By: Kevin Dube – 7/25
On June 14th “No Kings” protests were held around the nation, including here in North Andover. Here at home people have gathered for months at the old center protesting President Trump.
This event was widely stated as being scheduled to coincide with President Trump holding a military parade to celebrate his birthday, claiming he was acting as a dictator displaying his control of military might. The reality is that this was a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US Army. The celebration had begun being planned 2 years prior, under Biden, long before President Trump was re-elected. But, in this day of leftist outrage and Trump Derangement Syndrome, facts don’t matter.
This should have been a day to celebrate the birth of our armed forces and an opportunity to thank and remember those who have worn the uniform to protect our freedoms. Instead, the Democrats chose to disparage our soldiers’ sacrifice and do what they do best, make it all about them and their utterly irrational hatred for a man that has chosen to give up a life of extreme luxury to serve our nation and our citizenry.
Unfortunately, I could not attend the event on the common that day. I did share an image published on the Eagle-Tribune’s Facebook page to the North Andover political forum looking for some guidance.
The picture was of a woman holding a sign stating, “Not a paid Insurrectionist, I hate Trump for Free” and a man holding a sign stating, “No Faux King Way” and wearing a shirt stating, “Girls just want to have fundamental rights.” I proceeded to question the fact that so many of those in attendance have signs on their lawns stating “Hate Has No Home Here” but apparently that doesn’t apply if you’re hating President Trump, for the man with the thinly veiled profane sign I wondered if his shirt was referring to the fundamental right of girls not to compete against biological males in sports.
The one helpful comment I got was “why don’t you ask them” so I did just that. The following Saturday I found a group once again protesting at the common, so I went over to ask them what they were protesting.
The first man I spoke with talked about the erosion of First Amendment rights to protest. I pointed out they had been there for many weeks and no one had interfered with their protest. I asked if he thought the same would be true if he threw rocks at the next cop car that went by, or if his people all went in the street and blocked traffic. Interestingly he agreed with me that doing such things should result in arrest. So where is the first amendment issue? Those getting arrested for “protesting” are all violent actors.
I then went and spoke with a man with a sign equating King George to Trump. I asked him if he knew what the Battle of Lexington was fought over. His answer was “something about a tax on tea.” I corrected him that it was due to the Redcoats coming to confiscate the colonists’ arms.
I then asked if he knew about the recently passed chapter 135 gun laws and the egregious infringement that law has on Second Amendment rights. His response was “you can have many guns it doesn’t matter,” obviously as ignorant to the scope of the law as he was the reason for the “shot heard ‘round the world.”
As I pressed the issue, asking how he feels about the Massachusetts Governor acting very much as King George regarding citizens’ right to keep and bear arms, he walked away to the other side of the street. He was obviously not interested in that conversation.
The final conversation revolved around Trump’s deportation of illegal aliens and due process. What due process was allowed to US Citizens when Joe Biden facilitated an invasion of at least 10 million illegal aliens into the United States?
US law does allow for a sentence of 6 months in jail for those illegally entering the US, and 2 years for those re-entering after prior deportation. A prison sentence certainly does warrant full due process with the defendant getting their day in court. However, President Trump is not looking to jail anyone, just to repatriate them to their nations of origin. What due process is required there?
If you come home tomorrow and find someone sitting on your couch eating your food, aren’t you expecting the police to remove them? How is removing someone illegally in the country any different?
In a Boston Herald article the day after “No Kings Day” Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka stated “This reminds me of the 1930s in Europe, when Hitler’s rise — I hate to make this comparison — but, rise to power, when people were just being arrested without warrants. We have a constitution. We are a country based on the rule of law.”
This comparison, which I’ve seen before, of President Trump’s immigration policies vs. the Holocaust is absolutely abhorrent. Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Reich rounded up citizens of Germany and countries they invaded based solely on their religious beliefs or other attributes and sent them to death camps.
The Nazi Holocaust saw the eradication of over a third of all Jews in the world at the time.
President Trump is simply rounding up people illegally in the country and repatriating them back to their home countries. To compare the two is to utterly disparage the memory of those who suffered the Holocaust.
Had enough? Contact me at northandovergop@gmail.com to get involved!
Kevin Dube is president of the North Andover Republican Town Committee.◊