I went down to the demonstrationTo get my fair share of abuseSinging, “We’re gonna vent our frustrationIf we don’t we’re gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse”
— You Can’t Always Get What You Want
That’s a really generic headline, but I don’t have a terribly clear idea of what it was all about. I didn’t hear anything about it in advance. When I did hear this morning, I didn’t see that I had time to attend it. I was really booked today. I tried to find out more about it online, but couldn’t find anything more substantive than this poster:
But I figured a way to get away for an hour. That would allow me to drive downtown, park a couple of blocks away, walk there, get some pictures and head home. Which isn’t great, but I did it for a couple of reasons.
First, our regular correspondent Scout sent that poster to me, and said, “Hey Atticus, do you know that there is a protest today? It seems like something you might be interested in. Just fyi. I am going.”
Normally, I wouldn’t have been much interested in an event organized by Peace and Progress in South Carolina to Reject Fascism and Tyranny. It didn’t sound much like anything that would do much good with regard to the fix the nation and the world are currently in.
Y’all know I’m not terribly enamored of street protests. Not that they can’t be valuable — very, very, VERY rarely. A lot of civil rights protests in the early ”60s accomplished good. So did the King Day at the Dome march in 2000. I’m not really qualified to comment on why the early ’60s protests were so good because I was in grade school. But the one in 2000 had meaning because the crowd was diverse (politically as well as in the usual Identity Politics sense) and communicated the idea that ordinary folks, who lived their own quiet lives and minded their own business believed strongly enough that the flag should come down that they left their homes to go downtown and say so.
That’s what the world needs to see, if you want change. Oh, and contributing to the force of the event was the fact that it was the biggest demonstration I’ve ever seen in South Carolina, by far. Here’s what it looked like. It was something that couldn’t be dismissed or ignored. And that summer the flag came off the dome. (Tragically, it took the deaths of nine innocent people 15 years later to get it off the grounds entirely.)
Well, I didn’t expect that kind of turnout, but since Scout was going, and some of her friends, that meant something — since Scout is one of the most reasonable people I know, and one of our very best commenters. That meant the event might be different from something attended only by the usual ones-and-zeroes folks who love to protest on a regular basis, and attend all the demonstrations they can.
Was it? Well, Scout was there, incognito as usual. I liked her sign:
And there were other folks who likewise didn’t seem like the sorts who do this as a hobby. And it was a good turnout. Several hundred. Nothing like this, but good.
On the other hand, guess who was talking when I walked up? Our old friend Brett Bursey. Nothing against Brett — he’s an earnest kind of guy. But during my brief time there, no one appeared at the microphone who seemed to balance out Brett and make this seem A General Uprising of the Full Range of People of America.
There were individuals besides Scout with sensible messages, of course, although they didn’t speak. I liked this one:
I didn’t ask that lady for her name, but she told me she didn’t mind me using the image. That’s my kind of message — not only because I agree with it wholeheartedly, but because it’s something you don’t have to be an ideologue to believe in.
There were the usual humorous sorts that were a tad more confrontational, I enjoyed one I saw for a split second as I was crossing Gervais to get there, which ended with something like “Deport Musk to Mars.” Seemed a kindly enough message to me, seeing as how he wants to go to there.
Anyone who was there long enough to get a fuller impression, please share. After it was over, Scout texted me to say, in response to something I’d said earlier (and y’all have heard from me many times):
I understand what you are saying about street protests. They are not my first instinct either and they bring out people who are a bit more extreme than I am which may be what you were saying. But right now it seems like just showing up is helpful. At least I hope so. It feels hopeful to be trying to do something anyway….
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Since I don’t go to all that many protests, I don’t really have a lot to compare it to. I wasn’t blown away by too many of the speakers either, and I probably missed some of the details from the speakers because I really was busy taking in the atmosphere and the signs and looking to see if I recognized anybody. There were other good signs in addition to the lady you referenced up there that were in similar vein and that I liked. I should have taken pictures of them, but they were things like “USAID does good work” or “NIH develops medicines that save lives, maybe yours” and “Keep ICE out of schools.” There was a big banner that said “Love thy Neighbor”. There were big blow up snakes with messages down their side lying on the steps that said “don’t tread on national parks”…..as well as other entities – each snake had a different group to not tread on that Trump/Musk has in fact been busy treading on. There were various versions of messages about checks and balances that were more to the point than mine with fewer words – like “what happened to checks and balances?”. My husband likes to point out that I tend to write a “tome” so that it’s too much for people to read. But I like my words.
