#TheResistance: America’s cities rise in protest
It’s almost a sure bet that Donald Trump and his team were not expecting the rapid response – or magnitude – of organized protest opposing their extreme policies from America’s urban centers. Amanda Marcotte at Salon wrote:
Click here for reuse options!The horror of the Trump presidency is only just warming up, but so, it appears, is the resistance. And the war for the soul of this country is clearly going to be waged in the cities.
Donald Trump is a lifelong New Yorker. Yet trashing cities and the people who live in them has become the centerpiece of his sales pitch to America. To hear him speak, American cities are crime-ridden wastelands where people don’t dare leave their homes for fear of being murdered by terrorists or cartoonishly evil spree-killing immigrants.
“Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation,” Trump insisted during his speech last summer at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. “The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life.”
Since his election, Trump has focused his ire on the cities of America, threatening to send federal troops into Chicago and threatening to yank federal funding from urban governments, using the right-wing hysteria over “sanctuary cities” as cover.
This bend toward overt hatred of America’s cities builds on decades of conservative propaganda that casts heavily white rural and suburban communities as the “real America,” while accusing those who live in more liberal and racially diverse cities of being “elite” and living in a “bubble.”
Of course, the uprising in the cities — with pro-immigrant marches and rallies, mostly at airports, in San Francisco, Washington, Dallas, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis and elsewhere — neatly showed how much this right-wing narrative is an inversion of reality.
American cities are not bubbles closed off from reality. They are the American reality of the 21st century. Cities have their problems, of course. But let’s face it, cities are far more diverse and dynamic, on average, than small towns and suburbs. Indeed, it’s the homogeneity — you could almost call it a “bubble” — that is what so often attracts conservatives to suburban or exurban America. It’s called “white flight” for a reason.
Copyright 2017 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo
David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.
* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.
20 responses to #TheResistance: America’s cities rise in protest
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Willys41 January 30th, 2017 at 10:56
80% of the US population lives in cities or suburbs.
Buford2k11 January 30th, 2017 at 10:56
hehehe…I live in fairly rural America…if there is a “bubble” it is out in the rust belt farms…there is a “bubble” of sorts here, but it is full of holes…and leaking badly…we, are a blue dot in a sea of red…around here the big city dwellers are the republicans, and us rural folks are mostly Democrats…well, there are always exceptions…but on the most part, the big cities are the economic engines that drives the economy…Never forget how these republicans have weakened our nation in the face of a very dangerous world…
this fake administration is setting us up for martial law in the cities…this is bannon world, because trump is nothing but a moron puppet of Putin/Bannon….
allison1050 January 30th, 2017 at 11:23
President Bannan to you and the rest of us.
anothertoothpick January 30th, 2017 at 13:23
President?
I thought the righties told us that executive orders came from “dictators”?
dave-dr-gonzo January 30th, 2017 at 11:57
Sleaze heil! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ecff5327478919659a71ab64fa558441adb1393e17730c60aeb0dfc0ae567ee.jpg
anothertoothpick January 30th, 2017 at 13:18
He is a white nationalist that hates the “others”.
eyelashviper January 30th, 2017 at 11:57
Wherever you live, city, town, rural, this is a great site to find groups that are resisting tRump and the ugly powers behind him. Even small towns have active groups forming now:
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/local-action-groups#local-action-groups/?view_42_filters=%5B%7B%22field%22%3A%22field_64%22%2C%22operator%22%3A%22near%22%2C%22value%22%3A%2232618%22%2C%22units%22%3A%22miles%22%2C%22range%22%3A%2250%22%7D%5D&view_42_page=1
anothertoothpick January 30th, 2017 at 13:21
There is only one thing that is standing in the way of trumpee.
The rest of us.
Gina Bousquet January 31st, 2017 at 15:25
That’s a wonderful guide. I saved it, even if only to post it for American resistants.
Ned Nutley January 30th, 2017 at 14:27
Make America great again — Come 2018 and 2020 don’t vote for anyone with an “R” by their name!
William January 30th, 2017 at 15:50
Amazing the amount of damage this clown can do in just one week. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04eeb1ba0a3d716784d9e73d1223f4f39cb45879222bf75098132451837d67e4.jpg
Suzanne McFly January 30th, 2017 at 18:18
And yet he still has supporters, imagine if he had some type of brown coloring in his skin. Amazes me how orange doesn’t seem like a “bad” thing to these racists.
Ned Nutley February 1st, 2017 at 15:37
Calling all young guys in red states! sign up now for selective service, your party will need you for their next illegal unfunded war!
StoneyCurtisll January 30th, 2017 at 16:04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwFLtbc7_c
Robert M. Snyder January 31st, 2017 at 09:58
“cities are far more diverse and dynamic, on average, than small towns and suburbs. Indeed, it’s the homogeneity — you could almost call it a “bubble” — that is what so often attracts conservatives to suburban or exurban America.”
It depends on what kind of diversity you’re looking for. Some voting precincts in Cleveland and Philadelphia registered exactly zero Republican votes. I wouldn’t call that “diversity”.
