This story first appeared at Colorado Newsline.
DENVER | Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Saturday as part of a nationwide anti-Trump movement dubbed “Rage Against the Regime.”
The Denver protest was led by Colorado 50501, which also organized “Good Trouble” demonstrations honoring civil rights leader John Lewis on July 17, and “No Kings” anti-Trump protests in mid-June. The “Rage Against the Regime” protests, which were planned in more than 300 cities across the United States, focused on bringing communities “together to transform anger into action, harnessing the energy of collective resistance,” according to the 50501 website.
Several local left-leaning groups, including the Denver chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the immigrant rights group Aurora Unidos CSO, set up booths in front of the Capitol on Saturday.
The demonstrators protested President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportations, the elimination of federal funding for public media by Congress, and mass layoffs at several federal agencies, among other Trump administration priorities.
At about 12:15 p.m., organizers led chants of “When we fight, we win” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” which were met with clapping from the crowd and honks from passing cars.
Brandon Quintanilla, a co-founder of Aurora Unidos CSO, called for protestors to “stand up for our immigrant communities and educate our neighbors.” Quintanilla, 23, said members of his family were deported several years ago, adding that “these attacks on our people have been happening for years, and they have only escalated to unprecedented levels under the Trump administration.”
“We are all well aware of the attacks on our people: masked (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents picking up our parents as they pick up the trash, our siblings being picked up on the way to work or to immigration court,” Quintanilla said.
Protestors yelled “shame” when Quintanilla mentioned the recent federal Republican tax cut and spending law’s allocation of $170 billion in funding for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Denver residents Phaedra Andersen, 54, and Nancy Andersen, 71, have attended several anti-Trump protests in the past eight months. The mother-daughter duo first got involved in community organizing decades ago. Phaedra’s first protest was at age 13, against apartheid in South Africa, while Nancy started out with Vietnam War protests.
“I am hoping that we can break this cycle of human rights violations,” Nancy said. “If anyone’s rights are violated, all of our rights can be attacked. We are on the very edge of losing our democracy.”
Robynn Bartholomew, 52, attended the Denver protest carrying dozens of handmade bracelets beaded with the word “resist.” She stood near the Capitol and handed them out for free to fellow demonstrators.
“I just wanted to do what I could, what’s in my lane, to lift people up, because this is a marathon, not a sprint,” Bartholomew said. “Every day there’s a new thing that can bring you down, but I’m trying to make people smile. We need to come together.”
“Hundreds” means about .0005% of the region’s population came together to have their voices heard.
The other 99.995% didn’t feel the need to protest. What does that tell you?
Trump is doing an incredible job. Violent crime, energy, and gas and food prices plummeting. Saving the Federal Government bankruptcy with tariffs. Protecting children from insane Democrats who make money mutilating child sex organs and other sexual predators.
“Losing our democracy” = “Anytime our side doesn’t have total political control”
These protests are more astroturfed than a 1970s sports stadium.
The Trump administration is incrementaling cripling world-class democratic institutions. He is harming governmental, private, and public institutions that display independence or perceived disloyalty to him. He is putting loyalty to himself over loyalty to the country daily with his actions. His latest was the firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). One of the main strengths of our economy is our reliance on accurate labor statistics. Our economy must remain neutral politically. Under normal conditions, Republicans reliably assert this notion and have been strident in arguing for neutrality in the Federal Reserve and at the BLS. The GOP is now upside down when it comes to financial independence. Their fealty to Trump has robbed the GOP of members who dare to express independence or express a common-sense position on financial matters. Inserting loyalists who are expected to deliver results that please the leader over results based on statistical methods refined over time and are considered the best in the world endangers the markets that rely on accuracy. Moreover, it endangers the status of the dollar as the world standard. Losing that status would roil world markets as a new standard would be sought. Essentially, Trump is undermining the pillars we depend on for economic security. Losing that economic security would make each of us poorer!