Last Saturday (October 18, 2025) I attended a NO KINGS DAY rally in Brewster, NY at the eastern end of Putnam County where I live. This rally was organized by INDIVISIBLE and featured a wonderful line up of speakers and entertainers. Held in lovely Wells Park in the center of Brewster, the organizers arranged for satellite parking and a shuttle bus to bring people to the venue. I got there early enough to find a spot on the street in a neighborhood only a half hour walk from the event.
The thing I loved about it is it featured a whole range of people in terms of age and ethnicity. And the line up from the stage was fantastic. Organizers Alan, Kathy, Baila and Samantha set the stage with some dramatic descriptions of what we are up against as Trump and company attempt to create a fascist America before our very eyes.
A wonderful local band, John Smith and WEOUT ushered in the crowd with some great music and then performed a couple in the middle of the program as well --- and then had to race off for another gig!!!
The speakers included the actress Carrie Coon (a local resident) who got us going by leading the call and response chant: “Tell me what Democracy Looks Like!” with the crowd responding “THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!” She then added to the original introductions by restating again, why we were there.
She was followed by the leader of Democratic Hispanics of Westchester, Ximenia Francella, and the organizer-attorney Jhiefries Reyes from Make the Road. (I had seen him speak in Peekskill in April when he described the heartbreaking story of an immigrant in Newburgh, NY who was separated from her one-year-old son).Mr. Reyes seems to be everywhere in the district attempting to protect our Latino neighbors from ICE.(He gave some remarks in Spanish which was an important shout out to not just the Latino participants in the group but to all of us Anglos attempting to improve our Spanish – that includes me!).
Next up was the Lieutenant Governor of NY, Antonio Delgado (who also spoke in Beacon at the other end of the county on the same day). He gave a moving speech in which he noted he was NOT speaking as a politician but as a moral human being. He went beyond just opposing Trump by arguing that we in this country have failed to deal with an over-riding problem --- the terrible increase in inequality that have left too many of our fellow citizens “behind.” As I am a student of economics with a focus on recent economic history in the United States, that part of his talk really resonated with me.
[For details see Economic Policy Institute, “THE PRODUCTIVITY PAY GAP” https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/.According to calculations by EPI, hourly wages pretty much tracked productivity growth between World War II and about 1980.Those were the years that saw the great American middle class built. Then, with the advent of what we economists on the left call “neoliberalism” – the set of policies I wrote about in my book SURRENDER, HOW THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION COMPLETED THE REAGAN REVOLUTION --- the hourly wage lagged very much behind increases in productivity. Productivity went up about 87 percent between 1980 and this year while wages rose 32 percent. I have argued elsewhere that the painfully slow recovery from the Great Recession of 2008-2009 led to the disaffection of “just enough” Obama voters to give the 2016 election to Trump. And despite the strong efforts of the Biden Administration, too many people felt left behind and disaffected – which resulted in Trump getting a second term. For an analysis of the failures of the Obama policies as the economy struggled out of the great recession, see Meeropol and Ragusett, “The Failure of the Recovery from the Great Recession,” available at https://teachingsocialstudies.org/2023/08/27/the-failures-of-the-recovery-from-the-great-recession/ A recording of a presentation of this research is available at https://peri.umass.edu/event/the-failure-of-the-obama-recovery-or-how-we-got-trump/]
Next up was Joe Mayhew of the Communication Workers of America. I believe that the shrinkage of the organized labor movement beginning in the 1970s to about 10 percent of all workers was a major contributing factor to increased inequality. It is good that union membership seems to have stabilized and that among the general population unions are increasing in popularity --- with more workers that ever indicating they would join a union if they could. If Lt. Governor Delgado identified one of the great problems that our political leaders have got to solve --- ridiculously high levels of inequality, --- then Mr. Mayhew and the union movement are keys to reversing those trends. The work of Ms. Francella and her organization to get the Democratic Party to have a constant presence in the various Latino communities is essential – it is not enough and frankly insulting to wait till election day and then buy a few Spanish language ads on television and radio.
Finally, recognizing the broad nature of the coalition involved in fighting Trump and indicating that they were not cowed by Speaker of the House Johnson attempting to smear all participants in NO KINGS DAY rallies as “Hamas supporters” “communists” “terrorists” etc. they asked me to speak. And yes, I was introduced as the son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg --- victims of the 1950s McCarthy period. [I reproduce the text of my speech at the end of this expanded commentary.]
I want to praise the organizers and the speakers for keeping on message and reminding the crowd that the energy we feel is important. First of all, approximately 4000 showed up which was a significant improvement in numbers from the first No Kings Day demonstration in that part of Putnam County in Mt. Kisco on June 14 (there were about 2500 in Mt. Kisco that day).Second of all, the organizers made safety a major aspect of the event. There were lots of kids there and a pumpkin festival followed the speeches. Right from the start the speakers stressed that the drones flying overhead were for our protection and that there were de-escalators throughout the venue. The Brewster police department were there to direct traffic and act as back-ups if needed --- they were not --- there wasn’t a single discordant voice raised.
