By Doug Porter

Emerging from shock and denial over the results of the 2016 Presidential election, protesters took to the streets in more than two dozen cities nationwide, including San Diego.

Carrying signs including slogans like #NotMyPresident, “Misogyny Has to Go”, “Black Lives Matter” and “Trump Makes America Hate,” demonstrators carried flags and effigies of the president-elect, disrupted traffic, and declared a refusal to accept Trump’s victory.

From the Tribune News Services:

Flames lit up the night sky in California cities Wednesday as thousands of protesters burned a giant papier-mache Trump head in Los Angeles and started fires in Oakland intersections.

Los Angeles demonstrators also beat a Trump piñata and sprayed the Los Angeles Times building and news vans with anti-Trump profanity. One protester outside LA City Hall read a sign that simply said “this is very bad.”

From the New York Times:

“We’re (mad) so we’re out here in the streets,” said demonstrator Omar Aqeel, a 27-year-old film producer who lives in Brooklyn.

While he and other demonstrators said they were aware that protests could not reverse the election, they said they still felt it would have an effect on the future.

“I hope it rallies everyone together as a wake up call,” Aqeel said.

Via Boston Globe Reporter Steve Annear

Protesters on the steps of the State House, flooding Beacon Hill, and still streaming out of the park. “Fight the system, fight the system” pic.twitter.com/eNyYM08kUS

— Steve Annear (@steveannear) November 10, 2016

From ABC News:

In Chicago, hundreds of protesters marched through the city’s downtown and gathered outside the city’s Trump Tower to express their anger that Trump was elected.

Five people were taken into custody during the demonstration outside the Trump Tower.

“You saw all of the hate was coming with him, and you were just hoping that that would never come to fruition, and it has,” anti-Trump protester Will Rossi told Chicago’s ABC7.

Via Sarah Mirk in Portland, Ore:

Huge crowd taking to the streets from Portland’s Pioneer Square right now in protest of Trump. pic.twitter.com/x2f9DA0mP1

— Sarah Mirk (@sarahmirk) November 10, 2016

Via Reuters:

More demonstrations are planned heading into the weekend, according to organizers’ online posts. One urged protesters to rally in Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20…

…Among the demonstrators earlier on Wednesday were hundreds of high school and college students who walked out of class in cities including Seattle, Phoenix and San Francisco’s Bay Area.

About 300 mostly Latino high school students marched to City Hall in Los Angeles where they chanted in Spanish “the people united will never be defeated.” Some waved signs with slogans such as “Immigrants Make America Great.”

…And in America’s Finest City

One of the first local demonstrations took place at UC San Diego.

From KPBS:

A woman was hit by a car during early Wednesday’s protest near UC San Diego, California Highway Patrol told KPBS News.

CHP said the 18-year-old sustained major injuries north of Nobel Drive shortly before 2 a.m. during demonstrations that started at the university. Protesters were making their way to the shoulder of Interstate 5 southbound, authorities said.

CHP said the vehicle did stop, and the woman was admitted to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. Alcohol is not believed to be involved.

A mid-day rally at San Diego City College attracted more than 100 people. From KPBS News:

One 17-year-old Mexican student, Sandra Guzmán, broke into sobs as she said asked the crowd how the country could have elected a man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl.

Some Mexicans in the crowd said they fear their parents will be deported. Others, like Diana Gonzalez, 23, said they feared they themselves would be kicked out of the country.

Like thousands of other young people in San Diego, Gonzalez is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Obama enacted through executive action. Trump has vowed to revoke it.

There were multiple demonstrations in downtown San Diego on Wednesday night. News reports say 18 people were arrested for unlawful assembly. Reports on social media indicate there were confrontations with pro-Trump individuals during the evening, with a least one demonstrator being injured.  

From NBC7 San Diego

Hundreds of people gathered in Downtown San Diego Wednesday night, protesting the election of Donald Trump as the next president.

