Amid a river of sign wavers under a blue Sierra sky in Carson City, lifelong Nevadan Steven Drown couldn’t have asked for better weather for the first protest of his life.

Saturday’s “Hands Off!” event drew thousands to the state Capitol to decry the shambles the Trump administration is making of the economy as his Cabinet secretaries and billionaire influencers try to cut programs and departments throughout the federal government.

Now in his 70s, Drown was one of many participants who didn’t fit the easy image of a typical anti-Trump policy protester. If someone had told him just a few weeks ago that he’d be joining a throng of his fellow Nevadans to peacefully express their outrage against the direction the country is going, he would have had difficulty believing them.

“This is the first one I’ve ever been to,” he says through a blare of honking car horns, energetic voices and guitar players strumming out protest songs. But there’s a reason he turned out this time.

“I’m getting more and more angry at the stupid things that are being done,” Drown says. “There are so many signs here. I couldn’t possibly put all the things I want to say on one sign. It’s stupid. It’s self-inflicted and misogynist[ic].”

And it continues. 

The stock market had one of its worst weeks in years in response to President Donald Trump’s tariff obsession. By the end of Tuesday’s trading, the tariff temblors were being felt in stock markets around the world.

The threats to federal programs are real. The layoffs to professionals in critical areas of government hold the promise of much more chaos and damage to come.

Drown considers himself a thoughtful voter not driven by partisanship. “I’ve voted for both parties,” he says. “I want to hear their message. I want to hear what they’re going to do.”

But it was clear to him during the campaign that Trump was making nonsensical promises he couldn’t possibly keep. Drown has reached a simple, scathing conclusion: “I believe this is malicious. There’s no reason for any of this. He’s a menace to our society.”

On Saturday, he decided to do something about it by adding his voice to thousands across the country who participated in “Hands Off!” events.

One woman, who described her family politics as nonpartisan, had run out of room on her sign for the list of things that are going wrong under Trump’s mismanagement. It’s really not so much about politics, she says, as it is about a turning point in the nation’s history.

“We see a whole lot of fault with both parties for letting things devolve to this point,” she says. “I think the signs have been there for decades, that this is where we were headed. And now we’re here. I think it’s been by design for a while. It’s unfortunate we’re in this situation, but this gives us hope. This is how you fight fascism.”

But speaking of signs, which issue most motivated her to assemble on a sunny Saturday?

“There’s so many,” she says. “Look at my sign. I can’t even fit everything on there.”

You know it’s getting bad when a list of grievances must be continued on the next placard. The fellow with the Sharpie and post board concession must have made a bundle.

The signs expressed a range of concerns and grievances, most reflecting the goals of event organizers to protect against threats to Medicaid, Social Security, “other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other communities.”

Those I spoke with on Saturday were old enough to remember the ebb and flow of several decades of political power and discourse in the country. They’ve lived through multiple recessions, had plenty of disappointments in their government. In other words, they were grownups.

But I came away from my conversations convinced that, for them, this is a turning point in the nation’s history toward a darker, authoritarian place. They left the comfort of their homes to say something about it.

Retired clinical psychologist and Reno native Richard Bissett added his voice to the many voices. He spoke thoughtfully about the damage of Trump’s tariffs and threats to programs millions depend on. Nevada, with its highest-in-the-nation unemployment rate — has a large percentage of retirees and, as of October 2024, approximately 788,000 enrolled in Medicaid-related programs.

“All this was done without the help of Congress,” Bissett says. “It’s Trump and his minions deciding what to do.”

We’ll see whether “Hands Off!” is remembered as something historical or just another pep rally, but I think there was something genuine in the anger and energy on display by those in attendance.

Maybe it’s like the sign on Saturday said, “Thanks Trump. You turned me into an activist.”

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.