The speakers I remember were a lady from Soda City Democrats, a minister, the person Brad referenced who I did not know, someone from the party for socialism and liberation who seemed a bit out there, and Heather Bauer, who is a SC representative. She was probably the most coherent speaker with the most pragmatic message. The gist of her message that I remember was I think…that she was elected in a district that had been red for years and that basically anything is possible if you just show up and try. Then she talked more about local issues than the rest of the people. She said that SC Republicans that she works with in the statehouse now want to start their own version of DOGE in SC, which got a lot of boos. She said that there are SC democrats who voted for abortion bans and constitutional carry, which also got boos. But basically she was telling the people that bothered to come out to stay involved locally too.
I do think there were a good many ordinary people that don’t typically go protest there. I think many of them were from church groups. Some were my friends so I know in their case. Their church was ready to host a refugee family from Africa lined up by Lutheran ministries group that Musk has attacked and it now is not happening. I saw some people from my church as well who I don’t think are usually protest type people (but who knows maybe they go all the time, and I just didn’t know).
The organizers of this group – Peace and Progress in SC – are named Blake Justice and Haley Weaver and seem like ordinary people rather than extremist protest all the time type people – but I don’t have a lot of information about them. That is just an impression. I think they were also disappointed in the speakers they could line up. They mentioned reaching out to many elected officials but Heather Bauer is the only one who came. But the message they seemed to be promoting in lieu of messages from speakers was for people to meet each other and make connections and organize so that more that can be done in the future. They are working with this national group – 50501 – and trying to coordinate protests at the same time in other cities.
The atmosphere was positive and there was a spirit of camaraderie that was kind of comforting. I’d say the atmosphere and the signs were more impactful than the speakers. On the way there, driving on Gervais and parking, and walking towards the statehouse, you would see other people with signs and there was lots of thumbs ups and cheers given. I don’t know what this means in the big scheme of things, but it was nice to know perfect strangers also believe things like “USAID is good.”
Here is a video someone made which gives a sense of atmosphere and signs:
https://youtu.be/4hRu1a64DEI
And now, I must go get ready for work!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! And for letting me know about this. It was good to see you again. By the way, check out that fig tree post I mentioned to you!
I’m glad you found it interesting and possibly worthwhile. I guess I’ve just seen far too many of these things, from the woke to neo-Nazis.
And it’s nice that you saw the good in Heather Bauer’s speech. You’re right to praise her for “telling the people that bothered to come out to stay involved locally too.”
I just saw her remarks as another instance of the wrong sort of thing. She’s very much of the fight-fight-fight school of partisanship. Which is, alas, a key feature of Trumpism. And of course, I don’t like her “Yay, abortion!” rhetoric. I know people will misunderstand and think that’s because she disagrees with ME on the subject, but that’s not it, particularly in this context.
Our problem right now is that we are so conflict oriented that a complete idiot whose entire shtick is dividing people keeps getting elected president. I’ve said it before: When the left responds with the same divisive approaches, all that accomplishes is that it fuels the bonfire in which Trump is burning our constitutional system. And you know what? It doesn’t matter if you win doing that. Especially if you do it with the attitude that your goal is to get 50 percent plus 1, and cram what you want down the throats of your opponents. That is the approach of the most Trumpian Republicans. And it’s ripping our country to shreds, while accomplishing nothing.
I don’t know Rep. Bauer. Perhaps she’s delightful if you know her. I just know her based on the way she has run for office. And in her speech, she BRAGGED on it — her approach of running against Kirkman Finley ENTIRELY on abortion. But that’s not the bad thing. The bad thing was that when she did it, the audience cheered. I was there to get a feel for whether this was a constructive crowd or a destructive one, and that was mark against optimism. As I’ve said, our problem in this country isn’t Donald Trump. The problem is that so many people will VOTE for him, rather than booing him off the stage.
That’s why I love signs like yours, and the other one I showed a picture of, and “Love Thy Neighbor” — things reasonable people can generally AGREE upon, and move toward — if only we can stop hating each other and stop trying to crush each other’s dreams. And it’s why I love a guy like Joe Biden, who had been around enough to remember when we worked together, and ran on that, and won on that, and accomplished one bipartisan victory after another in our divided Congress for four years, which no one noticed because media — and everyone else — are so insanely conflict-oriented.
