Tristan Merediz waited 72 years before participating in his first protest.
On Monday, Merediz, shadowed by his 6-year-old grandson, joined hundreds of demonstrators in Atlanta who celebrated Presidents’ Day arguing that Donald Trump is unfit for the White House. The “Not My President’s Day” rally was one of a number that took place across the country, with roughly 400 people marching peacefully from Midtown’s Arts Center to Lenox Square mall in Buckhead.
“I come from South America,” said Merediz, who has lived in the U.S. for 60 years. “Trump reminds me of a dictator. The way he attacks the press, the way he attacks the people. Look at (Hugo) Chavez in Venezuela or (Evo) Morales in Bolivia. They’re all the same.”
Merediz said he never thought he’d see such a leader assume the presidency but warned a dictatorship could be established here “if Congress doesn’t stand up to him. We’re heading that way.”
The nearly six-mile “imPEACHment” march down Peachtree Street did not attract the numbers in some other major cities. Thousands of flag-waving protesters lined up outside Central Park in Manhattan. In Chicago, several hundred rallied across the river from the Trump Tower, shouting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”
Trump is popular in Georgia, where a majority of voters have welcomed his crackdown on illegal immigration and his choice of a reliable conservative to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Supporters have scheduled a pair of rallies later this month to thank Trump for bringing back manufacturing jobs to America and placing “the security of our nation ahead of political correctness,” said organizer Debbie Dooley of Georgia’s tea party movement.
Still, the opposition to the president is no less passionate. In January, some 60,000 people gathered in Atlanta as part of women's marches held across the country.
Like Merediz, William and Anna Hamrick attended their first protest Monday. The couple drove down from Gainesville, where they say many of their Hispanic friends are living in fear of the new administration's crackdown on undocumented workers.
“Someone knocks on the door now and they’re afraid to answer,” said Anna Hamrick, 48. “These are working people, not criminals.”
William Hamrick, 56, said he’s never been very political but Trump’s ascension to the Oval Office “energized me.”
“He’s really pursuing all those crazy ideas he campaigned on,” William Hamrick said.
There have been consequences to his newfound activism.
“I’ve lost almost all my friends,” William Hamrick said. “My friends are all rednecks and they love Trump.”
Carrying a sign reading “We’re All in This Together,” Cameron Hawkins, 39, of Atlanta, said though he opposes Trump he wants to steer clear of the kind of rhetoric that has sharply divided the electorate.
Trump voters, he said, don’t feel as if they’re being represented, a complaint that spans ideologies and party affiliations.
“We’ve got to get past this divisive rhetoric,” Hawkins said. “It’s scary. We’ve all been living in a bubble. We really underestimated how fast things can deteriorate.”
Hawkins said he felt “obligated” to attend Monday’s protest, sponsored by Democracy Spring Georgia.
“There was the initial shock (after Trump’s election),” he said. “That turned into depression and now it’s frustration and anger.”
Despite calls from their base to impeach Trump, Democratic Party officials are reportedly reluctant to engage in such talk, fearing it makes them appear too overzealous. Trump, after all, has only been in office one month.
But to the protesters rallying in Atlanta, that’s one month too many.
“The path he’s taking this country … it’s crazy,” William Hamrick said.
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