An event posted on Facebook called for people to gather at the Horton Plaza on Broadway for a peaceful rally. The group called it “Love Trumps Hate” solidarity rally.

Demonstrators gathered at Horton Plaza and then took to the streets, heading down 5th Avenue and Market Street and later blocking the road.

Readers with Facebook accounts can watch a couple of hours of raw and sometimes confusing video (NSFW), shot by Jeff pro:

Calls to Action

There are almost as many calls to action or resolutions to act as there are demonstrations. A huge grain of salt is advised while digesting these as you encounter them on social media. I went with some safe choices. (It’s early yet.)

Dear Muslims, Immigrants, Women, Disabled, and All People of Color,

I love you – boldly and proudly. We will endure. We will not break.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) November 9, 2016

In Chaos There is Opportunity

An overview, from David Beard, writing at Daily Kos:

Yes, the next few years will be hard. Yes, many millions of Americans will be harmed by the actions of Trump and the Republican party. But this is a pyrrhic victory. Trump has cobbled together a set of states losing population and trending R (the upper Midwest) with a set of states gaining population and trending D (the new South) to eek out small victories on the way to losing the popular vote. How will the modern GOP win states like Florida and North Carolina four or eight years from now? Trump’s supporters aren’t getting any younger.

There is no scenario in which a Trump presidency is a success. There are no real plans for anything. There is no coherent Republican party outside of tax cuts for the wealthy. What are they going to do about immigration? No one knows. How are they going to “repeal and replace” Obamacare? No one knows. Do they want to make cuts in Social Security and Medicare? No one knows. The Trump recession is already on its way and Republicans will soon remember how a midterm with an unpopular president goes in 2018.

The Supreme Court is lost? Well progressive forces have spent most of America’s history fighting the Supreme Court and we’ll keep doing it as long as it’s needed. We can still make this country a better place, even in the face of these obstacles, we can still move toward the kind of country we all want to live in. It will be much harder and take much longer than anyone thought possible. And that is awful and I feel that pain like all of you. But we are still the future, and Donald Trump is still the last gasp of those who fear the new America that we are going to create.

We have only just begun to fight.

Fighting on the Inside

For those looking for activism in the traditional arena, Joan McCarter at Daily Kos says “Congressional Democrats you have have one Job: Fight.”

Democrats’ job one is going to be exploit the hell out of those divisions and fight. And to not fucking listen to the likes of Sen. Joe Manchin.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who plans to run for reelection in 2018, warned his party not too move too far to the left.

“If the instinct of the party is to fight Donald Trump, then that’s the stupidest thing that could happen,” Manchin told CNN on Wednesday. “I will denounce my party and chastise them if they play that game.”

Manchin added: “The bottom line is you can’t govern from (the left) wing of the party. And if Chuck Schumer or the national Democratic Party ever wants to be a majority, they have to go to the middle.”

Sound familiar? It’s 2005 again and another Joe—Lieberman—is scolding Democrats for fighting George W. Bush’s and his illegitimate war, warning we’ll never win the red states again. Jon Tester should remember what happened in 2006 when he decided to ignore that advice and fight.

The surest way to guarantee Democrats stay home on Election Day 2018 is to roll over to the Republicans. No, fight, but fight smart. Here’s an early start from Nancy Pelosi, announcing after she spoke on the phone with Trump Wednesday that she sees a place to work with Trump in his “proposal to add millions of federal dollars to build roads and bridges.” Why is that smart?

Because Ryan’s maniacs are never going to agree to spend that money. Democrats can help drive that wedge and keep the Republicans splintered. If the wedge is between Trump and Ryan or McConnell, exploit it. Do not make anything Ryan or McConnell want to do easy. Don’t help them.

I can only hope that Congressman Scott Peters (for example) won’t be too busy issuing press releases about finding common ground to notice his Mexican neighbors being deported.

