Protest Rally Update from Vancouver WA

Plus Full Video of a Panel discussion about the State of Play

April 5, 2025

Marc Cooper

Vancouver, Washington

This is a two part post, so sit back and make yourself comfortable.

Part I

Just got back from the local protest rally in our suburban city of Vancouver, WA. Population about 100,000. A place once very conservative and chock a block with retired military.

But times have changed. The city has turned purple if not light blue in spite of a sizable MAGA presence. Some of the most strident militias were incubated in nearby areas. But somehow we have a Democrat Mayor and since 2022 a Blue Dog Democrat in the House. I don’t share her politics but any candidate more liberal than her would have lost to her extremist opponent who was recently named an official of Trump’s Counter Terrorism Council, so you can imagine.

Portland is just a mile across the river and looks like about 20,000 protestors turned out there. And Seattle — two hours up the road— had somewhere around 10,000 or more.

But culturally, Portland (and Seattle) are about as far away from Mars — as our city is more like the midwest and some Portlanders refer to our town derisively as Vantucky. That’s a worn-out and smug stereotype as the population here grows, becomes younger, more diverse and more liberal or, at least, less conservative. But we are not overtly “weird” as the Portlanders like to proclaim themselves ( also a stereotype with a strand of truth).

All that to say, I went to the rally in our downtown park today and was blown away by a crowd of about 3,000! I was expecting maybe 100 or 150. Probably the biggest political event here ever. So hats off to our number organizer, Donald J. Trump.

And the crowd was, excuse this stereotype, “mostly normal people.” American flags, unionized federal workers, social security recipients, babies in strollers, and we were addressed from the stage as “Fellow Patriots” — not “comrades.” There was zero presence of the noisome tiny left sectarian groups calling for armed revolution, no counter-demonstrators, and no real visible police presence. And it was an abnormal 71 degrees and sunny— a break in the usual 50 degree overcast of our local spring. It was, in short, rather amazing and inspiring. And those who know me, know I am not easily inspired.

The hard work now and across the country is to start channeling this eruption of dissident energy into ORGANIZATION that can confront the administration on a regular if not daily basis and prepare for the 2026 mid terms as well as preparing for them not taking place or becoming a farce. We have the numbers and we have the energy but with Trump now on his back feet, like a cornered beast, he is more dangerous than ever. So let’s not fool ourselves thinking that demos alone make the difference.

Public opinion, though, is important and it is not an accident that overnight the Senate drafted its version of the Trump budget eliminating about 80% of the cuts that passed the House. This is a serious divide in MAGA and the more we make our presence felt, the better. Politicians may be dumb and cynical but they can count.

Part II

Earlier today I sent out a post with just the audio of a panel discussion I participated in Los Angeles about two months ago, moderated by my fellow writer and author Susan Zakin. She helms the mighty fine Journal of the Plague Years substack that you should subscribe to now. Just click the link above.

While I was out at the rally, the Technical and Logistical Department of The Coop Scoop secured the video of the entire panel, with a thanks to Susan.

What’s interesting is that this panel that I participated in took place in late February, about 7 weeks ago just as initial protest was beginning to quietly start to bubble. Much that was said then has even more relevance today as we were speculating a lot and much of what we discussed has come to be. I urge you to watch the whole thing. Not because I am in it, but because you will hear some diverse approaches as to what is to be done. There are differences among us but we all know we need a broad coalition with no litmus tests to confront American fascism.

Susan Zakin, editor of the Journal of the Plague Years put together and moderated the panel. Here’s what she wrote as background to its creation:

After the election, I felt as though I wanted to do something. I’m a journalist, not an activist, but this clearly was an all-hands-on-deck moment. I would have happily spent an afternoon a week doing anything to help save the country from what I knew was coming.

But nobody was telling me where to show up, or what to do.

It was like playing tennis with a partner who had disappeared. (Was it the Democratic Party?)

We had originally talked to the events organizer at the wonderful Village Well bookstore in Culver City, California about an event to promote our magazine’s anthology. This quickly morphed into a panel of really, really smart folks who could give people 1) an understanding of exactly where things stood on crucial issues like immigration, the environment, and upcoming elections, and 2) actions they could take that would be effective, not just feel good gestures.

Zahra Aghajan, neuroscientist and disinformation researcher;

Jason Berlin, founder of the highly effective voter registration organization Field Team 6 on how we’re positioned going forward;

Marc Cooper, longtime Nation columnist and USC journalism professor who has reported on two coups d’etat;

Jean Guerrero, New York Times columnist, author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda on immigration, and

Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times climate correspondent.

I rather awkwardly moderated, hiding from the camera as the diehard print journalist that I am.

I hope you’ll take what you need from this panel. I read the news for hours every morning, but I learned a lot.

We are grateful to all the panelists and to the Village Well, a fantastic bookstore.

We thank you for subscribing.

Susan Zakin, Editor Subscribe here —> Journal of the Plague Years

This is Marc again. Hope you enjoy the panel video and hope you had a great time in the streets today because you did go, right?

See you on Monday with a fresh post.