Hands Off rally draws a big crowd in Davenport
Protesters demonstrate against Trump and his policies
I hadn’t initially planned to go to the Hands Off rally in Davenport. I tend to write more about policy in this newsletter rather than provide coverage of political events. Still, my wife wanted to go, and curiosity won out, so we drove to MLK Park at 5th and Brady streets Saturday morning.
I’m glad I went.
Hundreds of people packed the park and hundreds more lined Brady Street. Crowd estimates are chancy, and I’m not as good at it as I used to be, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was 1,000-1,500 people. I’ve seen others who say it was as high as 2,000.
I’m not used to seeing this level of passion in Davenport in a non-election year. Not in a long time.
Speakers were featured in the park, and while each was worthy, what left me most impressed was the size of the crowd and its vigor, especially those lining both sides of Brady Street.
Trump’s first few weeks in office has awakened people, and I saw it clearly Saturday among those who enthusiastically waved signs, chanted and drew even more vitality from the cars that drove by, their horns blaring in support.
Maybe it’s been the disappearing of immigrants, the abandonment of America’s allies and the waging of economic warfare against them; the lawlessness and the brutal, nonsensical dismantling of government agencies. Maybe it’s the shock of two days of a tanking stock market that’s left the retirement accounts of millions of Americans badly damaged.
To put it mildly, people are not happy.
I got into journalism in the mid-1980s because I wanted to be a witness to history as it was being made. Many times, this has led more to the mundane than the inspiring. In 30-plus years of political reporting and opinion writing, I’ve forgotten more rallies and events than I remember.
This was different. I’m not one to read too much into a single rally on a spring day in downtown Davenport, but it left a definite impression.
Here are some other images from the day. On my Substack or Bluesky feeds, you can also see a short video I shot.
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Excellent! Thanks, Ed. Love your wife 😁💚. Everyone everywhere ✊. Great crowd here in DC! Good crowd in Des Moines. Probably so in Iowa City but haven’t got reports yet. Ralph, I agree with you on reporters low balling numbers, but Ames friend did say he thought it was less than DC. 😉😁. Signs were great. I wore my RayGun shirt Dismantle the Oligarchy ✊
Thank you for the article. Living on the west edge of Iowa we attended the rally in Omaha. Several thousand people attended and what was obvious was there were all ages who attended and displayed in various ways a long list of issues that have emerged in the last two and half months. Hoping that all of these concerns come together in everyone’s communications with their state and national legislators and the next election.