Op-Ed: Patriotic Citizens Continue to Protest the Authoritarian Rule of Trump

By Tom Krebsbach

Many groups of citizens assembled in various areas of Western Washington Tuesday afternoon to protest the worsening dictatorial leadership of President Donald Trump. These demonstrations were called for by the national Women’s March group. 

At the intersection of Bothell Way and Ballinger Way in Lake Forest Park approximately seventy-five people stood along Bothell Way with their protest signs. The crowd was a good size, considering that the protest at that location was organized at the last minute. The intersection is well-traveled, and there were numerous honks of support for the protesters from passing vehicles, as well as many displays of thumbs-up and waves in agreement. 

A similar response is generally demonstrated on Saturdays when a smaller group stands at the corner from 11am until noon.

Some may question why people would want to stand with protest signs along a well-traveled road for an hour or two, listening to passing vehicles honking in support. 

Could it be that these citizens, many of whom are senior citizens and have lived their whole lives within a democratic form of government, now feel horrified to witness a narcissistic, megalomaniac leader take on all the trappings of a dictator? 

Or perhaps they are outraged that Donald Trump has essentially turned the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency into his own private army and now uses it to extract revenge on large cities that did not support him in the election, with various immigrants being deported without hearings to diverse corners of the world and citizen protesters being shot point-blank in the head without any repercussions for the murderous agent.

Some citizens seem to be disturbed that Trump essentially ignores the law, both domestic and international, and proclaims that the only constraint on his behavior is “his own morality” and “his own mind,” this from a man who appears to have not a scintilla of morality and who has the maturity of a five year old bully on a playground. It certainly is not very reassuring.

Then some are quite concerned, after he ordered the U.S. military to invade Venezuela to kidnap its leader primarily so the U.S. might profit from Venezuelan oil, that Trump will next order the military to invade the friendly territory of Greenland and thus destroy NATO and cut ties with the vast majority of American allies. Could any leader be so heedless and stupid? From what we have seen of Trump, he is certainly capable of such disloyalty to friends.

The author of this article is a U.S. Army veteran and a Vietnam veteran. I keep thinking about the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of U.S. soldiers who sacrificed their lives defending American democracy and freedom. 

And now far too many people are unwilling to raise cries of outrage at the specter of one narcissistic, ignorant, self-centered, megalomaniac leader destroying American democracy from within. What has happened to America? What is wrong with its people that this destructive man has not been removed from power yet?

This and many other reasons are why I and hundreds and thousands and millions of others in this country stand in protest, demanding that Donald Trump be removed from power. Whether it is effective, we cannot say yet. But we feel it is the least we can do.