Yeah, the problem with “we survived Reagan” is that a lot of people fucking didn’t.

— Leah (@HoxInSocks) November 10, 2016

Michael Moore’s Morning After Do-List

Filmmaker/activist Michael Moore took a lot of heat months ago when he warned of the possibility of a Trump victory.  

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president. And now I have even more awful, depressing news for you: Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: “PRESIDENT TRUMP.”

Never in my life have I wanted to be proven wrong more than I do right now.

His response to the general election results has been widely shared on social media:

1. Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.

2. Fire all pundits, predictors, pollsters and anyone else in the media who had a narrative they wouldn’t let go of and refused to listen to or acknowledge what was really going on. Those same bloviators will now tell us we must “heal the divide” and “come together.” They will pull more hooey like that out of their ass in the days to come. Turn them off.

3. Any Democratic member of Congress who didn’t wake up this morning ready to fight, resist and obstruct in the way Republicans did against President Obama every day for eight full years must step out of the way and let those of us who know the score lead the way in stopping the meanness and the madness that’s about to begin.

4. Everyone must stop saying they are “stunned” and “shocked.” What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren’t paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew. Along came a TV star they liked whose plan was to destroy both parties and tell them all “You’re fired!”

Trump’s victory is no surprise. He was never a joke. Treating him as one only strengthened him. He is both a creature and a creation of the media and the media will never own that.

5. You must say this sentence to everyone you meet today: “HILLARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE!” The MAJORITY of our fellow Americans preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Period. Fact. If you woke up this morning thinking you live in an effed-up country, you don’t. The majority of your fellow Americans wanted Hillary, not Trump. The only reason he’s president is because of an arcane, insane, 18th-century idea called the Electoral College. Until we change that, we’ll continue to have presidents we didn’t elect and didn’t want.

You live in a country where a majority of citizens have said they believe there’s climate change, they believe women should be paid the same as men, they want a debt-free college education, they don’t want us invading countries, they want a raise in the minimum wage and they want a single-payer true universal health care system. None of that has changed. We live in a country where the majority agree with the “liberal” position. We just lack the liberal leadership to make that happen (see: #1 above).

Let’s try to get this all done by noon today.

I’m Terrified. You’re Terrified, Too

Former Moore associate Jon Schwartz published his list of things to be done at the Intercept, starting with:

‘We must end police violence so we can live and feel safe in this country,’ Campaign Zero states on its website. (Photo: Basil-Malik/flickr/cc)

1.If you can, make politics one of the centers of your life.

Politics is absolutely a matter of life and death. Treat it like it is.

Twenty years ago U.S. elites had so successfully depoliticized America that simply caring about politics was like having a super-weird hobby. It wasn’t even like being a Civil War re-enactor; it was like being a War of 1812 re-enactor. The social opprobrium meant that many of the people in grassroots politics were troubled kooks.

Today, mostly thanks to the internet, tons of normal human beings have been drawn into the offline political maelstrom, which is far less awful than the online one. Join it yourself and bring as many family and friends as you can.

Obviously this is easier said than done unless you have a fair amount of privilege. Part of what people with privilege need to do is make it easier for those who don’t.

An Array of Organizations and Causes

Roots Action founder Norman Sullivan wrote about the need for a united front at Common Dreams:

Seen in Barrio Logan

…The impending Trump presidency is a direct threat to basic human rights. To make good our claim on those rights will require that we become “strong enough,” individually and collectively.

Gaining such strength will require that we provide much more support for independent progressive institutions—the array of organizations that can serve as collective bulwarks against the momentum of systemic greed, bigotry, massive violence, economic exploitation and environmental destruction.

“We need a united front—against the very real threat of severe repression that could morph into some form of fascism.”

We’re now being flung into a new era that will intensify many of the oppressive aspects of the U.S. governmental apparatus and political economy. An ongoing imperative will be to mitigate serious-to-catastrophic damage in many realms. We need a united front—against the very real threat of severe repression that could morph into some form of fascism.

