We Protest Because We Love This Country
The number one thing you have to do this weekend is join a No Kings protest… rain or shine. There are several in our area to choose from this Saturday, Oct. 18:
Cedarburg: 9:30-10:30
Milwaukee at Cathedral Square: 11:00-2:00
West Bend: 1:00-2:30 Washington County Government Center (not Hobby Lobby)
Shorewood: 2:00-2:30 North Wilson and Capital Drive
Wear red, white and blue, and carry a flag or a sign. We are protesting because we love this country.
More people agree with us than disagree. At all of the protests I have attended, far more people support us than scorn us.
Two political experts, William Kristol and Timothy Snyder, weigh in on protest and No Kings: “On Saturday, there’s the second big ‘No Kings’ protest. And it’s going to be very big. It’s going to be millions and millions of people in several thousand different places, and I’ll be at one of them. But still, when I’m moving in elite-ish environments, I talk to people who are like, ‘Yeah, this is all terrible, but oh, I didn’t realize there was a protest on Saturday.’ There are other things we can do, but if we’re not protesting, then we’re not doing Politics 101. You do that, and then maybe you do other things too, but you’ve got to do that…
“I’ve got baseball on my mind at the moment because of the time of year we’re in. And it’s like a lot of people in our—forgive me—class, broadly understood, the way they think about politics is that it’s like a baseball game and there’s an umpire. So there are two teams, and they each have their tactics and their uniforms and their personalities, but at the end of the day, there’s an umpire. There are rules and there’s an umpire.
“And the thing is, that’s not actually the way politics works. In moments like this, you’re the umpire. You can’t just sit in the stands and say, ‘Oh, the umpire is not calling balls and strikes. This is weird.’ You’re the umpire. You actually have to get out on the field and be the umpire. And I think we’re stuck at that moment where we’re eating the popcorn and we’re like, ‘Oh, where’s the umpire? I want to watch the game. Where’s the umpire?’ And there isn’t going to be a game unless we get out there and say, ‘Okay, we believe in the rules.’”
As the administration faces resistance, Republican lawmakers seem worried about the upcoming No Kings rally. Joe Perticone of The Bulwark wrote, “Republican lawmakers are scrambling to get in front of a potentially large protest event with a prebuttal. House majority whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) has alleged that those protesting are ‘the terrorist wing’ of the Democratic Party, ‘playing to the most radical, small, and violent base in the country… They just do not love this country.’”
But then there's Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): “It’s a rally of millions of people all over this country who believe in our Constitution, who believe in American freedom and are not going to let you and Donald Trump turn this country into an authoritarian society.”
Week three of the Trump shutdown and we hear that the bailout to Argentina is going to be 40 billion not 20 billion dollars. Trump’s cronies are waiting to get even richer. According to The New York Times: “The terms and conditions of the economic support package were not announced, but Mr. Bessent said the funds would come in the form of a currency with Argentina’s central bank. Big global investors have been anxiously awaiting the details of the bailout, which critics have said will benefit wealthy fund managers at a time when American farmers are struggling and the U.S. government is shut down.”
So show up, connect with great people. John Lennon is famously quoted as saying, "A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality."
See you on Saturday.