By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgann.bsky.social
On Saturday, thousands of your local friends and neighbors will gather at the Historic Courthouse to protest the actions of the Trump Administration — a “No Kings” rally.
And yes, Donald Trump has earned the wrath of the people for ignoring the law, ignoring the U.S. Constitution, ignoring Congress, seeking revenge against political enemies and frankly, acting exactly like a would-be dictator.
The reactions of Trump Officials — White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claimed “the Democrat party’s main constituency are [sic] made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals,” which is literally insane and untrue, while others are lying and claiming some foreign conspiracy is funding the protests — shows how scared they are of people taking to the streets to peacefully protest.
They say you’re a terrorist if you take to the streets.
The U.S. Constitution says otherwise. You have the right — and some would say you have the duty as a citizen — to protest your government if you disagree with how it is acting. This is literally a foundational principle of our nation’s founding.
The First Amendment spells it out:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
There are no grey areas there, despite what Trump and his merry band of authoritarians say.
Are there real issues for average people to be angry about: oh yeah.
From illegal firings of federal workers to random, probably illegal bombing of boats in the Caribbean, gross examples of corruption, the crazy tariffs and dismantling the American Care Act (ACA) and prices continuing to spike, people have a lot of reason to take to the streets.
And that doesn’t even get into the mess with ICE and persistent violations of the rights of U.S. Citizens and legal residents — causing massive disruption in the local agriculture, home building and other industries that help drive the economy of Chester County.
Trump is a bully, as are many in his administration. You deal with bullies by standing up to them, not accommodating them — a lesson that the DC Establishment Democrats seem unable or unwilling to learn — and these rallies are a statement that the people will not accept an authoritarian president and demand a return to the proper checks and balances built into the U.S. Constitution.
We have the right to say: “enough.” It does not make you a terrorist, it makes you a patriot, following in the footsteps of Sam Adams and John Hancock.
So exercise your rights — be peaceful, do not let the paramilitary thugs that may show up to cause issues draw you into violence. Laugh at them. Sing to them — wear silly animal costumes. Bring joy and passion to your protest, but keep it peaceful. They want violence, they want an excuse to declare an emergency.
Don’t give it to them.
***
On Nov. 1, a couple of hundred thousand Chester County residents — including me — will find out how much their health care costs will increase in 2026.
From the early estimates, my family is looking at roughly a doubling of our costs, from $3,000 per month for a family of four, to more than $6,000. For those who struggle with percentages (like Trump), that’s literally more than a 100% increase. We will have to downgrade our coverage to make ends meet.
Why is this not being discussed as literally one of the biggest tax hikes in U.S. History? If you add in the tariffs — which despite Trump’s claims are effectively a Value Added Tax that you pay, as seen in Europe and elsewhere — all being done essentially by fiat.
And by the way, because young healthy people will drop out of having insurance, all of you who have employer health benefits will see increase in premiums and less benefits — so this literally impacts most folks in Chester County.
What is literally happening is massive hike in taxes for working folks, while handing over big tax breaks to a handful of billionaires.
Why aren’t Democrats jumping on this messaging?
Beats me — except they seem hamstring by a handful of wealthy donors who are actually OK with the way things are going and a consultant class that has been looting the party for decades without being useful (they seem stuck in the 1990s and don’t much care about results, just whether the checks keep coming in).
I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to be spending another $36K a year for health care to help fund some oligarch’s 29th beach house — literally the Republican platform these days.
With inflation spiking and the economy on the precipice of recession, people have a right to be pissed.
Make sure you let them know how you feel.
