George Brook Gay asked people to support him carry this huge flag during the No Kings demonstration in Philadelphia. (Jessica Kourkounis for Pennsylvania Capital Star)
Tens of thousands of people across Pennsylvania spent Saturday voicing their opposition to President Donald Trump’s authoritarian regime in protests with a festive atmosphere but an extremely sedate message.
“People fought and died for us to have the rights that we have,” Tracie Benner, 61, of Juniata County, said outside the state Capitol in Harrisburg, where 5,000 to 6,000 people gathered. “And now that Trump, the Supreme Court and Congress just reject it, we won’t tolerate it.”
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has cut federal agencies and Congressional funding, impeached political enemies and massively tightened massive immigration enforcement. And with a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, secured by Trump’s three first-term appointments, the Supreme Court has repeatedly allowed administrative policy to advance through its hidden papers.
“If you ever look around and think, ‘Am I crazy? Is this really happening?’ You’re not crazy. You are not alone,” Justin Douglas, a Democratic pastor and Dauphin County commissioner, said at a rally Saturday afternoon in Hershey. “We need moments like this here where we are off social media, we are in the real world and we are standing together in a park in our community.”
Similar demonstrations took place in Pittsburgh, State University, Lehigh Valley and deep red Butler County as part of the nationwide No Kings movement, organized by a coalition of civil rights groups, in which 7 million people across the country participated.
An estimated 20,000 people gathered at Philadelphia’s City Hall and marched a mile down Market Street to Independence Hall, where delegates from the original 13 states drafted, discussed, and adopted the nation’s founding documents.
Speakers included three Democratic U.S. representatives from the Philadelphia region: Brendan Boyle, Madeleine Dean and Mary Gay Scanlon; District Attorney Larry Krasner; and Democratic state senator Vincent Hughes.
On the steps of the Montgomery County Courthouse, protest leaders dressed in Revolutionary War garb read portions of the Declaration of Independence and listed what they believed were violations of the U.S. Constitution by the Trump administration.
“Americans like their freedom,” said Stephanie Vincent, lead organizer of Community Change in Montgomery County. “We’re getting to the point where people really need to know that they need to come out and take a stand against this.”
Vincent said many of the roughly 1,500 people who packed the plaza in front of the courthouse in Norristown, the seat of the Commonwealth’s third-most populous county, were protesting for the first time.
“A big part of these types of protests is just people realizing they are not alone,” she said. “That there are other people who think like them and care about the things they care about.”
Protesters came to Harrisburg and across the United States dressed in inflatable dinosaur, cow and shark costumes to ease tensions and draw attention to brutal police tactics used against protesters elsewhere.
One person dressed as Patrick the starfish from the cartoon Spongebob SquarePants. Two strangers wearing similar pink and blue inflatable axolotl costumes hugged and danced together.
“Honestly, it seems very American to me,” said Amy, a woman dressed in a pink axolotl costume. She refused to give her name. “You know, we’re just a serious group? We try our best, just fight for our rights and everything, but we still know how to have fun.”
Don Coleman, 69, said he attended the Capitol rally because he fears overturning the Constitution, especially for Congress and the Supreme Court, which he believes owe a duty to the president. But beyond the actions of the U.S. government, he worries about the polarization of the American people.
“My father was a World War II veteran. My grandfather fought in World War I. I have friends who fought in Vietnam,” he added. “How did we get here? This isn’t what they fought for.”
