The pouring rain didn’t stop protesters from cramming into Academy Green Park in the city’s uptown. Demonstrators with signs reading “Hands off Social Security” and “No one elected Elon” lined the sidewalks of Albany Avenue, garnering honks of, presumably, support from cars stuck at the nearest traffic light.
Megan Wolff and her friend, Iris Marie-Bloom, aren’t out for just one cause: they came to protest several policies of the Trump Administration, including its efforts to roll back climate regulations, ramp up deportations, target student protesters, close the Department of Education, and cut federal spending nationwide.
“Everything I ever cared about is under attack right now," says Wolff. "They always say, ‘the American way of life.' Well, if you want to be able to live it, buy anything, be anywhere or do anything, you better come out.”
The Kingston rally was one of more than a thousand similar protests across the country Saturday. There were rallies planned in nearby Newburgh, Beacon, Woodstock, Saugerties, and Gardiner as well.
Many of those who spoke with WAMC expressed their concern over the sweeping tariffs President Trump announced last week. They include a 10 percent baseline tax on all imports, with higher rates on China, the European Union, and more.
Stock markets tumbled Friday, and Kingston resident Bruce McPherson says he’s nervous.
“This idiot is going to drive the entire world into a recession," he says. "It’s going to have massive consequences for the entire world — for everybody. So, this feels apocalyptic to me.”
Closer to the park’s center, a tightly-packed crowd gathered around a tent with a microphone. New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey, a Democrat from the 41st District, says the Trump Administration’s actions are not just bad policy. She says they’re part of an “intentional takeover of our country.”
“We are watching actions that are not misguided," she says. "They are not 'confused.' They don’t think that 10 percent tariffs across every industry is going to help our economy. It is an intentional bow-down takeover to make people kiss the ring of this administration.”
“Just because they are stupid does not mean that we can underestimate them, because they have one goal, which is outright fascism," adds New York State Senator Sarahana Shrestha, a Democrat from the 103rd District. "If you have work at a place that is not unionized, figure out how to unionize. If you have neighbors you haven’t talked to, and you have things to talk about, go talk to them. Because what we’re gonna build is an economy where the workers who put in the work are going to bear the fruits of their labor.”
Amanda Smuss, a Marist University student from Long Island, says she came out to find community today. Whether or not the protests bear fruit, or whether she gets drenched in the process, she says she feels a responsibility to speak out.
"The white people from the Hudson Valley community need to show out for the people of color who have voted actively against this shit for years," says Smuss. "It is time to make more public appearances, disrupt more, do more in the name of equality, equity, fairness, love, kindness — and humanity, honestly! We are all people, and this country was not built fairly, and if you can’t acknowledge that you shouldn’t be making decisions about anything.”
