This commentary is by John Bossange of South Burlington. He is a retired middle school principal and a board member of Better (not bigger) Vermont.
Like many Vermonters, I’ve been waving my American flag and holding signs at various locations in demonstrations against the authoritarian rule of President Trump. I’ve been at the Statehouse in Montpelier, at City Hall in Burlington and most recently along Route 7 in South Burlington to show my resistance to the president, and his MAGA cabinet, close advisors and supporters.
My friends and I were encouraged by the large turnout for the June 14 rally held at Waterfront Park in Burlington but left the demonstration with mixed feelings and confusion over the focus and purpose of this important demonstration.
When we first arrived there were mostly American flags flying with a variety of signs expressing what the “No Kings” meant to them. That was expected and good to see.
But once the rally began there were as many Mexican flags as there were American flags. After the welcoming introductions, speeches and protest songs were sung in Spanish with dancing and Mexican flags waving on the stage. For 45 minutes I felt I was in Mexico or at a migrant justice rally. That was unexpected!
From there, the presenters on stage turned the demonstration into a Palestinian rights rally with Palestinian flags and speakers who have experienced the brutality of ICE, and the oppressive violation of our First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. I began to wonder when there would be Ukrainian speakers on stage also using this platform to rally the crowd around their specific concerns.
These and many others are all important causes, and it was good to see people voicing their opinions and demanding their rights. I am in support of all of them.
But the rally was billed as “No Kings” to focus on Trump, who wants to rule like an authoritarian. For too much of the time, the demonstration did not feel like that, and for me and my friends, the rally lost its intended focus. We left early.
There are so many issues which impact most citizens that the “king” is taking away from all of us like Medicare, Social Security, public education, a free press, free speech, not addressing the climate crisis, or budgeting that does not include a fair tax policy. Speakers, no matter their cause, should have been instructed to address these topics to unify each group under one common cause: Trump’s assault on the Bill of Rights, and his attempt to rule like a king and change the face of America.
Instead, the day felt like an identity protest rally. Just as the big-tent Democrats have become a floundering and splintered identity party with no focused lens for action, the small tent Progressives have become an ideological party who see the world primarily through their own narrow lens. Both are failing to unite the country, and here in Vermont where our Progressive Party is often as strong as the Democratic Party, the division is even more evident. In Burlington on June 14, indivisible we were not.
The June 14 rally at Waterfront Park, organized primarily by Indivisible Burlington, was symbolic of the lack of unity between legitimate causes and unfortunately illustrated our ineffectiveness in dissent, resistance and protest when measured against a unified, stronger and much more focused MAGA party. Indivisible, they are.
In comparison, I had friends who attended rallies in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia, and the photos they sent me showed mostly American flags. They said the speeches were centered on President Trump, his executive orders, and his authoritarian rule. There were flags representing multiple causes, but the focus was on the president and his king-like behavior.
I fear the Waterfront Park rally could easily make Burlington a poster city and Vermont a poster state for the MAGA party to use against us, and for their dominant media networks that are always busy looking for ways to distract others from our “No Kings” message.
At the same time, they will have an easier time trashing our collective resistance by only focusing on our failed identity politics and splintered individual group causes, and not on the most important issue of a dictator wannabe.
Organizers at Indivisible Burlington and elsewhere need to put on their “political smart hat,” and be sure that future rallies stay focused on what’s happening in D.C. that will eventually impact all of us, not just identity groups. We need leadership to keep all of us in the same lane.
Those with specific issues, no matter how passionate they feel, now more than ever, need to see the big picture. To have a real impact moving forward, indivisible we must be.
