Good day for democracy

Having nothing more important to do at noon on Oct. 18, I went to Cheyenne’s “No Kings” rally in front of Wyoming’s Capitol building to help preserve our democracy. I was not alone. At least 200 people, and probably more, came out, despite weather that gave new meaning to the term “inclement.” 

Similar events took place in Casper, Evanston, Laramie, Rock Springs, Gillette, Torrington, Jackson, Cody, Worland, Douglas, Pinedale, Sheridan and Rawlins. Hundreds turned out in Casper’s Conwell Park. All this, despite Wyoming holding the distinction of being the “Trumpiest” state in the Union ever since 2016.

Cheyenne protesters were decked out in costumes resembling everything from unicorns to dinosaurs to a Holstein cow. One dinosaur’s sign read, “Don’t Let Democracy Go Extinct.” The cow’s sign read on one side, “Hate Won’t Make us Great” and, on the other, “Ugh. Where do I even start?”

Others took up the challenge and bore clever signs aplenty. Among them: “The Only Monarch We Want is a Butterfly,” “I’m Your Aunt Ifa,” “Deportation Without Due Process is Just Called Kidnapping,” “I’m a Veteran, Not a Sucker or a Loser,” and “If We Hated America, We Wouldn’t be Fighting for It.” My personal favorite, in red, white and blue, was carried by a fit 30-something man. It read, “Pro-America, Anti-Trump.” That says it all, really. 

Several pro-Trump people were there, too. I approached one young man carrying a large “Trump 2024” sign and wearing a red sweatshirt celebrating Charlie Kirk. We exchanged a few pleasantries, each congratulating the other on exercising our First Amendment rights as we left the rally. 

Isn’t that the way it should be? Nothing will ever convince me that Kirk’s actions while on Earth deserve the sanctification that state legislators and universities across the country are heaping upon his memory today. Far from it. I’ve seen enough of him verbally attacking people who disagreed with him to convince me that he resorted to bullying to “win” a debate.  

Nonetheless, I can respectfully speak with people who do admire him and they can speak politely to me while I’m sporting a badge showing Donald Trump’s unhealthy face with the word “Unfit” beneath it. We don’t have to agree with each other’s diametrically opposed worldviews, but we do have to get along with one another. We are all Americans. This is our country. It is our flag. We have a shared past, present and, we trust, future.  

It is incumbent upon everyone to remember that this country has been divided before and that we have come through it. Even the most cunning of revisionist historians are not going to succeed in making Americans forget that the Civil War was fought over slavery. Nor are we likely to forget that the Allies, with America joining the fray later than the rest, were fighting Fascism in World War II. Nor are we going to ever believe that the Founders for one instant thought that the president of the United States should be above the law. Only kings “can do no wrong.” 

America has, since its inception, rejected the very idea of monarchy. The three founding documents giving voice and meaning to this concept, and making it a reality, can easily be found at the National Archives. There, you can read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Known collectively as the Charters of Freedom, these three documents have secured Americans’ rights for nearly 250 years.

Today, we have a government in intentional disarray, with a chief executive behaving as if he were a king, a Congress afraid of its own shadow and even more afraid of a quixotic president and a result-oriented Supreme Court, which kowtows to said president. It did so most egregiously last year by “discovering” the concept of presidential immunity for criminal behavior in the Constitution. This would surely come as a great and unwelcome surprise to each and every one of its writers and signers. In due course, though not soon enough, this wrong decision will doubtless be overturned just as other bad Supreme Court decisions have been.

We have not been precisely here before, but we have been through a lot in the course of our relatively young nation’s history. Somehow, our democracy has prevailed, tattered and worn though it may be. And the American people still retain the precious commodity of hope for a better future. 

If the Oct. 18 protests and the American people’s exercise of their First Amendment rights to freely assemble and speak their minds are any indication, I’m guessing our democracy still has a long life ahead of it. God knows, I hope so.