The “protect Mueller” rally the day after Trump fired Attorney General Sessions was not a typical Chicago protest. It looked different at the start, and at the end this earnest protest became farcical. (Shameless teaser: You’ll have to read to the end of this post to see why!)

Here is what it looked like.

Over 2,000 people rallied at Chicago’s Federal Plaza and marched to Trump Tower on November 8, protesting Trump’s latest threat against Mueller and the Russia probe. The Chicago march was one of over 900, with tens of thousands marching nationwide in large and small cities and suburbs in a “rapid response network” triggered by Trump’s firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose recusal from the Russia probe protected it by placing it under Ass’t Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Trump’s firing of Sessions and appointment of loyalist Matthew Whitaker is expected to end or limit it.

The march was as serious and anti-Trump as all the other recent, much bigger protests — the Women’s March, the March for Science, Families Belong Together, March for Our Lives. But this march was not only much smaller, it also looked and sounded different.

The framing of the march

This wasn’t one of those marches where people brought out their pretty, brilliant, clever, happy, sad, deep or silly signs, a sea of colors and images and witty slogans. There were some, but this time, the messaging was unusually uniform. Most of the signs I saw drove home the organizers’ simple framing: Protect the Mueller investigation (“Nobody is Above the Law,” either in signs printed from the march website or handwritten copies. “Nazi Scum Your Time Has Come” was a refreshing outlier, as was an effigy of Trump behind bars.) The chants were similarly focused, leavened with an occasional “This is what democracy looks like.” I’m not criticizing, just sayin’.

One marcher says, “Too much bullshit for one sign,” while signs around him read, “Protect Mueller” and “No One Is Above the Law.” Photo: Consideredsources.com (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

The participation was also different. Maybe the march looked different in NY or San Francisco; in Chicago it was not only overwhelmingly white, it was also not the typical, inclusive coalition politics we saw both in the massive marches or even in the smaller marches against police violence or war. You didn’t have that precious spectrum of groups and individuals shaping the march with their own identity. I’m not criticizing, just sayin’.

In some places, the march was organized by Indivisible or MoveOn but sponsored by many other groups. In Venice Beach, Indivisible LA listed a spectrum of 45 liberal/progressive organizations, ranging from Pantsuit Nation and People for the American Way to Color of Change. But in Chicago, the event was apparently sponsored only by MoveOn and Indivisible, and my guess is MoveOn provided the website, but the work was mostly done by Indivisible.  They spread the word, recruited volunteers in yellow vests, programmed a few speakers at the rally’s starting point in Federal Plaza, and supplied a sound system (“sound system” is my story’s MacGuffin, read to the end!). We didn’t even have “the usual suspects” — I saw only one of the left sects and groupuscules that usually come to the mass rallies to hand out their flyers, sell their newspapers, and fish for souls.

Much of the Chicago movement may have missed the call for the rally, but the Democratic Party was there. Senator Dick Durbin gave a speech, followed by State Senator Daniel Biss, who had been supported by many progressive groups in his primary challenge for governor. Newspapers reports I read describing rallies elsewhere all mentioned Democratic Party speakers; even small communities might have a city councilman. Photos suggest that, as in Chicago, the marchers were overwhelmingly white. In Chicago, as in other larger cities, there was a significant if small representation of people of color, but few African Americans — and Chicago is a city where the Movement for Black Lives has played a deciding role in city politics. I’m not criticizing, just sayin’.

With all the talk about fascism and the erosion of democracy on the left as well as among liberals, you would think more people would come out. Maybe I’m looking for too much significance here, and there were just some peculiarities about the circumstances or about the people who organized the march. Or maybe the march reflects the way Indivisible and MoveOn focus on elections, the Democratic Party, and the institutions, drawing participants who themselves are focused on elections and government institutions. MoveOn’s strength is its internet crowdsourcing; it can bring out a crowd, but you need to do other work to build a coalition. The huge protest marches we’ve seen since the first Women’s March had deeper cultural roots, and for them the organizers worked hard to create coalitions that would bring diverse movements together in their actions.

Ambivalence about Mueller and the FBI?

We need our own sound system!

To end on a lighter note, the organizers did competent setup at the starting point, where speakers had an excellent sound system. But when the march ended at Trump Tower, no one seemed to know what was supposed to happen. That is, no one except for an ultra-left sect well-known to activists. Their speaker speaker barked about revolution into a megaphone. The crowd cheered. But the sound was poor and I couldn’t make out the words.

As I walked away, I went up to a volunteer in a yellow vest to ask if there were supposed to be more speakers. He didn’t know. Then a police commander stalked up and yelled at him, “The communists have hijacked your rally!” The volunteer didn’t know what to say. I wanted to help, so I reassured the cop: “If they want to overthrow capitalism, they’ll need a better sound system.”

Sadly, that says something about the rest of us also. The Democratic Party may help you out with a sound system, but you better have your own. And you need a good one.
—Paul Elitzik