This Just In — Last Saturday was a nightmare for the President of the United States. Sheer terror.
All across the country, there were massive peaceful demonstrations of Americans standing together within their own communities and declaring that we are in fact still the United States of America. My top level appreciation is for the many many, very large police departments who posted on social media the fact that they had no violence in their cities related to these demonstrations and made no arrests.
With the administration promising forceful, devastating consequences for these “radical left and Antifa demonstrations”, Americans in this community and virtually every community from Poughkeepsie, New York to Podunk, Idaho took to the streets, held up their largely handmade signs and sent a collective message of “Grifter Go Home.” We can agree to disagree about politics, but nobody likes being ripped off.
Standing alongside my daughter-in-law on Churchton Street last Saturday just as I did in June for the same reason, I think I have never felt more American in my life. Surrounded by veterans and young parents and grandparents and new Americans and old Americans we had one thing to say. Enough is enough. We will come out. We will speak. We will demand.
These utterly fantastic marches have harnessed American’ collective disgust with an illegitimate president who is brazenly enriching himself by way of broad daylight robbery and corruption.
Attendees cheer during a rally protesting a proposed redistricting map on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 in Raleigh, N.C. (Photo via AP Photo/Chris Seward.)
The anger with the president is one thing, but the larger thing is the nightmare for the president. We are resolved. We are empowered and we are on one page about the most important thing in the whole wide world. We need the rule of law. We need institutional respect. Our body politic cannot tolerate this corruption.
We don’t expect that the president is going to see all of this and be chastened by it. Not all all. What we CAN expect is that every member of the GOP in Congress watched this and required a new pair of pants afterwards. As I’ve said before in this space, they are cowards and without vision, but they can count.
Courage is contagious. My unscientific estimate is that Saturday’s demonstration in Hillsborough was nearly double the size of what we had last June.
These demonstrations are a stunning flex of political power and they know it. It’s palpable. Most dangerous to their cause is that it’s joyful and invigorating. Probably for that reason, there will be more and more of these as Donald sits drooling over his grand ballroom that will sit empty 90% of the time, Democrats will be organizing and ordinary people with little political experience will be watching with only one question in mind …
What time should I show up?
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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