we knew the nation’s top vandal was not listening. He was fiddling around on his Florida golf course, amusing himself with Saudi financiers and other golfers, and pocketing millions at Mar-a-Lago fundraisers. A White House announcement on Saturday underscored the depth of his indifference to the tariff-induced evaporation of trillions in the stock market or the mass protests against his fascist regime focused on dismantling our government and consolidating his power and wealth. “The President won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship today in Jupiter, FL, and advances to the Championship Round tomorrow,” the statement said.
/snip