The glory of our country is that the Framers constructed a magificent deliberative system that encouraged elected representatives to debate, and LISTEN RESPECTFULLY TO, the people with whom they disagree. Given the sinfulness of Man, it doesn’t always work, but it so frequently DOES. Or at least did, until both ends of the spectrum stopped listening to and respecting each other (and everyone in the middle got sick of listening to the shouting).
OK. Enough preaching. Like you, I need to go do some work…
John Monk, who was there (although The State didn’t cover), sent me a clip he shot of Rep. Bauer speaking. He also liked it. But I definitely did not.
If I get any time later, I’ll share it with y’all. I’ve never learned a fast way of doing that. I still upload to YouTube before putting the embed on that blog, and by the time I’m done another hour’s gone…
One more thing…
You see, BEATING Republicans isn’t the point. It’s about finding ways to work with Republicans, because they are South Carolinians, too, they have rights and deserved to be listened to, and guess what? They’re going to control the Legislature for the rest of my life, and probably Rep. Bauer’s as well, so you need to learn to work effectively for YOUR goals within that framework.
A lot of Dems understand that — people like our guy Russell Ott. By the way, since you mentioned him yesterday… I checked with him after the rally. I didn’t expect him to have been in town on a Monday anyway, but I was curious about his thoughts on the event. He didn’t even know about it — meaning he was like me, who had trouble finding any info about it out there even after you told me about it.
Also, I’m sorry to say, Russell was sick. He said he was “out with strep throat,” so he had other things on his mind.
But I expect others made conscious decisions not to come, if they were indeed invited. They may not have been positively impressed by what they were told in advance about the event. Otherwise, I think some of the local ones would have shown up. And it would have been a better event if people like Seth Rose and Beth Bernstein had been on the dais. (Alas, to many of the people I would once have mentioned in that sense are no longer in office — James Smith, Mandy Powers Norrell, Vincent Sheheen, Joel Lourie….
I would have liked to see some more reps, some more
I find it curious that the South Carolina Daily Gazette, which I’ve started to depend on for statewide news, reported attendance at the rally was around 400 (https://scdailygazette.com/2025/02/17/hundreds-attend-statehouse-rally-to-protest-trump-musk-and-more/). But your report, photos and video suggest the number was considerably higher.
I am perplexed.
No, I expect that’s right. I’m terrible at estimating crowds, but as I mentioned in another text, John Monk was there, and he told me he thought it was between 300 and 500.
Of course, John could be wrong, too, you know… 🙂
In any case, it was a good crowd, better than I expected…
Interesting trying to guess the turnout of these protest crowds.
The only turnout that counts for anything was last November when 77 million voted for the big mouth. A similar number of eligibles never bothered to vote at all. (Your comment above addressed that)
Good to hear from you, Clark!
When are we going to get together with John for another breakfast? I’m ready when y’all are…
Yes, demonstrations are helpful. It’s showing up and speaking out when such is much needed. I look for demonstrations in this area, but only find out about them after-the-fact.
In the meantime, I wrote to “my” representative. The prior office holder was a hopeless case. But since there’s a new one in office now, I thought I’d give her a chance to show that she’s different, even if only slightly. So, I asked
“Is the Congresswoman in agreement with Elon Musk’s actions to date with respect to the USAID; accessing the US Treasury’s payment system; accessing OPM computer systems containing sensitive personal information while locking senior OPM employees out of same; as well as the current administration’s firing of EEOC Commissioners Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels; the firing of NLRB acting chair, Gwynne Wilcox; the firing of multiple inspectors general; the firing of multiple senior Justice Department prosecutors; the sidelining of 160 non-political, career detailees with the National Security Council; the 90-day freeze on US foreign assistance; and the steps taken to freeze US government grants and loans.”
She replied — and yes, I’m aware that this is 99% boilerplate, but nevertheless, it shows what she’s about (along with the rest of her party cohort):
“On January 20, 2025, President Trump assumed the office of the presidency. It was a historic day for our nation and the first step towards successfully building an administration that will Make America Great Again. President Trump can undo the damages inflicted on our great nation by the Biden Administration. The Biden Administration allowed an invasion of our southern border, alongside heightened inflation, gas prices, grocery prices, and housing costs. They wasted taxpayer money and skyrocketed our national debt to $36 trillion. We must support the Trump Administration in efforts to rein in the excessive spending of the Radical Left.
