Saturday, March 28 seemed like a good day for a protest. Skies were blue, the sun was out, the temperature was in the low 80’s. The number of angry drivers, flipping protesters off seemed to be at a minimum. “We’ve only had about half the middle fingers we normally get,” said one protester with a laugh.
There was some debate about that. “Actually, I’d say, we’re getting double the number,” said Sarah Schater Welch. “Last time, I got two middle fingers and so far today, it’s been four.”
Among the many things Welch and others were protesting was the war in Iran, the detainment of refugees without due process, rising gas and food prices, and the apparent erosion of constitutional norms under the Trump administration.
Across the country and the world, 8 million people gathered to protest the Trump administration. In Three Rivers, about 175 protestors showed up, close to 10 percent of the town’s population.
“At first, I thought these protests weren’t doing any good,” Welch said, “but what these protests do is show lawmakers how many people are participating. It makes a great visual when you show all the people marching in these protests versus the number of people who attended Trump’s birthday party parade.”
Local resident, Christina Lynch, was attending her third No Kings protest in Three Rivers. “This feels like the least we can do. There’s so much more we need to be doing,” she said, “I think it’s really important to get out here and show people the faces of people who are against these polices. They think that we’re crazy or we’re stupid or we’re uninformed, which is sometimes what we think of them, right?” said Lynch.
Lynch was holding a sign that said, “If you ate today, thank an immigrant.”
The sign was meant to be deliberately anti-inflammatory, said Lynch who spoke amidst a chorus of encouraging honks from passerby. “This sign is inviting people to see a connection between the administration’s policies and the fact that gas prices have gone up enormously and that food prices are rising.”
For Lynch, the most disturbing part of the Trump administration are the “concentration camps” and the plans to build facilities to warehouse 80,000 more detainees long term.
“We’re not talking about violent criminals. These are family members of citizens. These are people who are growing our food, processing the meat, roofers, and builders,” Lynch said.
The whole idea of America was built on the idea that that the United States doesn’t turn away immigrants, said Lynch whose family emigrated from Ireland.
“My family came from starving to death in Ireland to the United States, and they didn’t turn them away. After a couple of generations in poverty, my grandfather had about 20 grandkids and no one is living in poverty. This is the story of immigration in America. We accept people who are escaping poverty and violence. We educate their kids, and that’s America.”
Three Rivers is an interesting microcosm of the United States, where the town is almost evenly divided between republicans and democrats. While this divide has created some friction among neighbors and friends, Jenny Kirk, who helped organize the No Kings protest has heard anecdotal stories of Trump supporters beginning to question federal policy.
“There’s this worry about neighbors seeing neighbors at these protests,” Kirk said. “I have a neighbor who I was worried about giving me a hard time because he’s a Trump supporter. But actually, my neighbor stopped me and said, ‘I just want you to know I’m not down with what’s going on.’”
Bob Davis, a contractor who lives in Visalia who does occasional work in Three Rivers didn’t attend any of the protests on Saturday. He voted for Trump three times and said he would vote for him again if he could.
Immigrants should be detained and deported if they didn’t come to the U.S. legally, Davis said. “If they break the law, they should suffer the consequences. I think this whole No Kings protest is ridiculous. Kings don’t get elected. I haven’t heard any liberal say why they think he’s a king. No MAGA person calls him a king. As far as I’m concerned, he’s doing great. He just got rid of a dictatorship in Iran,” Davis said.
Davis doesn’t agree with all of Trump’s policies. He doesn’t like the idea of putting boots on the ground in Iran, and he especially doesn’t like the idea of endangering the lives of young American soldiers.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know what’s happening in the world right now. I really don’t know to be honest with you. I think it’s all more convoluted and complex than everyone thinks,” Davis said.
Tracey Kilmartin, a Visalia resident who’s on a fixed income, said he’s glad he voted for Trump, even though he’s not happy about the soaring gas prices.
“I’m on disability and so this makes it extra hard for me, but you learn to cope.”
Kilmartin said he’s willing to pay higher prices because he believes that Iran is too dangerous if it truly has the makings of a nuclear bomb.
“The Iranian people are executing their own people in the streets, and we just can’t accept that. I would rather pay higher gas prices and food prices than have a nuclear bomb dropping on us,” said Kilman, who believes fuel prices will eventually drop once the hostilities with Iran are over.
Protesters around the country were decrying high food and fuel prices, including the No Kings protest just down the road in Porterville. Over 150 people attended the protest which was hosted by the Porterville Community Action Network (PCAN), established in 2017 to hold the federal as well as the local political administrations accountable, said Diane Wagner, one of the organizers.
“We’ve been having a lot of problems with the local city council these past few years. They are basically a mini version of the Trump administration. They wanted to pass a transgender bathroom ban and they just fired 19 people in the engineering department so they can privatize the whole department with independent contractors,” Wagner said.
The move to privatize a city department is worrying because there will be much less public oversight. Equally worrying is the ongoing public erosion of the division of church and state, Wagner said
“Our mayor just went to a school and was telling the kids that the way to have a good life is to get married, have kids and trust in Jesus. Those are personal things, and if that’s what you believe, go for it. But you don’t go telling that to kids in a public school,” Wagner said.
Karen Anderson, another member of PCAN said that the No Kings protests are encouraging to her because she feels less like a singular “blue dot” in an otherwise conservative town. She knows at least a couple of Trump supporters who are rethinking their support for Trump because of rising prices and the war in Iran.
“I think people are thinking that it’s time to get back to taking care of the United States instead of investing in the goings on in other countries and starting wars, especially when the current president said he would not get us involved in any new wars. It was supposed to be America first. Now it seems like it’s America last.”