I know many people who suffer from a chronic illness that gets worse every time there is news from Washington. Supporters of the current president of the United States might refer to this condition as a side effect of Trump Derangement Syndrome, but it is more like Trump Fatigue Syndrome.
Symptoms may include the desire to disconnect from a spell, stick your head in an ice bucket, or find another way to numb your senses.
But some brave souls, instead of looking the other way, enter the fray.
Bert Voorhees, for example.
I came across his name while reading coverage of the Monday night rally at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, where demonstrators protested the bombing of Iran, the latest example of Trump acting as if he were king of the world and accountable to no one, not even Congress, the courts, or the American people.
On the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, people attend the Response Coalition's March 2 rally protesting the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
With missiles flying, civilians dying and chaos spreading, Voorhees told USA Today that the Iranian ayatollah's violence against his own people did not justify a US military strike. In Voorhees' view, it is American democracy that is under attack.
“If people don't stand up and shout about this, all together right now, we're not going to have a country,” the northeast San Fernando Valley resident said. “So it's time for people to get serious and take to the streets.”
I called Voorhees, a retired lawyer and professor, and we had a long talk that continued the next day over lunch in Montrose. We are both over 70 years old and we both have trouble aligning the country we live in with the vision we had as younger men. Who could have anticipated years of intimidation and insults, pathological lies about a “stolen” election, or defeat of the judicial and congressional opposition?
I confessed to Voorhees that I completely misunderstood the direction this country was taking when the first black president in history left office in 2016. I would have bet that as a more diverse and tolerant population reached voting age, the old divisions would slowly fade into history and America would continue to move toward higher elevations.
Silly me.
Voorhees says he has demonstrated hundreds of times, but with the immigration raids and now the war in Iran, President Trump is keeping him very busy. “If people don't stand up and shout about this, all together right now, we're not going to have a country,” Voorhees said. “So it's time for people to get serious and take to the streets.”
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Perhaps it was the naive wishful thinking of a father who wanted his children to live in a more evolved country rather than one filled with Neanderthal notions about science, medicine, climate, and non-white immigrants.
For Voorhees, these are reasons to make a fuss rather than lose faith, and he's not alone. He There are no Kings rallies in Los Angeles they were huge. Home Depot Civil Patrols They have looked for hard-working neighbors because “silence is violence.” He whistle brigades They are defending their communities.
Denise Giardina, a Huntington Beach bookseller and friend of Voorhees, has been on Home Depot patrols in her community and said planning various political actions is practically a full-time job.
“I have daughters and I wanted them to have more rights than me, and I'm not sure that's going to happen,” Giardina said.
When Giardina needs a break, she goes for a walk, which serves as a reminder that a single protest doesn't change the world, but small steps matter.
“Sometimes you can't think about the end,” he said. “It's just one foot in front of the other. It's not the government that's going to save us. It will be the people.”
A crowd gathered at Los Angeles City Hall on March 2 to protest the bombing of Iran by the United States and Israel.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Roseanne Constantino, a Silver Lake graphic designer whose activism includes knocking on doors during election cycles, sending postcards and making phone calls, has been on the front lines with Voorhees and shares her sense of duty.
“I mean, for people to say, 'I can't watch the news, I'm numb, I'm overwhelmed, I have to tune out,' that's a huge privilege, because they can tune out, because they're safe,” Constantino said.
“I think it's like a gateway drug,” he added, “because even people who have never done anything activist in their life eventually find themselves at a protest and feel encouraged by the community and the sense of purpose and expression of opposition, but also by the love of democracy.”
For Voorhees, “democracy is a privilege” and his participation does not end with voting. “You have to make sure they do the right thing,” he said, “and that requires paying attention to them and supervising them, so to speak. Politicians are supposed to work for us.”
Voorhees told me that under President Obama, when drones were used in targeted killings abroad, he took to the streets in protest.
“I'm an equal opportunity activist, but never in my life have we had a person so determined to destroy democracy,” Voorhees said. “I called Reagan a fascist, and Reagan felt like a fascist until I met this man, who is the leader of a fascist movement in this country.”
I bet that the bombing of Iran by America's first president, who promised to end wars rather than start them, was Trump's way of projecting strength in a moment of weakness. Many of the president's true believers are applauding, but it appears nothing was learned from past meddling in the Middle East that ended badly, and without careful consideration of what comes next, Epic Fury could be followed by Epic Quagmire.
Voorhees insists that this was not just a show of power, but an act of distraction.
From the Epstein files, for example. From empty promises about lower prices for food and consumer goods, low favorability ratings, fears about the midterm elections, and the mess created by tariffs that cost American traders millions of dollars and were declared illegal.
Voorhees is angry about all of this, but he made a clarification.
He is not demoralized.
More than 200 people protest the US and Israeli war against Iran in front of City Hall in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday. Protesters carried Mexican, Palestinian and Iranian flags at the demonstration organized by the Answer Coalition.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“The arc of the universe bends toward justice,” Voorhees said, “but it doesn't bend steadily. There are setbacks. Two steps forward, one step back. One step forward, three steps back. We're in one of those periods… But we can get through it, and I think in the long run we probably will.”
Minneapolis is the model, he said. When two innocent people were killed in immigration raids, the community came together and rose up in protest, forcing Trump's forces to retreat and sparking a national conversation about the brutal tactics.
“Minneapolis rejected that with humanity, and that's the future we want to build,” Voorhees said. “That's the future Martin Luther King Jr. always wanted. That's the beloved community. That's the ticket.”
Things will change only if “we get off the couch,” said Voorhees, who attended another anti-war protest Saturday on the steps of City Hall with a sign that asked, “Who would Jesus bomb?”
“You can move forward with a heavy heart and bowed head, or dance with a smile and a melody on your lips, hand in hand with people you care about. Why not do that? All Empires fall. All Kings and tyrants fail in the end. Sometimes it's fast. Sometimes it's slow. But that day is coming, and as the Twin Cities have proven, love is stronger than hate, even if only just.”
