Mediaboss Marketing

Return the power to the people.

Donald Trump rode to the presidency on the strength of that core call to revolution, telling his supporters in his inaugural address on Friday that his election was the result of people taking control of their government.

Trump might not have fully understood what he was unleashing. Sometimes the revolution you preach is not the only one you get.

When all is said and done, Saturdays Womens March demonstrations in hundreds of cities across the nation are likely to be the largest simultaneous protest in the United States, and they were part of almost 700 sister marches around the world that drew millions. The variety of causes they espoused was endless, but at the root of each was a message Trump and his supporters understand well.

I am here. I matter. Hear me.

Trump was not wrong when he crafted his victorious campaign on bashing establishment elites and lacerating powerful politicians as disconnected from the people they represent. Many of the people who voted for him felt they had been left behind. Now, hes being reminded that many others, also frustrated by the failed promises of the political class have zeroed in on an opponent that is the catalyst for their discontent with a pointed chant: Welcome to your first day, we will not go away.

The multi-generational outpouring, that included men, was stunning. The crowd in Washington, the initial focus destination of the Womens March, was estimated at half a million. Chicagos rally drew some 150,000. Midtown Manhattan was brought to a standstill by a crowd police put at 400,000. Los Angeles might have had even more.

Overseas, more than 100,000 came out in London and many thousands hit the streets in places like Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam, and nearly two dozen of the 88 people on the Isle of Eigg, off the coast of Scotland, tweeted a picture of their protest. Today we marched to say a world where equality and justice lead the way, tolerance, kindness and communities thrive, they wrote. Many overseas are alarmed by the rising international tides of nationalism and anti-globilization, also sounded here by Trump.

The president motivated many American marchers who were insulted by his vitriol and his misogynistic behavior and language during a brutal campaign, and who were heartbroken by Hillary Clintons loss. Most of the causes promoted Saturday from gender and abortion rights to civil rights to Planned Parenthood to immigration are things they say are threatened by Trumps administration.

Their energy and enthusiasm were reminiscent of the iconic Vietnam War and civil rights protests of the 1960s. But Saturdays marches were distinctive in how much more quickly they came together. Part of that is due to our relentless 24/7 news cycle. Spreading the word is much easier in the age of social media. And it seems likely that these kinds of demonstrations will continue to pop up unexpectedly. They are the beginning of an oppositional force to Trump and what he represents.

This passion play seems destined for a long run because of the breadth of the emotion, the range of people feeling it and the way their frustrations are turning into fears. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem called it the upside of the downside.

But no celebrity or politician will control this new activism. It is organic and unpredictable. These marches were not inspired by any political party, certainly not the demoralized and fractured Democrats, and not the Republicans who have tied themselves to Trump.

This new activism should not be dismissed. Its demands are many and its leadership unknown. There is a new, wide-open system of democracy unfolding with little understanding of where it will lead. It may inspire and bring new waves of people to seek elective office. Or to vote. But will it change our system in ways we cant yet imagine?

Trump has regularly criticized protests, and his critics, in the past. In a discordant appearance at CIA headquarters Saturday, he again tried to discredit the news media and said they lied about the size of his small inaugural crowd. He said it was at least 1.5 million, a figure quickly dismissed by all independent analyses.

Later, White House spokesman Sean Spicer read an extraordinary statement that seemed to be written in an alternative reality. He didnt use a specific number, but insisted that Trumps crowd was the largest to witness an inauguration around the world. The statement warned the media not to make any estimates of the size of the Womens March because Trump needs to believe that the sea of humanity he saw on his way to CIA headquarters was not bigger than his.

Trump must understand that displays of democracy are healthy for the country he now leads. The movement he provoked is sprouting wings. Returning the power to the people means returning it to all the people.

The roars that broke out over and over on the National Mall Saturday could be heard at the U.S. Capitol and the White House.

Trump should listen.

