Jerry Roberts
The below article was originally published on SB Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts
In the latest display of growing popular resistance to the Trump Administration, more than 1,000 people rallied and marched on behalf of labor, immigrants, seniors, LGBTQ rights – and the rule of law
By Hap Freund
A spirited crowd of more than 1,000 people rallied at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse on Thursday night, then took to State Street to protest Trump policies on labor, immigration, LGBTQ rights, Social Security and the rule of law.
The May Day demonstration, which coincided with similar protests in cities across the nation, was the latest evidence of growing resistance to the extremist MAGA agenda, mirroring a steep decline in Trump’s standing in non-partisan polls.
Speakers at the Courthouse bashed the Administration for its extra-legal deportation program, assault on federal employees, crusade against diversity, reckless handling of safety net programs and defiance of court orders, among other matters, connecting and weaving the multitude of issues into a critique of Trump as a would-be autocrat.
Buellton Mayor David Silva led off the speeches, followed by Social Security Works PAC President Jon Bauman (who used his alter-ego-once-removed, Bowzer of ShaNaNa, to rouse the crowd). As a political matter, Bauman made one of the key arguments of the night, pointing out that Trump has recently backed down on his threats to close Social Security offices.
“Public pressure works,” Bauman said.
The star of the evening was Wendy Santamaria, recently elected representative of District 1 on the SB City Council. She electrified the crowd with a rousing speech and led them through a concatenation that ended with thunderous clapping:
“That is the sound of solidarity,” she said.
BB – “at least half the country believe in Trump.”
That’s a lie. Look at the polls. Look at the election results. Stop lying.
And no, it’s not divisive to stand up for our rights. It’s divisive to take them away.
You MAGA Cons are so proud of your “American values” but you don’t understand the meaning of the English words in our language.
only a 1000 people, obviously the vast majority of Americans in SB County approve of everything these folks are protesting against
OOPS – lol that’s some pretty wild “logic” there! Have you ever read about, met, seen, heard about, talked to anyone in SB County beyond a few MAGA holdouts? Check our voting records.
If you think that “The majority of Americans in SBC approve of Trump” then you are literally smoking crack.
Alex – Of course no clear thinking liberal/socialist/communist leaning person in SBC would approve of Trump.
Yeah, and that’s the majority of SBC, so oops is making a pretty dumb statement.
Beyond that, “Communist”? Okay, gramps.
DOOLL – articulate how local liberals are “communist.” Can you?
Cons don’t have a clue what the terms socialist and communist mean.
It’s just a random pejorative to them, following along in the orange moron tactics.
It’s nice that Do_lie recognizes which voters are clear thinking.
To get a thousand people to show up for anything in SB is quite an accomplishment. It would be nice if in a city (and greater area) of some 150,000-200,000 residents would show up. That’s only 0.005 to 0.0067 percent of the total population, which does not appear to indicate much interest. It was a “school” night to, which might explain the size of the “spirited” crowd. Good for those who did show up and exercise their right to protest.
I like a good protest. But Wendy leads the way? Huh. Pretty Socialist right there, and speaking to a giant crowd of mostly old white folks, but sure…votes!
Anyways, this is exactly what’s supposed to happen in the greatest country in the world…I’m kidding. We all just happen to live here. There are tons of other places that are excellent. Sorry, I digress….
You go back and forth, the pendulum swinging this way and that. It very clearly swung way too far one way prior to the last election and American voters corrected the ship. Too far? Maybe. Don’t keep watching your 401K’s daily and you will be just fine.
May Day; isn’t that what they used to have in the Soviet Union?
Oh yeah, that place the capitalist west conquered because their system is a failure?
Come on, man. You cons idolize Russia these days.
You mean the place that would spend millions on a military parade for their supreme leader’s birthday? The place where people were whisked away by masked men in plain clothes to camps and prisons for speaking out against the government? Wait, which place are we talking about again? I get us confused with the USSR a lot lately…..
What’s with the “Indivisible” banner? Seems very divisive to me when at least half the country believe in Trump.
It’s well less than half, but math is not a con strong point.
BASIC – “mostly old white folks,”
There goes the wizard again, identifying the race and ages of the crowd by merely looking at a few photographs., despite them clearly showing people of multiple races and only a few white head’s of hair…
I mean seriously, dude. Did you even look at the photos? There are only 2 of them. And NEITHER shows “mostly old white folks.” On the contrary….. oh forget it. You’re just going to lie about it.
Open your eyes.
Sacjon: I don’t know why anyone would care about the skin color, race, or age of those who participated in this rally/protest. So what if most of the people were “white” and “elderly” (whatever THAT means). The good thing is that it shows that even people who are older and not POC care about the issues we face. POC really need to have these folks to stand up no matter what their age or skin/hair color. It’s not that younger POC don’t want to attend these events, it has more to do with the ability to attend.
BEES – I was responding to BASIC’s deleted comment, hence the quotation marks. Maybe ask him or her why they’re lying about it?
https://www.edhat.com/penalty-comments/