In fact with over 2500 events all over the country and 7 million participants, there were virtually no arrests. Specifically, there were none in either New York or Washington, DC. Even in Austin, Texas where the Governor made provocative statements that he would call out the National Guard to maintain order --- clearly an effort to intimidate people into not showing up --- there was not a single arrest.
What is so maddening and sad is that the lies that Speaker Johnson told about the No Kings Protests were believed by people who get their news inside a right-wing bubble.
[For some examples of the garbage he spewed see POLITICO, “Speaker Johnson Doubles Down on “No Kings” Criticism Following Demonstrations Nationwide,” available athttps://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/19/johnson-no-kings-criticism-marxism-00614921.Though Johnson acknowledged that the demonstrations had been peaceful he continued to try and smear them. Here’s one quote: “We have video and photos of pretty violent rhetoric, calling out the president, saying fascists must die and all the rest. I mean, I don’t think that’s loving speech. I don’t think that’s friendly speech. And I don’t think it’s pro-American to say those kinds of things.”]
I watched one of his press conferences and he showed a picture of a placard which showed an effigy of Trump hanging. This, according to Johnson was an advocacy for violence --- THEN, he had the GALL to use this poster (which was let’s remember ONE PERSON’s opinion out of SEVEN MILLIION PEOPLE) to say that Trump never called for violence. In fact, as we all know, Trump routinely admonished his supporters at his rallies to beat up counter-protesters, promising he would pay for their legal expenses. Trump has also explicitly accused some of his political opponents (including former President Obama) of treason and reminded the press what the penalties are for treason.
These rallies were a giant cross section of America. Anyone who knows anyone “persuaded” by Speaker Johnson’s lies, just show them the pictures and ask how many arrests were made. Meanwhile, we all need to keep on struggling.
What follows is a (somewhat) edited version of the speech I gave in Brewster.
TALK AT NO KINGS DAY
I appreciate the opportunity to speak today --- as an individual from the left-wing of this fantastic pro-Democracy coalition I embrace everyone here and across this nation who is resisting Trumpism ---
I am 82 years old and thus I experienced the so-called McCarthy period of the 1950s up close and personal. Baila told you of my background. I am NOT going into details --- that would take us far afield. But I want to share one anecdote that demonstrates how fear and hate can damage the humanity of individuals. Back in 1951, a friend’s mother, discovered that I was the son of people in jail for spying for the Soviets. She threw me out of her house because she was TERRIFIED that I --- AN EIGHT YEAR OLD --- would contaminate her son.
Larger scale example --- in 1949 --- in nearby Peekskill, a concert by Paul Robeson was scheduled to occur. The venue was attacked by a mob. Luckily no one was killed but people were severely injured. What was the “THREAT” to America represented by that concert? That a well-known artist had given a speech in which he opposed war with the Soviet Union--- HE GAVE A SPEECH --- and the mob tried to kill him. Today, decades later, the people of Peekskill are re-learning about that event which had been swept under the rug of history for decades.
Those two events – one tiny --- one large and significant --- were elements of what many feared was a rising American fascism. Luckily, that didn’t happen then …BUT ….
TODAY IT IS DIFFERENT AND MUCH WORSE. The federal government and a number of state governments are criminalizing dissent --- curtailing the right to vote. The Trumpies know they cannot win a free and fair election, so they are trying to create violent confrontations in major cities between ICE and demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights --- Any spark of violence will be a justification for invoking the insurrection act as a way of allegedly “protecting” elections. WE CANNOT TAKE THAT BAIT.
It is essential that the broad coalition that exists today be vigilant --- and stick together. Though we differ on many issues --- there is a five-alarm fire raging under the direction of the arsonists, Donald Trump, Steven Miller, and others[and let me interject that as a JEW I am disgusted by Steven Miller --- the kind of Jew who would have been a KAPO in the concentration camps]
We cannot afford to emphasize our differences
We must learn or re-learn the lesson of the German Lutheran Pastor, Martin Niemoller who spent World War II in a NAZI concentration camp–
After the war, he wrote the following about his behavior during Hitler’s rise to power
(here is the direct English translation):
When the Nazis came for the communists, I kept quiet; I wasn't a communist. When they came for the trade unionists, I kept quiet; I wasn't a trade unionist. When they locked up the social democrats, I kept quiet; I wasn't a social democrat. When they locked up the Jews, I kept quiet; I wasn't a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to protest. – end quote
And Niemoller himself left out all the gay people who were forced to wear pink triangles and the Romani who were massacred along with the Jews.
We must apply Niemoller’s insight to day.
THAT MEANS WE HAVE TO REFUSE TO BE “GOOD GERMANS”
– law firms, media outlets, Universities that surrender to TRUMP --- these are the good Germans of 21st century America. We have to call them out …
We need to support those law firms, media outlets and Universities that resist --- we have to support ordinary citizens who show up in the street with their cell phones and their presence to confront and expose and resist the folks that Trump and Miller have hired to detain anyone who LOOKS LIKE they might be an undocumented immigrant --- -you know people with brown skin or Latino accents.
We have to remember --- we are the vast majority in this country–
AND WE HAVE TO PROVE IT BY standing up and speaking out as we are doing today ---but also by VOTING.
VOTE LIKE OUR LIVES DEPENDS ON IT --- BECAUSE THEY DO.
THANK YOU
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies.
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