See the article here:
At women's marches, Democracy strikes back at Donald Trump - Newsday

New York Times

Another Day at a Monument to Democracy New York Times Ed Rich, 44, from Annapolis, Md., made $12 an hour Friday picking up debris from the inauguration. President Trump could make a mess of it, but it could be cleaned up easily, he said. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times. WASHINGTON The ...

Read more:
Another Day at a Monument to Democracy - New York Times

Michael Randall Times Herald-Record @MikeRandall845

CITY OF NEWBURGH For some in the mid-Hudson, the day Donald Trump became president was the day democracy died.

And so, on Friday, they held a funeral for democracy through the streets of Newburgh.

More than two dozen "mourners" dressed in black, many carrying black umbrellas, marched up Broadway and down Liberty Street to Newburgh's best-known symbol of democracy, Washingtons Headquarters.

But organizers left room for hope.

"Democracy is dead," said Julie Tremblay, who organized the protest, billed as a performance art piece, "but we want to bring it back."

"Mourner" Mindy Fradkin of Newburgh said Trump is a man of low morals who "trashes" anyone who criticizes him, usually on Twitter. She compared Fridays mourners to the colonists who fought the American Revolution against England more than 200 years ago.

"They had to take a stand," Fradkin said. "Were just taking a stand for what is right for our country."

Michael Gabor of Newburgh said marching in the mock funeral procession was better than just "sitting at home and watching (Trump) take charge of the country."

Roland Moussa of Beacon played mournful tunes on a flute during the procession. He said Trump was dishonest in his business dealings and is "unfit to keep democracy alive."

The mourners proceeded at a slow some might call it funereal pace, to the beat of a drum. Traffic came to a brief standstill as they slowly crossed each intersection. But no horn honks were heard.

When the mourners arrived at Washingtons Headquarters, they gathered around a bouquet of flowers with a purple ribbon across it, with white letters that read "R.I.P Democracy."

Tremblay read George Washingtons 1783 speech quelling the Newburgh conspiracy, in which some of his officers sought to challenge the authority of the Continental Congress when it had trouble paying them. Washington asked them "not to take any measures which will lessen the dignity and sully the glory you have hitherto maintained."

mrandall@th-record.com

Link:
Newburgh performance art mourns Democracy's 'death' - Times Herald-Record

Inaugural shows 'The Resistance' is an attack on democracy New York Post At a time when the nation set out to celebrate the peaceful transfer of authority, activists on the left descended on the nation's capital to show just how fragile that can be. They rioted from the night before the inauguration until well after Donald ... and more »

Read the original post:
Inaugural shows 'The Resistance' is an attack on democracy - New York Post

From David, a reader in Oakland:

I hope its not too late to point out the perfect track for Inauguration Day. For so many reasons, it just has to be Leonard Cohens exhausted but hopeful Democracy, recorded 25 years ago [yesterday] and still inspiringand, let us hope, prophetic.

Cohen died just a day before Donald Trump was elected president, so well never know his reaction. But we can still glean wisdom and hope from his lyrics:

Its coming to America first, the cradle of the best and of the worst. Its here they got the range and the machinery for change and its here they got the spiritual thirst. Its here the familys broken and its here the lonely say that the heart has got to open in a fundamental way: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Shelagh Huston absorbed more of the lyrics in the days following Trumps win:

After months of an election campaign that gave us the feel / that this aint exactly real / or its real, but it aint exactly there, and after years of a rising tide of the wars against disorder / the sirens night and day / the fires of the homeless / the ashes of the gay, Leonard Cohen prophesizes: Democracy is coming to the USA. Like so many of us, Cohen cared about the idea of America (I love the country) but was horrified and revolted by whats been happening to it (but I cant stand the scene). [...] At a time when the US is in more danger of foundering than ever before, Cohens words are the perfect anthem for these times: Sail on, sail on / oh mighty ship of State, were dreading this voyage, not knowing if well we make it to the shores of need / past the reefs of greed / through the squalls of hate.

(Submit a song via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)

Go here to read the rest:
Track of the Day: 'Democracy' by Leonard Cohen - The Atlantic