Donald Trump has had a hard time getting celebrities to attend his inauguration. Michael Moore and the other organizers of “We Stand United,” an anti-Trump rally outside Manhattan’s Trump International Hotel on Thursday night, had no such problem. On what might have been the last night of America as we know it, more than 20,000 New Yorkers filled Central Park West and nearby streets to take comfort in each other and express their defiance of the incoming regime. They were addressed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, union organizers and civil rights leaders, and a bevy of stars, including Mark Ruffalo, Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Sally Field, Marisa Tomei, Shailene Woodley, and Rosie Perez. It’s easy to be cynical about liberal celebrities, but there’s a bitter satisfaction to be had in knowing how much Trump wants and cannot have their approval. Besides, on a cold and terrifying night, a surprise appearance by Cher was a genuine comfort.
“I’m an elitist libtard,” Cher began. “I’m an elitist libtard whose grandmother picked cotton, whose mother sang in bars when she was 8 years old during the Depression.” She urged listeners to hold onto their anger rather than get sucked under by sadness, describing her own despair on election night, when, realizing it was over, she took a shower, removed all her makeup, and then heard that thousands of people were marching in the streets. “So I went down with my none of my fabulous Cherness, and I got caught up, and it took me out of my depression. It took me out of my sadness,” she said.
If nothing else, the rally seemed to take a lot of people out of their sadness. “I’m very happy to be here tonight with all of you and all of my overrated friends,” said De Niro, who called Trump a “bad example of this country.” Baldwin delighted the audience with his Trump impression, complaining that he was cold and had to pee but was holding it in: “I’m going to a function at the Russian consulate tonight. I’m going to hold it in till I get there and then when I get to the Russian consulate I’m going to have a really, really long pee.” The line wasn’t particularly funny; the joke lay in thinking how it would get under the paper-thin skin of our peevish president-elect.
Ultimately, the event was about something deeper than trolling Trump. It was about people reminding themselves that, though they’re on the precipice of chaos and horror, they’re not alone. Natalie Merchant closed out the rally. Before she sang, she described waking up on Nov. 9 and walking to her daughter’s school, where she wept in the arms of her daughter’s gym teacher. “It felt so much better to be experiencing that with another human being,” she said. “It’s isolation that was really, really defeating.” The evening finished, as so many left-wing rallies do, with a lot of famous people onstage singing “This Land Is Your Land,” and instead of rolling my eyes I sang along. “We Stand United” may have embodied much of what the deplorables hate about the cosmopolitan coasts, but I for one am past caring. “Our cities and our towns are the authentic America,” said de Blasio. “The open and compassionate America. The hopeful America.” He’s right. The other America can have Jon Voight and 3 Doors Down.
