Dear Editor,

On a cold and windy No Kings Day, Nederland folks came out in force to make a statement: They don’t want a king or dictator.  Folks braved the elements, over 200 strong, with signs and drums and costumes protesting peacefully against the authoritarian moves by the Trump machine—an impressive turnout for a small town.

The Republicans painted this protest as Marxist, antifa, pro-Hamas, and that the protesters hate America.  Blah, blah, blah.

Instead, we saw folks exercising their 1st Amendment right to protest, fighting for democracy, an American right enshrined in the Constitution.  And there are plenty of issues to protest about, such as the Trump’s repeated executive overreach, our current spineless Congress, Trump’s multiple challenges to free speech, the cancellation of renewable energy projects in favor of fossil fuel extraction, somehow labelling them as “Democrat projects” (as if energy is somehow a partisan issue), the clawing back of  previously approved congressional spending, masked agents detaining and deporting immigrants without due process, and much more.    

And judging from the two people who gave us the middle finger, compared to the maybe 1,000 who honked in support, I would say the Trump-ers are not as strong as they think.  

There is a movement afloat, and it is telling Trump and Co. that they are going in the wrong direction.

Voters were conned in 2024. They thought they were voting for a person who cares about the average American: the myth of Trump the “blue collar billionaire.” Instead, we have seen money and power further entrenched into every aspect of our government. 

How did we get here? Start with the Roberts Supreme Court in the Citizens United case, which found that money equals free speech and corporations are considered the same as a person, overturning 100 years of precedent.  

The Lever, an investigative website, states that “15 years ago, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Citizens United, the landmark case that allows corporations and billionaires to overrun our political system with cold hard cash. American democracy has been tilted in favor of the rich ever since that decision.” 

Clarence Thomas, in helping decide this ruling, believed that it was best to allow donors to remain anonymous, lest they risk boycotts and protests. Therein lies the seeds of “dark money.” According to The Lever, since this 2010 ruling, there's been an incredible 28-fold increase in election spending.  

Our government is swimming in money and up for sale at the same time. Our “transactional president” is right in the middle, making deals.

Barack Obama said it well:  “There aren't a lot of functioning democracies around the world that work this way, where you can basically have millionaires and billionaires, bankrolling whoever they want, however they want, in some cases undisclosed. And what it means is ordinary Americans are shut out of the process.”

One must wonder how many SNAP benefits or subsidies for health insurance the latest $20 billion giveaway to Argentina (one of Trump’s buddies) might provide. Or the cost of the Trump ballroom. Or the $1 billion needed to retrofit the Qatari gift of a luxury jet as replacement for Air Force One (which will end up at the Trump Library). Or dropping millions from access to health care to pay for huge tax cuts, mostly to the wealthy, that the Republicans just made permanent. 

Every one of these is just the tip of the iceberg of how much the priorities of the Republican Party under Trump have been influenced by the stink of money. Behind these many decisions is a host of donors who aren’t giving out of the goodness of their hearts. They expect something in return.

That is only a part of why we protested…and will continue to do so.

Bill Thibedeau

Gilpin County