Day 2: Innauguration and Women’s March

Yesterday at noon I sat down to watch the inaugural speech of our 45th president the Donald.  To me this is the moment I had been waiting for.  The moment where it now counts.  His acceptance speech was good.  Then that was followed by weeks of incoherent tweets, headline grabs, and tough talk on lots of subjects.  But it was all still just run up.  In my mind this is all just entertainment and not much else.  False talk no different than what got him to the White House.  Say anything, promise everything, and suffer no consequences because there are none.  But now he put his hand on the Bible and suddenly, the stop watch starts ticking.  What results can this guy possibly bring?  Would any such results serve at all the people that elected him?  Namely the frustrated white working class?  A class of people whose needs never ever even once lined up with Donald Trump’s needs during his life.  The cabinet picks all are billionaires and built on nepotism built on the circle of ultra-wealthy he has been running with all his life.  Is it an inherent truth that reforming any of the laws that made these people rich would impact their future ability to earn?  Why would any of these nominees have a personal burning to reform the corporate tax code, personal tax code, and improve regulations?  It isn’t going to happen.  Maybe for their own wealthy interests but not those of the little guys and girls.

The speech was very surprising to me.  Unlike his acceptance speech where he was soft and inclusive this one was dark and almost ominous.  This was his first decision on whether to remain all in on bombastic talk and huge promises. Or to take more of a cautious and supportive tone with the hope that both sides of the aisle will come together to solve our huge list of problems.  Nope.  All in on the notion that only the Donald can fix everything and he will in short order.  It comes off as supreme arrogance or supreme ignorance.  My thought is the latter.

Today at the woman’s march in Boston I noticed a lot of things.  The interest was real and there easily enough people to fill Fenway several times.  Lots of signs and spirit and a group of people full of life.  There was a definite sense that each little group down to the individual were there for different reasons maybe.  Lots for women’s rights and issues.  Lots just can’t stand the thought that Donald Trump is president.  Others were there to mock and just see what the talk and energy is all about.  Including me.  The thing that I kept coming back to is there was no sense of central organization or cause.  But then again Trump has only been president for 24 hours.  Already in dozens of cities folks are ready to get to work.  That dynamic was impressive.  I really hope that something comes along to unite all the people down there and in other cities.  At the same time we have to be honest about some of the huge problems we witnessed at the various women’s marches.  A big one for me was the videos of both Ashley Judd and Madonna.  They both said things that were just crazy and not helpful at all.  Ashley Judd ranting about comparing the Donald to Hitler as well as several other crazy sentences does not help.  It weakens and cheapens the effort of everyone that went down to each protest for a real issue they care about.  Madonna commenting on blowing up the White House or whatever the heck she was saying.  Nobody wants to see celebrities telling them their politics.  They have a serious lack of credibility.  The Democrats should know that movie stars and celebrities hurt with voters.  I believe they are learning that.  The media could do better.  I am sure there were many thoughtful, precise, and real calls for action.  But all the snippets we see are mostly of celebrities being dopey empty idealists.

But this is how it gets going.  A mass of people get together and protest.  It was named the women’s marches.  However, the actual issue was different.  What they were protesting was the fact that the government does not represent them.  In any way, and on day 2.  They are not willing to give them any time to try.  To wait and see what happens and to see if the President can come through.  Nope.  Just immediate rejection and a willingness to resist.  That is profound.


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