I support President Trump’s goal to minimize government waste. He ran on the campaign promise to drain the swamp by cutting the exploding federal budget. Trump acted swiftly on his promise by signing several Executive Orders that provide relief for taxpayers. Some federal programs and agencies are necessary. However, many others lack proper oversight or should be handled at the state or local level. President Trump recognizes the flaws in federal operations and has the expertise to tackle them alongside his team.
The Biden Administration consistently approved wasteful government spending on unnecessary agencies and programs such as DEI, which President Trump has already planned the removal of. As a nation with over $36 trillion in debt, it is imperative that we utilize the newly instated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to rein in excessive spending and government overreach that has occurred through Radical Left agencies and programs.
I intend to continue supporting President Trump’s team and his agenda surrounding government efficiency and federal agencies. It is vital that we reinstate common sense policies that rein in wasteful spending.”
Regrettably, but without surprise, I have to conclude that she’s cut from the same chunk of wood as her deplorable predecessor.
When you said “Congresswoman,” I thought, “Wait! Doesn’t Ken live in the Upstate? How could he be in Nancy Mace’s district?”
I’m confessing my ignorance here. I don’t believe I had ever heard of Sheri Biggs. Somehow, during the hellish electoral year of 2024, she had slipped onto the delegation without my noticing her. (Not entirely hellish, of course. As I noted in November, all of the candidates in which I was sufficiently invested to post signs in my yard won their races, save one. Or two, if you count Walz, who was also on the ill-fated sign.)
I’m going to confess something else that people often keep to themselves these days: I looked up Rep. Biggs, and the first thing I saw was this picture, and the first thing I thought upon seeing it was, “Yep, that looks like someone who would send Ken a response such as that:”
At this point, people who voted for her — having learned from the Identity Politics folks on the left what an evil thing profiling is (or at least, what a great excuse it is for canceling) — would accuse me of being a racist and perhaps a sexist, too. I was obviously just saying that because she was a white woman! (And, of course, that means she’s Republican because SC hadn’t elected a white Democratic woman to Congress since Liz Patterson.)
Well, no. I’ve never met Abigail Spanberger and only seen pictures of her, and I’ve only seen Amy Klobuchar on the telly, but I like them both fine. I could name other white women in politics I like even better, but that gives you the idea. After all, I’m startlingly white myself, you know.
But there was something about that picture, and not just the fact that she was wearing a color that would cause Ronald Reagan to call on her during a meeting. It was something in her eyes. Her broad smile seems a bit forced. My eyes would look a bit like that if I were either a sincere Trumpist (I know that’s hard to imagine), or I were a Republican politician so scared of the Trumpists that I watched myself like a hawk every second of the day and night to avoid crossing them.
Of course, after forming such an impression, I immediately go on to gather all sorts of other evidence, but most people (if they’re honest) are likely to form such gut reactions, and that goes double for INTPs. The good news is, the further information in this case seems to confirm what I got from that first second, so there is likely some value from such observations, at least some of the time…
Whoa! That comment from me kind of got out of hand! I’m trying so hard to be brief these days, so I can afford the time to blog.
But I felt I had to explain that intuitive impression, or try, since nonintuitive types (the sensing folks) will still say I’m full of it no matter what I say.
Back in 2017, I shared on the blog my intuitive impression that John Edwards was a phony, and people objected (at least, bud objected), and I resolved to try to explain it in a column later, and I did, and that column just caused all kinds of trouble. So this time I tried jamming my justification into a comment, so as to be discreet…
Of course, I’ve formed similar impressions in the past and they’ve been so strong that I hardly felt the need for further investigation. Consider this one, for instance.
But I can say with confidence that subsequent evidence regarding Ms. Guilfoyle has fully supported that initial impression, also…
I would just add that the letter shows how calls for Congress to “Do Its Job,” though well-intentioned, are kinda beside the point. Because the sentiment expressed here is: Hey, Congress IS doing its job – by standing aside and letting the Trump/Musk regime everything for us. We’re fine with that. We don’t have to lift a finger. See how efficient we are already!