Protests Head Into Fourth Day as Sanders Urges Trump 'Heed the Views of Progressives'

'After Tuesday it felt like I was living an absurdist joke, except the joke was on all of us'

by

Andrea Germanos, staff writer

As U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urges the president-elect "to heed the views of progressives," protests continue in cities across the U.S. on Saturday, with participants driven by "outrage and fear" over Donald Trump's electoral victory.

Describing the continued demonstrations, the New York Times writes that "a national resistance among liberal activists and others who say they do not support his presidency is rising in response to the election in a way not seen in modern presidential history." They also, as Common Dreams reported, "continue amid a reported increase of abuse and assaults against Muslims, people of color, immigrants, women and girls, and the LGBTQ community, among other minorities."

"On Friday night," the Washington Post reports, "people marched in cities including New York, the District, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Raleigh, and Portland—where, for a second night, demonstrations turned violent. More rallies were planned through the weekend in scattered cities."

Though they have been largely peaceful, one of the protesters in Portland who faced tear gas and flash-bang grenades was shot in the early hours on Saturday.

 Sixty-five-year old Leslie Holmes, a resident of Wilton, Conn. who took part in a New York City anti-Trump demonstration, said to Reuters Saturday, "I don't want to live in a country where my friends aren't included, and my friends are fearful, and my children are going to grow up in a world that's frightening, and my granddaughters can look forward to being excluded from jobs and politics and fulfilling their potential, so I'm here for them."

Some of those protesting in New York, the Huffington Post reports, held signs reading "hate won't make us great" and "not my president"—a hashtag many on Twitter were also using to document similar actions.

In Chicago, where thousands are taking part in a protest Saturday, Richard Domenico Ehlert told the Chicago Tribune, "We do not accept Trump's hatred, his bigotry, his sexism, and his homophobia. With the popular vote we elected Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump."

 On Friday night, where a third round of protests was taking part in Philadelphia, Russ Giblin said, "After Tuesday it felt like I was living an absurdist joke, except the joke was on all of us."

Trump, for his part, tweeted Friday that he loves "the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country"—a marked shift from his tweet on Thursday in which he called the protesters "very unfair."

As for what the real estate mogul—whose "campaign rhetoric successfully tapped into a very real and justified anger"—should do once in the White House, Sanders writes in a Times op-ed that, among other things, he should "rebuild our crumbling infrastructure," expand Social Security, and "reform an economic system that enables billionaires like Mr. Trump not to pay a nickel in federal income taxes."

"We must go forward, not backward," Sanders urges.

That, however, already looks to be a significant challenge, as Trump's previously laid out "100-day plan to Make America Great Again" includes lifting restrictions on fossil fuel production and canceling "billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs"—and with the president-elect set to inherit controversial Bush policies that President Barack Obama expanded upon.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/11/12/protests-head-fourth-day-sanders-urges-trump-heed-views-progressives