The Exorcism of Despair: Scenes from the Opposition

The quiet and depressive resignation of January has exploded into vast organic anger as spring nears and the daffodils of democracy poke through the chilly soil.

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1.

Three weeks ago, we lost the great David Johansen - such a vital force on what used to be the vibrant New York music scene of decades past. Johansen was a great artist: founder of the New York Dolls, writer of songs of pathos and absurdity, empathetic performer utterly committed to leaving his audiences smiling, inventor of Buster Poindexter, singer of the broad American songbook, actor, painter, hail fellow well met, creative man about town, a New York mensch. But David and his wife Mara Hennessey were also something else that matters greatly in this cold spring of incipient American fascism and isolation: they were part of the Resistance.

Back in the dark days of 2017, they were on the front lines marching and speaking out against the first Trump administration. Their involvement exemplified the intersection of art, music, and activism in challenging threats to democracy.​ And indeed, I thought that Amanda Petrusich in The New Yorker wrote the single best paragraph on Johansen’s life in the days after he passed:

Johansen was a frequent guest on “Saturday Night Live,” and on Valentine’s Day in 1987 he performed his song “Heart of Gold,” from the 1981 album “Here Comes the Night.” It’s a gorgeous and vulnerable appearance, with aching harmonica and a fiddle solo by Soozie Tyrell in a red sequined dress. Johansen talks of wanting someone to choose him: “I sure wish you’d see something in me,” he sings. Oof—I still cry each time I hear it. That gnawing desire to be witnessed, to be received by another consciousness—I suppose once it starts it never lets up. Johansen is dressed in his Buster Poindexter tux, and occasionally makes direct eye contact with the camera. “Well, I’ve been bought and baby / I’ve been sold and I / Need protection from the cold,” he sings. It’s a true and heartfelt idea—that we all need a defender sometimes. Yet for a lot of people, anyone who ever felt instinctively at odds with buttoned-up, normie culture, Johansen was that person. “You think I’m a whore, but I got a heart of gold,” he promised. He didn’t need to say it—we knew.

That heart of gold led to the streets when Trump first threatened not just American democracy but the communities of forgotten and marginalized people that Johansen always identified with. Back then as is still true today, Rise and Resist is a New York City-based organization committed to opposing, disrupting, and defeating any government act that threatens democracy, equality, and civil liberties. The group has organized numerous protests and direct actions addressing issues such as immigration, healthcare, and LGBTQ+ rights. Like Indivisible, Up To Us, and other center-left grassroots organizations, Rise and Resist came to the fore in 2017 with a strong belief that speaking out matters, and that showing up in public can indeed turn the tide.

Interviewed on his activism during the first Trump Administration, David Jo spoke for so many of us, underscoring the role of individual and collective action in the face of political adversity:

“It’s a comfort to be among a large group of very intelligent and passionate people. It’s an exorcism of despair.”

from Rise and Resist

2.

David Johansen’s poetic notion is right in line with the outpouring of rage amidst the growing clamor of marching feet. It’s at odds with the creaky nature of current Democratic Party leadership, but not with the base of the party itself. Among the rank and file, the rage and the need to take action are growing by the day.

On Saturday, I stood in the cold in Tarrytown with 600 other angry residents of the lower Hudson Valley to protest the Trump Administration's planned gutting on Medicaid, which would seriously impact the lives of 70 million Americans - kids with disabilities whose parents can’t afford the massive care-giver bills; veterans who have served their country and don’t have the means to pay for crushing medical and nursing costs; and elderly people like my own Mum-in-law, stricken with Alzheimers and cared for 24 hours a day by aides she could not otherwise afford. The human costs are staggering, but they don’t appear to matter to extremist MAGA Congressman Mike Lawler, a two-term Representative once known as a GOP moderate but seemingly instantly radicalized by Trump’s victory last November. Not only has Lawler not repudiated the benefits killing chainsaw massacre of Elon Musk and his DOGE henchmen, he’s voted down the line with Speaker Mike Johnson, author of the infamous “don’t say gay” hate legislation. Like so many Republicans, Lawler’s mask has come off in the last few months.

The crowd at Tarrytown’s Patriots Park was boisterous and righteously pissed off. It was an amalgamation of union members, Indivisible chapters and organizers, rank and file Democrats, and blue collar residents angry that Musk and Lawler are bent on hurting their children, their elderly parents, their families, and their communities.

The sheer rage of the rally - and the dozens unfolding all over New York and the thousands around the nation - was in stark contrast to the cold surrender unfolding the day before in Washington, a distressing chapter in which ten rogue Democrats - led shockingly by the minority leader Chuck Schumer - broke with their House colleagues and voted for the heinous Republican budget legislation that paves the way for the radical defenestration of the American social safety net and unfettered power to this extremist isolationist White House. Schumer’s treachery, his willingness to leave his own troops out on the field at a time when simple opposition is everything, was an electrifying moment for Democratic activists, committee members, state party leaders, and the rank and file. I was on a call with Indivisible activists from around the state Saturday morning, and a poll of those attending went 82-18 demanding that Schumer step down as Democratic leader.

Such a result would have been unthinkable in the post-election doldrums of December and January. But the times have changed - and changed quickly. Unfortunately, Senator Schumer and his nine Democratic co-conspirators didn’t notice; they still thought most of their base would be happy to avoid a government shutdown - and still fearful of angering Trump and Musk with too strident opposition. Why hand them another weapon? They will only do worse. We can ride this out. Such was the thinking - but no one was listening.

As I wrote over on Democracy Docket, “The quiet and depressive resignation of January has exploded into vast organic anger as spring nears and the daffodils poke through the chilly soil. And it’s very different indeed than the Resistance movement of 2017.”

So different in fact that a CNN poll released over the weekend showed just how far Democratic voters have shifted on the question of working with Trump: “Do you think the Democrats should mainly work with the Republicans to try to get some Democratic ideas into legislation or should mainly work to stop the Republican agenda?”

2017: work with GOP +51%

2025: work to stop GOP + 15%

Folks, that’s a 66% swing - a massive structural realignment in Democratic thinking from the first Trump “resistance” to the second Trump “opposition.”

3.

I was very much taken with the homemade placards that graced the rally in Tarrytown, and which have begun to fill the social media timelines of anyone aligned with opposing Trump. They are direct, sometimes brutal, tough-minded and simplistic.

Trump himself is almost background noise at this point. A screensaver. Desktop wallpaper. Yes, his malignancy brings attention every day. But as they say on Wall Street, he’s already baked into the price. We’ve given him enough attention, like Godzilla in a nest of high power lines. But his henchmen and women? Not so much. They’re incredibly vulnerable. When we win, if we win - they will pay the price of conspiracy to defraud the nation and reduce our union. And in 2026, those aligned with Trump politically must pay the price of abject defeat.

And so Mike Lawler, pro-Trump Congressman from the Hudson Valley’s 17th District now faces a vast citizen-organized campaign - entirely bottom up, fueled with rage at his actions - that is unprecedented in New York politics. And Elon Musk, world’s richest man with the Achilles heel known as Tesla Class A stock, faces the destruction of his most valuable brand name, the diminution of his fortune, and (one should hope) eventual exile from these shores.

Rage is a good thing. It brings out the creatives. It exorcises despair. It commits people to going down fighting.

My advice: get out there and lay it on the line for an hour or two. It’ll feel good. Much better than rage posting. There are rallies and protests in every Congressional District in this country. You can find a local chapter of Indivisible here - or just ask around, or drive by any Tesla dealership on a Saturday. You’ll find your people. Democrats, independents, reformed Republicans. And you can exorcise that despair.

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