Protestors with signs on the red-tide infested Sarasota Bay. Photo by Alexandra Levy.
As the stink of red tide wafted through the air, hundreds of protestors marched across the streets of downtown Sarasota on a particularly turbulent federal holiday. People of all ages held up signs including “Stop the COUP,” “There comes a time when silence is betrayal,” “I kinda like the rule of law” and “The felon is not my president.” This was Feb. 17, President’s Day, or “Not My President’s Day,” as it was dubbed by thousands of protesters in all 50 state capitals and across Florida.
They marched for hours and chanted in opposition to President Donald Trump’s recent remarks and the wave of reforms and cuts to governmental agencies led by Trump-appointee Elon Musk. Musk, currently the world’s richest man, is well known as the owner/founder of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. He has been exercising unprecedented political power without having been elected by voters or confirmed as a presidential appointee by the Senate.
Musk is in charge of the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), a White House task force created to cut federal spending. In 1962, Congress created a role of “special governmental employee,” which allows the Executive branch, the Legislature and independent federal agencies to employ individuals on a temporary basis. However, many senators, judges and politicians have expressed worry that Musk’s DOGE lacks executive oversight.
“Not all Sarasotans are big Trumpers,” one protestor told Old School Catalyst. “There’s a lot of Democrats who are very angry and want to protect our country, and this is one way to do it. To show our unity for democracy. For every one person here, there’s ten more who couldn’t make it.”
One chant led by a young woman consisted of a repeated call and response:
“What does democracy look like?”
“This is what democracy looks like.”
The United States of America is founded on the ideals of democracy, meaning the rule of the people. The nation stopped following tyrannical monarchical rule in 1783. Yet On Feb. 19, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, pertaining to his administration’s attempt to kill New York’s anti-congestion policies, “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
“We have this unelected, fourth unconstitutional branch of government, which is the bureaucracy, which has, in a lot of ways, currently more power than any elected official,” special governmental employee Musk said during a February White House briefing, citing no constitutional or legal authority. “This is not something that people want, and it does not match the will of the people.”
In Sarasota, signs read “First Lady Elon Musk,” “I didn’t vote for Elon Musk” and “Who says a man of a foreign birth can’t be president?” Protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, Musk and Trump have gotta go.” Many older protestors told Old School Catalyst that they were protesting for Generation Z, for their grandchildren and for future citizens. The Sarasota community voted red in the last election, but it is already showing signs of progressiveness and freedom of expression. Censorship in education and politics has plagued the nation, and the protest highlighted that Sarasota will not back down quietly.
February brought progressive discussion to New College as well. Since the change in administration and the eradication of New College’s Gender Studies Program, the campus community has been under intense scrutiny. On Feb. 18, American philosopher and Gender Studies scholar Judith Butler spoke at New College for the Socratic Seminar Series, a new program created by President Richard Corcoran to foster atmospheres of dialogue and diversity of opinions.
Butler spoke about the importance of Gender Studies to an institution that has deemed it unnecessary. The irony was not lost on students in attendance. At the end of the Socratic Seminar, which was run by legal scholar and writer Stanley Fish, a Presidential Scholar in Residence at New College, students asked questions about the future Gender Studies job market and the significance of speaking at a school that has eradicated the program.
With the recent book bannings and the discarded Gender Studies books at New College,
Butler spoke critically of institutions that censor books and inhibit intelligent discussion and inquiry. They emphasized how it is up to the reader to decide where they stand after reading a text; it is not the job of the government or a college to decide what to think.
The seminar coincided with the birthday of Toni Morrison, one of the most contested and banned authors in America. Morrison’s books highlight the experience and trauma of black women. Her work challenges racism and utilizes the practice of oral storytelling. She was the 2012 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and won the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature with her book Beloved, which has been banned in schools in Virginia and Tennessee. The irony of Butler’s visit on the birthday of a writer who is both celebrated and banned was palpable.
The Sarasota community has demonstrated its love for New College and democracy. It stands behind freedom of expression in arts, sciences and literature. It questions the basis of censorship and uncontrolled political power.
