WASHINGTON — Protesters from the Women’s March on Washington had artfully drawn many signs. Detailed vaginas graced some, hitting back at Donald Trump’s leaked 2005 comment to celebrity television show host Billy Bush that his own celebrity allowed him to “grab them by the p*ssy.” Others sketched block letters. One read “American Nightmare Day 1.” The next day, the same woman marched in Washington, D.C., and the sign read “American Nightmare Day 2.” Two people held a “This is f*cked up” sign after Trump’s swearing-in near the Washington Monument and walked around the capitol with it.

But on a white sheet, written simply in ink no thicker than a Sharpie, one sign read “Today we march, tomorrow we run #2018 #2020.” A sign that clearly took the least time to construct may have been the most constructive.

The feeling of the inauguration and the Women’s March embodied the new hopes of the political right and left, respectively. If you came into D.C., as a member of either side, you probably left feeling like you witnessed a shift in your political party.

“Welcome to your first day,” Women’s March protesters shouted as they reached the White House. “We will not go away.”

To ingrain Friday and Saturday into America’s collective memory will require those who either day’s message resonated with to mobilize. Two hundred and fifty thousand people scattered themselves across the National Mall for Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States, and an estimated 500,000 people packed Washington for the Women’s March the following day, per USA Today. Estimates of people who marched nationally ranged from 3.6 to 4.6 million, making it the biggest protest in U.S. history, according to research from a University of Connecticut professor. No flag can be sewn without seams. Friday and Saturday found them, tugging at the thread that weaves the country’s differences.

“Jan. 20, 2017, will remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again,” Trump said during his inauguration speech.

“Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving back to you, the people.”

Friday’s inauguration became the Republican Party’s rally for the weekend. The inauguration crowd was purely partisan, with “Make American Great Again” hats dotting the crowd. Few if any counter-protesters showed up within the inauguration and even fewer people showed up just to see the inauguration if they hadn’t supported Trump.

That would lend itself to the notion that the U.S. is more divided than ever. But it’s hard to tell if that’s exactly true. While they stand for different causes, the youngest supporters of the Republican and Democratic parties both seemingly back “populist” movements. Populism has long been seen as a negative term, but it’s simply a movement that taps into the interests of common people.

Despite that, for the first time in U.S. history, the goals of a major business leader align perfectly with the goals of the most powerful person in the world because they are one and the same. Trump shed his establishment perception by speaking in terms the American public could understand. The newly established right has made it clear it views the elite as those on Capitol Hill. How the populist right reckons with its newfound power will unfurl over the next four years.

The left, however, sees the elite as those more than 220 miles north, on Wall Street and in corporate offices. This weekend, the left digested its failure and adopted a populist movement of its own. Michael Moore spoke to that in a speech Friday at McPherson Square, making it clear that the future beliefs of the Democratic Party lie more in the campaign rhetoric of Bernie Sanders than in the that of Hillary Clinton. He called on protesters to let Trump know they were living in a “sh*t show” Friday.

Moriah Ratner | Staff Photographer

During and after Trump’s inauguration, the farthest reaches of the left emerged. Anarchists around McPherson and Franklin squares smashed the windows of a Starbucks, destroyed the windows of a limo and spray painted an anarchist “A” on buildings and bus stops.

Protesters sat on the limo, rapping and using it as a platform for their messages. Later, a black plume of smoke rose above Franklin Square. As people ran toward the smoke, a woman stepped out of a building and thought protesters had set a building on fire.

One witness saw a protester throw a flaming projectile into the limo, which set it on fire. Police in riot gear and emergency teams rushed to the scene. As protesters continued to chant and protest peacefully, the anarchists tore up bricks that had been loosened, if only slightly, by light rain and broke them to throw at the police in riot gear. Police used flash bangs and chemical dispersant to push protesters back.

“We the people” had been spray painted on a bus stop in the square.

Protesters traveled from Standing Rock, North Dakota, where people have resisted the Dakota Access Pipeline. Another protester, Jared Krauss, said he drove all the way from Iowa City, Iowa in one night to document the protest. Kyle Giacomozzi, who said he had been attending similar protests for the last year, lives in Washington, D.C., but some of his family descended on the city to protest.

Friday purged the anger still seeping from November’s election. Saturday imbued the same section of the electorate with hope, except for when protesters broke into anti-Trump chants at Trump International Hotel on their way to Pennsylvania Avenue. That anger dissipated as protesters marched away from the hotel and toward the White House, however. Even a block or two away from the march, cheers often rose spontaneously throughout downtown Washington.

The two days’ events raised the question of who Trump was actually turning his country over to. He lost the popular vote, a message the 500,000 people who upstaged his inauguration on Saturday reiterated though chants. If Friday represented a funeral and release of anger for the left, Saturday represented its rebirth.

Moore spoke again at the Women’s March, while very few establishment politicians spoke Friday or Saturday. He emphasized how to influence policy under Trump, even spreading a “to-do list,” while shedding his “sh*t show” language from the day before. Among other things, like calling elected representatives and joining groups like Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, Moore shouted, “You have to run for office.”

Just like Trump’s right, the left’s looming problem will be action and parsing out who will push the movements further. More than 500,000 people descending on Washington, D.C. was just the beginning they hope.

Chris Libonati is a Senior Staff Writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at cjlibona@syr.edu or @ChrisLibonati.

Published on January 22, 2017 at 9:26 pm