Hundreds of people lined a busy street that passes the federal and county buildings in Charlottesville – holding handmade signs and chanting "Stop the Coup" and "Defund Musk." Some were upset by federal firings. Others were angry about funding for medical research that’s been cut.
"My grandnephew is in a trial at NIH," one woman explained. "His treatment might actually cure glioblastoma. It’s ridiculous how much scientific advancement has been halted.”
In this college town, few of the demonstrators were students. Many were older – some veterans of protest against the war in Vietnam, in support of women’s liberation and gay rights. For them, the central issue was democracy. Here's what some had to say:
“President Trump is a convicted felon, and he continues to break laws and violate the constitution, and also Elon Musk has no authority to do what he’s doing. It needs to be stopped."
"I wanted to be here because I don’t like what’s going on in Washington at all. It’s unconstitutional. They’re breaking the law. And the Republican Congress is doing nothing about it.
“I think we’re all terrified, but it feels good to be together."
"Yeah, hopefully people are going to start waking up and realizing what’s going on and begin to do something."
"I wanted to be around people who are fed up like I am."
"What I see is a systematic attempt to put all power of government in the office of the presidency and create a dictatorship. It has to be resisted!"
“I am very, very worried about the trend in this country – away from Democracy and toward autocracy and fascism."
"I wanted to be part of something and hopefully is going to get the Democrats back on their feet. We were all kind of overwhelmed with the first couple of weeks of this administration. People need to do more of this. This crowd needs to be bigger. We need to get more involved with speaking out."
"Because it’s the only thing I can do right now."
Organizers used the gathering to spread the word about a planned boycott of companies like Walmart, Target and Best Buy, which have canceled policies promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, followed by similar actions over other issues in March.
