Berniechella: America’s left protests against Donald Trump

SOME CALIFORNIANS spent much of the weekend stuck in traffic on the way to Coachella, a music festival in the desert. But near City Hall in downtown Los Angeles on April 12th, a very different kind of concert unfolded. Bernie Sanders, 83, a senator from Vermont and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 35, a congresswoman from New York, headlined a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally, which seemed suspended somewhere between 1968 and 2025. A grey-haired Joan Baez told the crowd that she “ain’t gonna let those lousy billionaires turn me around”. Neil Young urged everyone to “take America back!” When they weren’t booing President Donald Trump or Elon Musk, attendees swayed to Maggie Rogers, a singer who best summed up the event. “Welcome to Berniechella,” she told the crowd of 36,000.