Remember when the Women's March was a big thing back in 2017? It really was huge that year and pink "pussy hats" were all the rage. And then there were those awkward accusations of anti-Semitism and by 2019 the march wasn't drawing nearly as many people.

Whether it was stormy weather, reports of controversy or the simple waning of interest over time, the third annual Women’s March events on Saturday attracted much smaller crowds than in years past.

In Washington, in a frigid marble plaza only blocks from the White House, early attendees at first seemed to be outnumbered by barkers hawking T-shirts and buttons.

“I’m disappointed. It’s definitely not the turnout I was looking for,” said Peggy Baron, 53, a lawyer from Dublin, Ohio, who said that the first Washington march two years ago had been “wall-to-wall women.”

And then Biden was elected and the marches went away. But with Trump's election to a 2nd term, the organizers are trying to bring it back but only after rebranding it as the People's March.

Organizers say the rebranded and reorganized march has absorbed criticism and moved past the internal tumult that consumed the movement after the hugely successful march eight years ago on the day after Trump’s first inauguration.

Now, with Democratic political leaders across the country searching for ways to reconnect with voters after the party’s devastating election losses last fall, People’s March organizers are hoping to broaden their base, stake out a new direction and move beyond a single day of action to help progressive voters find a political home.

Saturday’s march is expected to draw as many as 50,000 people, far fewer than the Women’s March in 2017. It’s one of several protests, rallies and vigils focused on abortion, rights, immigration rights and the Israel-Hamas war planned in advance of inauguration Monday.

Will 50,000 show up? That's still a big crowd but Reuters is reporting the number will be more like 25,000.

While the 'Women’s March' organization is coordinating another protest this Saturday, it is now dubbed the 'People's March' and just 25,000 are expected in Washington, compared to an estimated 500,000 in 2017. Dozens of cities around the country are also holding demonstrations, but they are expected to be low-key.

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem and musicians Madonna and Alicia Keys were among the 2017 stars, but the Washington People’s March doesn't have any big headliners. Steinem made the “hard decision” not to attend as the 90-year-old scales back on her travels, a representative said.

The reason for the declining interest isn't exactly clear but some activists claim the movement is simply exhausted from successive losses and also divided internally.

The crushing defeat of Kamala Harris, the second Democratic woman to challenge Donald Trump to the presidency and lose, has left liberal women exhausted and laid bare racial divides in the women's rights movements that will take some time to heal, more than a dozen activists and organizers told Reuters...

Rachel Noerdlinger is a senior advisor with Win With Black Women, a group of thousands of Black political advisers, fundraisers and strategists who poured money and organizing muscle into getting Harris elected. She said the women's movement was fractured: "We've got some tough conversations to be had, and we have to recognize we have commonalities and we have differences."...

Several Black activists told Reuters they felt betrayed by white women.

"They do need to interrogate why they tend to align with the patriarchy, why their allegiance to their race supersedes their allegiance to their gender," said Amara Enyia, interim co-executive director for the Movement for Black Lives.

It sounds to me like the Women's March succumbed to the same internal frictions that have been plaguing all left-wing groups for several years. I'll return again to that Ryan Grim's 2022 piece for the Intercept about organizations that spend 90% of their time on internal controversies rather than achieving their stated goals.

Wokeism is a double-edged sword. It gave the left a lot of openings to grab power in social, academic and corporate settings but a movement founded on constant racial criticism has also made it nearly impossible for the left to organize itself. Wokeism encourages the formation of factions along racial lines and also places white women at the bottom of a hierarchy of oppression, i.e. the most privileged. There's no way out of this trap. The criticism aimed at other groups over grievances old and new is effectively endless.

All that to say, I'm not surprised the Women's March fell apart or that it can't return to what it once was. But who knows, maybe the People's March will strike a chord. We'll have a better idea tomorrow.