Yesterday, on Presidents’ Day, the national political nonprofit Indivisible held rallies across the U.S. to protest President Trump’s actions, and to give voice to a return to the ideals held by America’s first president. WMRA’s Sara Prince attended the Charlottesville event in front of the county office building.
In 1789, George Washington took office as the first U.S. president, in a new nation represented by a Congress to make the laws, a president to enforce them, and a judicial system to interpret them. One attendee, among about 300 who were there, gave voice to her fears, and hopes.
ATTENDEE: It’s easy to just feel like - whatever. There’s nothing I can do. I still believe that people coming together is what always changes everything.
Dan Doernberg is the facilitator of Indivisible’s chapter in Charlottesville, and he highlights topics that are often heard around the water cooler these days.
DAN DOERNBERG: In some cases, agencies are just having job cuts across the board, where it seems like they don't even understand what those people are supposed to be doing. For example, they laid off all of the staffers who were monitoring our nuclear weapons stockpiles. And then realized, like, oh, that's what they were doing? And then had to hire them back a day later.
He notes that decision-making in government should be a process where the branches of government work together through a problem to find solutions.
DOERNBERG: Say, “Here's what we're thinking of doing. And here are the reasons why we think it should be done.” I remember when McCain ran against Obama. And you know, there was that point two weeks before the election where someone said something about Obama and McCain said no, he's a good man. We have different opinions, but we both care about America. You know, that wasn't that long ago. You could have differences in policy, but it wasn't this night and day you know. People are going to act with just an absolute lack of ethics.
