What We Accomplished on Saturday
This was historic. Literally historic.
It’s going to take some serious time for all of us to comprehend the full import of what we accomplished with Hands Off! on Saturday. Some of it is objective and we have some early numbers—1,300 events worldwide. More than 100k people in DC, more than 250k in Chicago, who knows New York yet?
Every single state—many with dozens spread across city centers and red and rural areas. But also Paris, Berlin, Brussels, London, Lisbon, Lyon, Nice, Ottawa, Guadalajara, and more across the world. We saw Detroit protestors wave across the river to protestors in Windsor, Ontario. We saw the town of Bolivia, North Carolina—population 235—hold a protest with more than 235 people in the crowd. Here are 9 of the 1,300 in an image that’s been making the rounds on social media:
This was historic. Literally historic. This was the first mass public demonstration of this new Trump/Musk era with eye-popping, global strength. Just look at this chart for a sense of the scale:
But numbers are just numbers. I think this piece by Tim Murphy in Mother Jones starts to get at some of the immediate meaning of the moment. Our goal was to bust through the myth that opposition was impossible or irrelevant. To show Democrats how much demand there is to fight. And to show Musk, MAGA, and Trump how vulnerable they are. We did it—we sent a very clear message.
What message did we send? This breadth and depth of this day of action sends not just one message, but three different messages to three different audiences:
Musk, Trump, and Republicans. A massive protest like this tells these malicious muppets and cowardly capitulators that they are weak and unpopular. Their coalition is not all-powerful. It is not secure. It is vulnerable to fracture, and we are going to fracture it. To the marginal member of the MAGA coalition: rethink your allegiances.
Elected Democrats. For too long, Democrats like Chuck Schumer have denied we’re in a crisis and have embraced the James Carville “roll over and play dead” strategy. Those days should be over. The people are demanding Democrats find their spines, stand up straight, and fight back. Smart Democratic electeds will read the room, adapt, and lead. Dumb ones will be left behind. We didn’t just tell them that—we showed them that.
Everyone else. Fascists want normal people to feel alone. They want us all to feel at their mercy. But what Hands Off! demonstrated is that we are not mere victims of political events. Democracy is a participatory sport, and we are active participants. I’ve seen so many reports from people who said, “This was my first protest, and I’m ready for the next one.” We just placed the welcome mat out for millions of new members. Hell yeah!
Please take some time to feel good today—seriously. Head over to our social channels to scroll through the incredible photos—or check out this quick video highlighting events in all 50 states. We pulled in friends, family members, and total strangers to put on the largest display of people power in years.
It’s important for us to recognize this accomplishment and celebrate it. We should not just take our wins in stride. Bask in the win. Admire it. Brag about it to each other. And brag about it to people who were not there but could be part of the next one. We pulled off something very real, very powerful, and very cool. And the more we internalize that, and the more we advertise it to the world, the more real, more powerful, and more cool our next action will be.
Closing out the DC rally with 100,000 peaceful and boisterous protestors holding funny signs and chanting righteous cheers, Leah and I told the crowd this is an inflection point.
“Are we going to accept Democratic leaders who tell us to roll over and play dead?” NO!
How many kings? No kings!
How many kings? No kings!
How many kings? No kings!
When we win, people will talk about Hands Off! as the turning point in the fight against the American fascist movement. Courage is contagious, y’all. And we are going to win.
- Ezra Levin, Co-Executive Director, Indivisible
Another reason to march. We marched on Saturday with our son and daughter in law and our 4 year old granddaughter. Today, our granddaughter, not knowing who Donald Trump is, wanted to know what "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho. Donald Trump has got to go!" means. So I explained that a president is like the head of a family. Donald Trump is the head of our American family but many, many people believe he's not doing a good job taking care of our America's family so we want him to leave and we want to get a better leader. This made sense to her.
Next she wanted to know some of our other presidents from the beginning. I started with George Washington. When I got to John Quincy Adams, she stopped me and wanted to know why there were only boy presidents.
Amazing lesson learned.
Just tell me what's next in North Texas and I'm there. I have sisters who voted for that bastard who are too scared to admit they made a mistake who are cheering me on. I tell them I fight for them. I tell my MAGA sister I fight for her. Someday she will appreciate it, though she will never say.