After the first weekend of Donald Trump’s presidency, UW-Madison College Democrats and Republicans both said they have reasons to feel optimistic.
Democrats praised massive protests in opposition to a number of positions the new administration has voiced support for, while Republicans said they were pleased with the Trump administration’s actions since the inauguration.
“Inauguration was obviously a hard day for us, but with all the protests and marches happening the next day it was really invigorating for us to know we have something to fight for,” said Eliana Locke, press secretary for the College Democrats of UW-Madison. “We’ve seen this outpouring of passion, which has been kind of great to watch.”
The Women’s March on Washington drew more than 500,000 people to protest in the nation’s capital regarding support of women’s and civil rights, and related protests occurred in all 50 states, making it one of the largest days of protest in U.S. history.
Madison was no exception; an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 protesters marched to the Capitol in solidarity with protesters at the main event in Washington.
Despite disagreements with the march’s message, Republicans on campus respected opponents’ activism.
“Obviously, we believe in the right to protest,” said Emelia Rohl, communications director for the College Republicans of UW-Madison. “We believe in free speech, so anyone who was out protesting on Saturday, that’s their first amendment right and we respect that.”
While millions took to the streets, Trump used his first day in office to sign a series of executive orders, one of which notably undermines the Affordable Care Act. Issued without specific instructions, the order requires federal agencies to “take all actions consistent with law to minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the act.”
The vague language of the order could threaten the key individual mandate component of the ACA, which penalizes those who do not purchase health insurance, as regulators could decide that the penalization exists as an “unwarranted economic burden.”
The individual mandate functions as a means to make it financially feasible to disallow insurance companies from charging higher rates to those with pre-existing conditions, who present higher costs to insure, by forcing healthier, cheaper customers to buy insurance as well.
“Signing that executive order on the first day was just the administration trying to prove it could follow through with some campaign promises,” Locke said. “No one really knows what [the order] means, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Republicans, confident Trump will protect first and second amendment rights, expect new initiatives to affect change by rescinding federal actions and bringing back jobs.
“We think that Trump will get rid of some of that federal government overreach and that he’s going to promote job growth,” Rohl said. “We’re super excited to see what [Trump] does-- I know in the past day, he’s already done a lot.”
Hannah J. Olson contributed to this report.
