On Saturday morning I attended the “Fight the Trump Takeover” rally at a busy intersection in Santa Barbara. We lined State Street for as far as the eye could see. We were 100 percentnonviolent. This rally’s purpose was to block Trump’s attempt, which started in Texas, to rig the2026 midterm elections. Our protest is nationwide: though it started in Texas with this issue, it sure doesn’t end there. We’re fighting him trying to take over Congress and turning our nation, institution by institution, city by city, into his fascist playground, without care for who we are and how much we love our country.
Our spirits were high, and everyone was friendly and supportive. We held up and waved signsprotesting every single issue, and voicing our passions for every travesty and wrongdoing, andeach and every single shameful act against our democracy since the day Trump was inaugurated. Many of the signs supported our nation’s precious heritage of immigrants and cried out against ICE’s indiscriminate aggression and Gestapo tactics. Signs voiced our pride and love for science, our aghast-ness at the books being banned, “LGBTQ4ever,” “Protect Your Vote,” support forwomen’s rights and abortion rights, “Putting Voters First,” the preciousness of our Rule of Law, and “Truth Over Lies.” Others called Trump an orange-skinned puppet, and a fascist and hater of our values and proud heritage 10 times over, and shouted “Fight the Trump Takeover” and”Hands Off Our Democracy!”
The traffic along the avenue was awesome, filled with honking, waving people, and athousand demonstrators. Not a single “Trump Red, White, and Blue Traffic Invasion Wave”showed up to sour the occasion. Many, many cars and trucks drove through bearing enthusiastic elderly people. People of all races joined in with smiles, honks, and power-pumping.
Cyclists and cars full of waving, laughing young people interspersed with many fancy cars, pickuptrucks, and shiny convertibles plastered with “Fight the Takeover” signs. Enormous semi truckshonked their horns, and city buses, city police, and U.S. postal trucks received a fine reception.
Sometimes the excitement and enthusiasm of the drivers-by seemed to swell and overtakethem all. At first there’d be a few isolated cars with waving families and beeping motorists, andjust moments later a small sea of people would flow past, honking and looking you in the eye, making V for Victory hand signs and holding homemade signs, laughing and waving. You could really sense the spirit growing and spreading, as though palpably feeling our movement growing stronger.
