Saturday was already expected to be busy in the nation’s capital, even before the government shutdown, with a planned Women’s March and the closing weekend at the National Gallery of Art for an exhibition of works by Johannes Vermeer and other Dutch masters.
The National Mall crackled with life under a brilliant blue sky and unseasonably warm temperatures. Tens of thousands of Women’s March demonstrators lined both sides of the Reflecting Pool on the Mall between the Lincoln and World War II Memorials.
They chanted and held signs reading “I’m with her,” “#MeToo” and more than a few profane expressions of displeasure with President Donald Trump.
But the crowd had a bipartisan flavor.
Red Make America Great Again hats dotted the Mall, and vendors had plenty of swag to cater to the political left and right. Stands selling Oprah 2020 and Women’s March T-shirts, shared the grounds with ones selling knit MAGA caps and Trump-Pence blankets.
To the east, near the Smithsonian Castle, young men tossed footballs and couples jogged with their dogs. Like any normal weekend, school groups streamed in and out of the National Museum of Natural History.
Museums on the Washington Mall were open and most people seemed to pay little notice to the political drama unfolding on Capitol Hill. But the nation’s prized museums are likely to be closed Monday if a compromise can’t be reached to fund the government.
Andrea Gaiter, who lives near Boston, traveled to Washington with her husband and parents to see the Vermeer exhibit before it closed. When they arrived Friday, they feared the shutdown would dash their plans to visit the nation’s treasures.
“We were happy to see this morning that the Smithsonian museums were open,” she said. Travel plans aside, Gaiter said the shutdown had bigger ramifications.
“I’m more worried about what this means for the country,” she said.
She blamed left and right for congressional dysfunction, but she said a bigger share of the blame likely falls to Trump. The president’s office, she said, should be the one to bring both sides together.
“I would hope they’d all rise above it and put country first,” she said. “They seem to never disappoint in disappointing us.”
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