2 weeks Ago
Anti-Trump protests, led by local Indivisible groups in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, don’t appear to be dying down any time soon. Both held massive rallies in each city Saturday afternoon just as other opponents of the Trump administration marched in New York City, demonstrated in Massachusetts and organized in front of the White House in Washington D.C.
Hundreds assembled around the L. Richardson Preyer Federal Building in downtown Greensboro at midday to chant, wave signs and march for a few blocks through the streets. For most people, the day was their best chance to fight against President Donald Trump, the man they see as a fascist leader threatening democracy.
How would they do it? By expressing dissent and resisting, they said. “Fundamentally what we’re here to do is to stand up for America, for the principles of this country that we believe in,” said Jan Fisher, an Asheboro resident who marched with an American flag. People are also reading.
.. The crowds hoisted all kinds of signs throughout the day: cardboard posters with the phrase “Defend the constitution”, painted images of the statue of liberty and even a mock flier of Uncle Sam urging readers to “stop fascism.
” Some lifted up cartoonish pictures of billionaire Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, whom Trump has employed as a special adviser with power to deconstruct much of the federal government. When a Tesla cybertruck appeared down West Market Street past the group toward the end of the rally, protesters booed and chased the vehicle as it sped away through the city. “I think what we’re doing is making a difference,” said Claudia Lange, an organizer with Indivisible Guilford County.
Despite recent threats from the Trump administration to target progressive Democrat groups such as Indivisible, Triad organizers say they aren’t bothered. Guilford’s Indivisible group is planning to have more events, including town halls and protests at congressional representatives’ offices. Lange said Saturday she thinks the local action is getting noticed by North Carolina Sen.
Thom Tillis and U.S. House Rep.
Addison McDowell. Though concerned residents are finally receiving replies from McDowell, Lange said she doesn’t feel like they address her concerns. “I have a parent in a nursing home,” Lange said.
“I think people aren’t connecting the dots. If we lose Medicaid from the proposed (budget) cuts, people are going to die.” Protesters had a variety of reasons they said made them oppose and sometimes hate Trump and his administration.
For Fisher, who said he voted for Trump in 2020 but has since totally changed his mind, it’s all about how one perceives the world. “It’s tough because the core values that my friend who’s a Trump supporter has are things that I agree with a lot of the time,” Fisher said. Fisher said he agrees on sayings like that the United States needs to be protected, but disagrees with who the country should be protected from.
He called Trump a narcissist who can’t make sense of the world. “The real world for Trump is so dangerous and so incongruent with his delusional world that has protected him for his entire life,” Fisher said. “But of course he’s not going to come back to the real world.
He’s staying in delusion land.” For others at the rally, it was something that Trump said. “I didn’t like him to begin with, but it enraged me when he said veterans are losers and suckers,” said Terry Cooke, who said he was an Army veteran who served for more than 20 years.
“I know the ones that made it home, they knew exactly what they got out of it,” Cooke said. Not only did folks in Winston-Salem protest, but they also held a food drive for Crisis Control Ministry during their event on Chestnut Street. “I’m overwhelmed with the amount of support,” said Lisa Voigt, who has been volunteering with Crisis Control for more than a year now.
At Voigt’s table, positioned between the Forsyth County Courthouse and the county’s government center, protesters and community members piled up bags of food donations. “This is all going to stay in the community,” Voigt said. “Every little bit helps.
” For Rudy Click, one of the leaders of Indivisible in Winston-Salem, adding the food drive was just another reason why he believes community members should come out to the group’s events. “We want folks to come out because these events are focused on our neighbors,” Click said. “We have to understand that the federal government and the state government aren’t going to save us.
” “We have to save ourselves,” Click said. Hundreds of people assembled in between the courthouse and the government center, waving dozens of signs and spontaneously marching down Fourth Street later during the afternoon. Somewhere in the midst of the crowd, a large paper-mâché Statue of Liberty stood gazing out over the protesters.
Marie Jackson, a Winston-Salem resident who made the figure, said the project symbolized the country’s origin as a nation of immigrants. Jackson, who is half-Mexican and descended from immigrants, said the Trump administration’s illegal deportation of Abrego Garcia hit her hard. “A lot of my family looked just like him,” Jackson said.
Jackson said that everyone should deserve due process and that the United States was built on immigration. Federal government officials need to protect immigrants, Jackson said. “They are a part of us, whether we like it or not,” Jackson said.
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