One of my new year’s resolutions for 2025 is to get more exercise.
In support of this goal, I spent some time yesterday exercising my right to free speech and assembly. This is a kind of exercise I recommend everyone partake in if you live in a country that permits it (and fight for if you don’t). On a chilly Saturday, I joined a small but strong group of people in Washington, DC on a march to the Lincoln Memorial. Notable in this march was reduced emphasis on what the marchers were against, and more on the variety of causes they were for: immigrant rights, climate action, Palestinian sovereignty, Ukrainian sovereignty, and abortion rights.
Indeed, not all of us would agree with one another on everything – as a Catholic, I do struggle greatly with the latter. But we could all agree that we want a different vision for the United States of America than the one that incoming president Donald Trump promises to put into practice this week.
In January 2017, the Women’s March on Washington, DC drew 500,000 people, dwarfing Donald Trump’s inauguration. This year, the same event – renamed the People’s March – sadly drew 1% of that number. Many people are burnt out or resigned, and we in the US all have to recognize that this time around, the “Make America Great Again” agenda is what the majority of our compatriots (albeit a slim majority) wanted.
For Trump-supporting Republicans, this is a moment of triumph, of “taking America back” from what they see as a corrupt and misguided Democratic agenda. The fact that around 45% of Latino voters, 40% of Asian-American voters, and 46% of women voters chose Trump shows that despite Trump’s frequent racist comments, the US electorate has other concerns. While the actual numbers around working class votes are complicated, the common narrative is that the Republican Party is now the party of the working class. In 2024, economic issues were voters’ primary concern.
Democrats are now facing a moment of reckoning, asking themselves how they failed to win hearts and minds this time around. While many reasons have been given, it is notable that during this post-covid period of economic inflation, many democratic countries – though not all – have seen reversals of ruling political party. As much as we talk about ideology – on either side – people in the US and indeed around the world vote with their wallets.
I attended the People’s March because last November I was on the verge of despair. And yet I believe – as one of the protest signs I saw stated – that action is the antidote to despair. No matter how many new oil wells are opened, no matter how many hardworking immigrants get detained and deported, I will not give up the effort to advocate for the rights of people to choose where they live, the rights of humans, plants and animals to have a habitable world, and the rights of all people to live in peace – which is so much more than just the absence of war.
After the march reached the Lincoln Memorial, the friend I attended it with and I set off together down to the other end of the National Mall to visit the Smithsonian Native American Museum, in part to see its latest exhibit on Narrative Art of the Great Plains and in part to sip some of their delicious hot chocolate. As we walked toward the Capitol, we noticed the change in mood – more and more people in MAGA and Trump gear, arriving early for Monday’s inauguration. We wondered if some of the vendors selling Trump merchandise were possibly the same ones selling anti-Trump memorabilia at our event – and indeed, if all of it had been made in the same Chinese factory.
As we walked around the Smithsonian’s exhibit featuring historical and contemporary indigenous narrative art, I noticed some people in MAGA gear also looking at the same exhibits I was. One of them, a man perhaps in his sixties, gave me a gentle smile as we passed each other. I later discussed this with my friend – who is vehemently against Trump and struggles to find empathy for the people who voted for him – and she says that, in sharing the museum space with people very much from “the other side” of the political spectrum, she felt the famous line from Julian of Norwich float through her mind: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well” – weighty words from a woman who lived through the Plague.
For me, it is hard to believe that all shall be well when so much is wrong. Though Trump’s 2024 victory was decisive, the truth is that we in the US remain deeply polarized. We are not in agreement about what is true (are the ongoing LA wildfires caused by climate change, local mismanagement, or both?), much less what is good. I have long believed that interacting with and respecting people on “the other side” is essential for rebuilding lost trust in society and keeping our democratic systems intact. It is harder to do that when “the other side” holds power – and when I struggle to trust that their good will toward me is the same as mine toward them.
But my visit to the nation’s capital revealed…it is possible in the same day both to draw strength from like-minded people who share values and also to share space with those who do not. For me, the coming days, weeks and years will be challenging. I anticipate that many of Trump’s decisions will make me melt with sorrow or bristle as anger – while other people, seeing them as good, will be overjoyed.
My hope is that we who are Christian can stay engaged in our faith and remember that Jesus was not a Democrat or a Republican. Going back and reading the Gospels offers a vision quite different from the money-focused ones put forth by our political leaders. Jesus was unconditionally on the side of the poor, the foreigner, the woman, the child, the sick, and the marginalized. This is where we as Christians are called to be, always – no matter who holds earthly power. At a time when exhaustion is rampant, apathy is tempting, and despair is close at hand, let us lean into our faith and discern how best to live it out in complex times. The answer will be different for each of us, but the questions are ones we must never stop asking.