This article was originally published in Common Dreams under Creative Commons 3.0 license. Read the original article. Contact: editor@commondreams.org

By Jake Johnson

As President Donald Trump prepared to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday to applause from sycophantic Republicans, dozens of Democratic lawmakers, progressive advocates, and people impacted by White House policies gathered on the National Mall to present an alternative assessment of the country’s trajectory.

“We live in a country where we have one reality for everyday people and another for the rich and the well-connected and the well-protected,” said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), preempting Trump’s claim of a “golden age of America” despite rising costs, deepening inequality, and staggering corruption.

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While many Democratic lawmakers opted to attend Trump’s speech, saying they did not want the president to deliver his remarks to a House of Representatives full of Republicans, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told the crowd gathered blocks from the US Capitol that “these are not normal times, and Democrats have to stop behaving normally.”

Among those who joined Democratic lawmakers at the People’s State of the Union were Epstein survivors and people harmed by the Trump administration’s lawless assault on immigrants, assault on the social safety net, and other policies.

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Rep. Greg Casar, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said during his remarks at Tuesday’s rally that “I’m not in the Capitol building tonight because I have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen.”

“For an hour or two or three or four, a man who’s made $4 billion off of being president is going to lecture you, the American people, about how good you have it,” said Casar. “A man who is building himself a golden ballroom is going to tell you that if you’re struggling to get by, that’s your fault, because he’s killing it.”

“Everyone but Donald Trump’s rich friends knows that it’s a disaster,” Casar added.

[VP]

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