(Dobbs) Protesting Isn't Terrorism. It Is Patriotism.

We are telling Donald Trump, you are president, not king.

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If you believe as I do— and as millions of Americans are likely to demonstrate today from coast to coast— that Donald Trump is not our king, then please send this column around to everyone you know who feels the same way, whether you think they will participate in a No Kings rally or not. You can either click on the “share“ button near the bottom, or just forward it. Thank you.

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I’m marching today. I don’t remember ever doing it before. But as Dan Rather wrote this week here on Substack about the No Kings protests, “That is what freedom is about. Anyone and everyone can speak truth to power.”

And sometimes it works.

As a journalist I have been witness to massive marches and demonstrations, from Paris to Warsaw to Harare to Tehran. The causes change, the places change, the demonstrators change. Sometimes they are safe from prosecution for their protests, sometimes they aren’t. Some of their goals are noble, some are not. But the purpose is always the same: speaking truth to power.

Right now in America, Donald Trump has the power. He thinks that makes him king. It doesn’t. By ignoring what should be constraints on his unconstitutional conduct, it only makes him a dishonorable fascist.

That would explain why he and his lapdogs spent the past week framing everyone who turns out today for No Kings protests around the nation in the most vile terms. The speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, went on Fox yesterday and called them “hate America rallies.” His majority whip Tom Emmer connected protesters to “the pro-terrorist wing of the Democratic party.” Others in their camp have said that anyone who takes part in No Kings protests is “pro-Hamas” or “antifa.” Well, if “antifa” stands for anti-fascist, sign me up.

Their crude characterizations are not just insulting, they’re hogwash. The rallies and marches today are to protest this president’s and this administration’s unholy abuses of power. He flouts the courts, he flouts the law, he shamelessly rewards his political friends (Exhibit A today: freedom for the disgraced and disgraceful former congressman George Santos) and unabashedly punishes his political enemies. With support from his ambitious allies, this president treats the American people as if he is our king.

What patriotic Americans are doing today is exercising their constitutional rights to speak out against a president who sees those rights as an inconsequential inconvenience. What patriotic Americans are doing is perpetuating the proud tradition of protests throughout American history, no matter what form they’ve taken. They helped drive the death of slavery. They helped drive the campaign for women to vote. They helped drive the end of the Vietnam War. They helped drive the crusade for civil rights for African-Americans, then for gays. Some have pointed out this week that even before the dawn of our nation, they helped drive the American revolution.

If Mike Johnson and Donald Trump and the whole MAGA crowd were true patriots, they would praise the protesters, not slander them. Because all anyone’s doing is demonstrating what makes America great: the right to speak, the right to assemble, the right to hold their government to account.

It isn’t terrorism. It is patriotism. It’s what built America. And it is enshrined in the foundational document of this country. That’s far more noble than what we see from Trump and his people. With their contemptible policies and their despicable denouncements, they’re only tearing it down.

They should be ashamed, if they even know what that means. But we, today, shall be proud. We are making a statement and by doing that, we are making a difference. We are speaking truth to power.

Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 39-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.

You can learn more at GregDobbs.net