We’ve returned from the No Kings Rally in Grants Pass, Oregon (we never did make it to Medford). It was clearly a larger turnout from the previous No Kings, both on the anti-fascism side and on the MAGA side.
Our protest location is in front of the Josephine County Courthouse on 6th Street, which is a major three-lane one-way thoroughfare that is also the Highway 99 that leads you through the Redwood National Forest and to the Pacific Coast Highway and on to the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s also directly across the street from the Josephine County Republicans, where the Trump-supporting MAGA came out with their “Make Liberals Cry Again” flags.
Both sides had their sound systems set up. The contrast was quite revealing. From the speakers on our side blared a wide variety of songs, from “The Times They Are A-Changin'” from Bob Dylan, “War” from Edwin Starr, “Where Is The Love” from Black Eyed Peas, “Fortunate Son” from Creedence Clearwater Revival, music from different genres and decades.
From the MAGA side, it was a playlist of what seemed to be eight songs: “The Stars & Stripes Forever” from John Philip Sousa, something like “You Know Trump Won” that I’d never heard before, “YMCA” from the Village People, and, inevitably, “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood.
The event was peaceful and civil, despite the usual MAGA interloper, the same white Gen-X greybeard asshole who paraded through our side with a MAGA flag at the last No Kings rally. This time I got to learn that his name is John Pelfrey and he’s known locally as a troublemaker who gets himself kicked out of city council meetings.
For a county that voted 62% for Trump, our turnout, estimated at 2,500 by the local organizers, is quite impressive. Here is my gallery of some of my favorite signs from the rally.