At this highly precarious time, progressives certainly don’t need the tempests of factional disputes and ideological battles. And we certainly don’t need the kind of reflexive capitulation that so often comes from the upper reaches of the Democratic Party. We’re at the start of a protracted crisis that could become cataclysmic. We need progressive unity and unrelenting determination.

Only with eyes wide open do we have a real chance to understand clearly and organize effectively against the Trump regime. Failure to put up a fight should be unthinkable.

#Our100

Finally, I offer up an Open Letter to Our Nation from 100 Women of Color Leaders

This morning, we come together to declare our resolve. Many of us are holding our babies, families, and loved ones close. We know that there is tremendous suffering and anger in this country, yet we stand here today, determined. After an election rife with the politics of division and hate, today we open a new chapter in our country’s long, difficult journey towards the promise of liberty and justice for all.

Join us, over the next 100 hours, at community events across the country as we come together to affirm our unity, and together recommit to continue our work towards this promise.

Our work did not start, and has not ended, with this election. Women built upon longstanding community and family networks to lead community-based voter programs. We’ve known that women of color represent 74 percent of the growth in eligible women voters since 2000. In more than 100 cities, across all 50 states, women came together to mobilize and inspire turnout, creating an unprecedented gender and racial gap at the polls.

Women did this work, not to get one woman a new job, but because we understood the stakes in this election. Black lives, women’s lives, immigrant’s lives, the lives of LGBTQ folks, of people with disabilities; of working people of every race, region and ethnicity, including those at Standing Rock and others protecting our land. We know that the future and well-being of this country depends on the health and well-being of all women.

Today, we feel how far we are from the promise of a nation that ensures liberty and justice for all. But our work, built on the hopes of our grandmothers, mothers, sisters and daughters, is testament to the power of our shared belief in that promise. It is we who must build the path forward on our journey.

As we look at our polarized country standing at this crossroads, we are filled with love for the many peoples of this nation. Despite disappointment and heartbreak, our resolve grounds us in hope for our future. Too often in the shadows, women’s hands have always been the strongest grip bending the arc of history towards justice.

Today, we recommit to take hold of that arc of history. As women, we stand united in our pledge to continue to take action to bring forward solutions. We know the politics of hate will not get us to the solutions we need.

As women of color, as leaders, we will build and lead us on a path forward. We must work together to hold civic, administrative and corporate decision makers accountable. To reach our full potential as people, and as a nation, this democracy must be owned by all of us, for all of us.

We pledge our unity and determination to be ready, determined and united behind a vision and plan of action to become a nation where we can all live with dignity, care for our loved ones and the land, and thrive in freedom from all forms of inequality.

We can only get there, together. We invite you to journey with us.

Note: This article was just a start. I’ll have lots more to say in the coming days. Also, there are many organizations we need to get serious about supporting. Add your suggestions in the comments.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “The Starting Line” and get an email every time a new article in this series is posted!

I read the Daily Fishwrap(s) so you don’t have to… Catch “the Starting Line” Monday thru Friday right here at San Diego Free Press (dot) org. Send your hate mail and ideas to DougPorter@SanDiegoFreePress.Org     Check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Doug Porter

Doug Porter was active in the early days of the alternative press in San Diego, contributing to the OB Liberator, the print version of the OB Rag, the San Diego Door, and the San Diego Street Journal. He went on to have a 35-year career in the Hospitality business and decided to go back into raising hell when he retired. He won numerous awards for his columns from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Doug is a cancer survivor (sans vocal chords) and lives in North Park.

Latest posts by Doug Porter (see all)

• Last Call. Last Column. - December 14, 2018
• Which Presidential Candidate Will You Support in 2020? - December 13, 2018
• Mounting the Assault on Big Gay and Other Drivel From SDSU’s Minimum Wage Scrooge - December 12, 2018