Photos of a Classic Civic Gathering in Action: #50501 Protest Against Musk & Trump, February 5 2025 in Augusta, ME
Members of The Audacity traveled on February 5, 2025 to the Maine State House on the Capitol Grounds in Augusta to meet folks from across the state. We were called together by a grassroots group of citizens working outside the traditional party structure and apart from long-established advocacy groups such as the Maine People’s Alliance. This grassroots group nevertheless mounted peaceful and productive rallies at all 50 state capitol buildings.
Were there counterprotesters and trolls? No, not in the plural. One lonely man brought himself, a sign, and a loudspeaker. After about 20 minutes he became discouraged at the site of hundreds of anti-Trump protesters and at the prospect of being ignored by the crowd, and quietly went home.
It was a cold winter day with a nasty wind blowing, but people were of good cheer nevertheless. As you can see from the photo gallery below, people made their own homemade signs, rather than being handed out a set of official organizational messages. That’s one sign of a legitimate grassroots movement moment reflecting what’s on citizens’ minds, as opposed to the “astroturf” fake-grassroots events you’ll tend to see on the right, in which most people are carrying the same sign approved by a paid staffer (or even wearing the same centrally-ordered t-shirt, another classic sign of communications-professional astroturf).
The Audacity continues to mount its own homegrown, grassroots, creative protest action events, but also is keeping a list of other actions going on in and around central Maine, Portland, and the Midcoast area. Check it out at https://www.audacitycat.com/events.
The video below is a representative minute from the Augusta protest. As a trumpeter plays the tune on a cold, windy February 5 2025 midday at the Maine State House in Augusta, the assembled peaceful crowd of hundreds of Mainers against Musk and Trump sings a verse of "Amazing Grace."
Despite breathless claims in advance put forward by right-wing conspiracy theorists and promoted by some elements of the Maine Democratic Party, the #50501 event in Augusta was nonviolent, constructive, and civic in nature, drawing from the grassroots base of everyday Mainers who the Democrats are going to have to cultivate, not disparage, in order to come back. While the Kennebec County Democratic Party vacillated between endorsing the protest, disavowing the protest, and even attempting to communicate the falsehood, only one troll counter-protester showed up, and he left in disappointment after 20 minutes of being outvoiced by the large grassroots assembly of principled, outraged Mainers. Representatives from the nearby Knox County Democratic Party, in contrast, showed up to support the successful protest.
