Dozens of protesters converged at the intersection of Broadway and Cook streets in Santa Maria on President’s Day. Some arrived with text-heavy banners in hand, while others laid out blank posters on the lawn outside of Santa Maria City Hall to mark with colored Sharpies.
“Nobody elected Musk,” “Democracy not oligarchy,” “Fight against fascism,” “This shit makes Watergate look like a high school musical,” and “#50501” were among the phrases emblazoned across different picket signs at the Feb. 17 gathering.
The latter refers to a hashtag used by participants of a nationwide movement that stands for “50 protests, 50 states, one day.” As part of the initiative, demonstrators across the country protested the second presidency and current tenure of President Donald Trump outside of state capitols, city halls, and other locations.
Many local protesters were members of the Democratic Club of Santa Maria Valley, including Robin Dean, who’s participated in several protests over the years. Born and raised on the East Coast, Dean was in Washington, D.C., for a Vietnam War protest that ended in tear gas.
“The stakes are much higher now. The balance of power has shifted,” Dean said. “It used to be where judges would make a judgement and then the president would follow that. That seems gone right now. … We’re depending on the judiciary.”
Federal judges are in the midst of reviewing a growing number of lawsuits targeting the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its access to Treasury Department records, including Social Security and bank account numbers—“a dangerous move” and an invasion of Americans’ privacy, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) said in a statement.
“We are taking action to stop it,” Carbajal said in the Feb. 7 statement centered on the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, which he described as “part of our efforts in Congress to hold the Trump administration accountable and prevent Elon Musk and his minions from rifling through the private data of everyday Americans.”
On Feb. 9, Vice President JD Vance addressed the DOGE lawsuits in a post on X: “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Santa Maria resident Cyndi Cornett, who protested the Trump administration during the Feb. 17 event, said that she and her wife, Sheila Dellenger, have voted for Democrat and Republican candidates alike over the years.
“I don’t think it’s about Republicans and Democrats anymore; I think you can be a Republican and still be against the way things are being done,” Cornett said. “I feel like we’re losing our democracy.”
Both Cornett and Dean described the Santa Maria City Hall protest—which brought together more than 80 participants between noon and 2 p.m.—as peaceful. There were many honks of affirmation from cars passing by, with just a few stink eyes and thumbs down gestures here and there.
Holding a sign that said, “Stop arming Israel,” Santa Maria local Gale McNeeley attended the demonstration partly to ask other protesters which federal policies they want to see changed.
“Everyone has a right to say whatever they want about politics or the president or whatever, but … I think that the most important thing is to know what issues you’re for or against,” said McNeeley, who voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 election.
“I don’t believe it helps to bash the president because you don’t agree with him—whoever the president is,” McNeeley continued. “[It’s] better to suggest the policies that you think they should adopt.”
This article appears in Feb 20 – Mar 2, 2025.
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