Centre County PA, home of Penn State University, voted 49% for Clinton and 46% for Trump. Almost everybody has coworkers, friends, neighbors, and relatives who belong to the opposite party. We may disagree on issues, but we generally do so respectfully, because we live, work, and play together.
People who never get out of the city don’t realize that they are living in a political bubble. They imagine that all Republicans are rednecks because they never got a chance to live, work, or play with any Republicans. Most of us have very little in common with the people on Duck Dynasty, at least here in the Northeast.
Obewon January 31st, 2017 at 10:16
Facts prove 2/3 probability of voting for Dems is based upon 700+ people per square mile. Conversely <700 = 2/3 probability voting for Greedy oil Polluters.
Dems 550 blue counties won deliver 64% of U.S. Record $19 T GDP, 4.4.% APR.
DT's 2,500 red counties generate a meager 36% of current dollar $19 T GDP. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6dee417f10a6b347bab77ec195936b560e6701d7c46b06f54be62cf6c6116851.png
Robert M. Snyder January 31st, 2017 at 14:01
Keep going. You’re almost there!
The reason WHY the red areas have a lower contribution to GDP is because the blue area called Washington D.C. has regulated our industries out of existence. One of my neighbors used to own a business that built aluminum truck bodies for tri-axle trucks we call “coal buckets”. His business fell off so badly that he had to shut it down. A fracking company bought the buildings, but now they are facing the same kinds of regulatory pressures as the coal industry. Neighboring NY state completely forbids all fracking.
When my son was building a dune buggy, we bought our steel tubing from a local welding shop. Most of their business involved repairing damage done to aluminum truck bodies of coal buckets. Guess what? The welding shop has been up for sale for several years, but they can’t find a buyer.
A decade ago, an outside company had plans to build a reprocessing facility that would turn the “bony” soft coal tailings left behind many decades by old-time coal mines. The facility was going to turn this mine waste into usable fuel while simultaneously cleaning up the environmental damage done by the old-timers. But environmentalists opposed it, so now we have a very nice, new road leading into an empty field where a business was supposed to be created.
So if you want to understand why red counties don’t generate as much wealth as blue counties, come visit me and I’ll show you around.
BTW, both of my children earned bachelors degrees and got well-paying jobs near different metro areas. Both of them wanted to stay in this region, but the job opportunities are too few. So when you’re adding up those GDP dollars generated by metro areas, consider this: Some of those dollars are being generated by two hard-working young people who grew up right here in rural PA. They could just as easily be generating as much revenue here, if conditions were different.
What has the Democratic Party done for rural America lately? My state (PA) is littered with once-thriving communities just like mine. But before Herr Trump came along, nobody in Washington seemed to notice. And that’s the single biggest reason why Hillary lost the election.
I’ll admit that Trump gives me the willies. Before his presidency is over, you and I will both probably need Dramamine to cope with this rollercoaster ride. I would have preferred (almost) any other Republican. I also would have preferred Joe Biden or Dianne Feinstein (had she chosen to run). As it turns out, we’re stuck with Trump, so I’m choosing to look on the bright side. At least Washington D.C. has finally realized that rural people exist.
Obewon January 31st, 2017 at 19:28
Bush Sr’s Clean Water act & Nixon’s EPA save lives, Koch Oil & Coal suckers.
R Snyder “One of my neighbors used to own a business that built aluminum truck bodies for tri-axle trucks we call “coal buckets”.”-Horse and buggy whip sellers imploded long ago too! Your buddy wasn’t in a stable ‘Growing business’. Darwinism killed your buddies business.
Re-tooling for WIND & SOLAR components would’ve been a natural evolution, eliminating his inevitable COAL-based business’ extinction: 2 M+ work in USA’s Renewables. Less than 2 M work in fossil fuels.
Y’all know COAL businesses are nearly & inevitably extinct right?
Even former & current KOCH BROS coal miners know mine-automation, eliminated them & their dead coworkers killed by CEO Don Blankenship’s Conviction:) http://www.alan.com/2017/01/30/theresistance-anericas-cities-rise-in-protest/#comment-3130886106
BTW you do know Donnie’s blunders, caused Stock Market Tumbles! D’oh! GOOG lost $50/share in 24 hours. BOOM!
Only you dimmest and slowest have yet to figure out ‘Xenophobes are the least intelligent among us’ e.g. anti-Semite Bannon hates Jews, Muslims, liberals, Geniuses and everyone else but the ‘least intelligent (R)acists.’. http://www.alan.com/2017/01/31/bannon-has-curb-stomped-jared-kushner/
Obewon January 31st, 2017 at 10:04
Donald Trump is a lifelong New Yorker.
That’s why 78% of NY’ers voted against Donnie the Racist pussy grabbing misogynist. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c63b257710a19e3a111551f6c5c1e86b785185a65aa5eacc76ee4e371bf8d396.jpg Tiiniest 1/20/17 turnout since Nixon’s 1973, largest protests in U.S. history and globally. 36% support KGB compromised Donnie.
Ned Nutley February 1st, 2017 at 15:34
Nice to see a petition in London England, almost 2 million signatures to keep our minority president out of their country!
I hope he gets massive protests wherever he goes.