I attended 2 protests by Tesla Takedown in Michigan. The generation that appeared was what I expected the little.

• Protesters gathered in Tesla’s showrooms across the country to oppose the political role of Elon Musk.

• Musk’s advisory role in Trump has led to significant changes in the federal government.

• Protesters said they were afraid of the influence of Musk threatened democracy and affects the middle class and minorities.

On Saturday morning, I watched nearly 400 protesters gathered in front of a Tesla showroom in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were armed with flags and cardboard signs and said they felt that America’s democracy was under siege.

“Hey, hey, Ho, Ho, Elon Musk has to go,” the group chanted as they walked up and down the sidewalk outside the dealer. They removed their signs in the air assortment of hand-drawn cartoons, digital graphics and slogans that headed for Elon Musk and the new Trump administration.

Later on Saturday, I attended another protest in front of a mall in Troy, Michigan, with a Tesla showroom. The collection was less, closer to 150 present, but more reduced.

I noticed that the crowd in Ann Arbor and Troy were mostly people over 65, Byala and withdrawn from jobs that depend on public funding as teachers, teachers at local universities and social workers.

They leaned left on the political spectrum. Some are described as “anti-trump” or “anti-refurbish” or “prodemocracy”.

Others said they had made a pronounced displacement from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in their young years. As horrified as they were in the current administration, I noticed that they were also disappointed with the Democrats in power.

The protests were among the over 200 planned to be held outside the Tesla showrooms across the country on Saturday. These gatherings are part of Tesla Takedown, an effort that began in February and is described as a “peaceful protest movement”, which is “taking action in Tesla to stop Musk’s illegal coup.”

In Troy, protesters were arranged on the sidewalk in front of the mall and interacted with cars moving in and out of the parking lot. Kiberuk passed a handful of times, protesters whistling, and passengers clung to an unspoken battle of ideology – and tasted in the cars.

Ever since Donald Trump began his second term and appointed Musk as senior advisor, Musk made drastic changes to the federal government in the name of efficiency. He has appointed a group of technology veterans, Dodge consultants and lawyers to help him reduce costs and jobs in several federal agencies.

According to the new administration, programs for diversity, justice and inclusion were shortened. Student loan programs are also subject to change, while Trump is moving to dismantle the Ministry of Education.

Between the two protests I attended, I talked to more than 20 people about what prompted them to act on a rainy Saturday. The answer was almost unanimous. They feared that the middle class, minorities and future generations were drowned by the whims of billionaires in the oval office.

“We have never had people in the government who are actually trying to destroy our government, literally and actually work in it and be bald on it,” says 73-year-old Maria Marcot, the mother of Michigan Congress Haley Stevens, who protested in Troy.

In Ann Arbor, a woman who wanted not to be baptized, told me it was a “main attack on democracy.” She said there was “a loss of all democratic norms, institutions, the rule of law – this is horrifying.” She added: “I’m pretty old. I experienced some rough periods, you know the Vietnam era, but nothing like that.”

Several people in Ann Arbor said Musk did not affect them before entering politics. Now that he is working with Trump, they have said he is more unstable than they have ever realized.

“Initially, I was a big fan. I wanted to buy Tesla,” I told me 69-year-old Judas Garber. “Now I am really the most concerned about his actions in his chosen role, as you know, casual people,” he said.

At the heart of each protest is the question of who and what will feel the impact. Several present have told me that the most protective purpose of these demonstrations is to influence the people who pass by them, their neighbors, and those who are one degree removed from all this.

Gus Tashke, the organizer of Anne Arbor’s head of Indivisible, an organization for progressive causes for progressive causes that helped to mobilize several protesters on Saturday, said comrade feels positive, at least.

“It’s a party here,” Tashke said.

Read the original Business Insider article