Protest at Tesla dealership in San Francisco, CA and Tesla protestor in Jacksonville, Florida

By Pat Bryant

Nearly every Tesla dealership in the United States and the world had 100 to 500 peaceful protestors out front Saturday March 29. Elon Musk’s electric car company earned rebuke, a 6-week sales slump continued, stock values dropped by half, and large stockholders sold out. Telsa’s destruction is Elon Musk’s payback for his role in firing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and crippling and destroying federal agencies and programs illegally without Congressional approval.
Federal judges ordered Musk and the Trump administration to stop wreckage of America’s institutions. But Trump and Musk continue. A constitutional crisis looms where Trump may be able to rewrite the U.S. Constitution with the help of six republican members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump’s control of the three branches of government would create a one-man rule—a dictatorship.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are taking no action. Republican lawmakers are refusing to come to town hall gatherings to talk about Trump , Vance, and Musk’s institutional carnage. In many towns, Jacksonville included, citizens have organized “empty chair” town halls that Republican Congress persons refused to show.
At Tesla in Jacksonville, Florida, this reporter talked with several protestors who are resolute to destroy Tesla and Musk to save American democracy. A few of their concerns are below:
Cathy, a middle-aged woman, army retired, holding a homemade sign “Musk UnAmerican NAZI”. The retiree warned “our democracy is at risk in so many ways. What they have done to our top military brass to everything that is truly American. They are going after our museums. What they are doing is terribly insane”.
Colonel Lynnette Kennison, U.S. Army retired called President Trump a bully. “He is allowing Musk to destroy our institutions. They are going to be terribly hard to rebuild. We are imploding from the inside. I am worried about losing Social Security and so many things”.
Julie Spellman carried a sign that read “Tax the Rich, Musk and Trump = Putin’s Puppets Follow the $$$ Julie”. Of Trump she said “he wants to destroy our country so his oligarch friends can keep their tax relief and takeover our country as a corporatocracy” Spellman is related to the benefactors that founded Spellman College in Atlanta, an HBCU serving Black women.
A retired nurse carried a sign, “Deport Musk, DeThrone Trump”. She said “they have done more to destroy our country than anyone I can think of. Friends are no longer friends. We can’t talk. Senior citizens depend on social security. This is crazy. They are short staffed at Social Security.”
As this reporter was talking to a Musk/Tesla protestor and thirtyish man rode by angrily and close to demonstrators and yelled curse words. Cheryl an elderly woman remarked “he is an idiot. None of them have an idea of what’s going on. They have not talked to anyone who has lost a job or anything else. They are coming for my Social Security and I am not happy about that.”
Tesla peaceful protests continue world-wide Saturday April 5th noon to 2 pm.
*Pat Bryant is a long-time journalist, human rights organizer in the southern United States. He may be reached at pat46bryant@gmail.com.