Firstly, let’s note how extraordinary that such a huge and multi-armed event could get pulled off, with no violence and virtually no ability to nutpick the participants.  A lot of clueless people might not know what the hell it was about, but it was all pretty clear if you were there or watched on C-Span.  There were not the usual off-topic and unhelpful hangers on that the right can always nutpick to try to denigrate the whole.  Just about every anti-Iraq war march had the odd “Free Mumia” sign or ‘Make Hemp Legal”.   I’ve not heard or seen about any such “eccentricity” on Saturday (not that those sentiments are all that bad, it’s just, like I said, unhelpful).

It was hard to ignore, not only the size and length of the marches, but the overall mood as reported everywhere.  Which brings us to what it all means, the big post-march question.

For those that had to ask where these people were on November 8, let’s get the eye rolling out of the way and state that it’s pretty certain that the marchers to a 90%+ degree were voting on November 8.   Anecdotally, there were marchers who didn’t vote and regret that and some that even voted for Trump and likewise are wracked with regret. That’s all fine. The encouraging thing is that these people are also likely to vote in November 2018. That’s the big takeaway.

If this kind of activism and awareness continues and, hopefully, grows over the next 18 months then the midterms of 2018 can look like the midterms of 2006 or 2010 where an angry public came out to give the party out of power the House and Senate.  When one side is motivated it can make a huge difference in the midterms because of the generally low turnout.

It has been suggested that the next round of marches should take place on Tax Day, April 15 to make it clear that the public does indeed want to see Trump’s taxes, and to protest his billionaire swamp cabinet.  I’m afraid that by then we’ll have some even bigger motivations to march again, specifically against bloody minded actions taken by Trump and the tunnel vision GOP ideologues in the House and Senate.

There’s lots of bad coming down the pike.  Lots of things to scream about.  For those that think the left needs a centralized set of marching orders and a unifying figure, that’s Trump.  Trump is the best motivator and unifier of the center/left that we’ve ever seen. He’s making Bush look brilliant and bi-partisan in comparison.

This is just the beginning.