Nearly 2,000 Locals Join Saturday’s ‘No Kings’ Day of Protest

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
OTSEGO COUNTY

Between Oneonta and Cherry Valley, nearly 2,000 locals participated in the second “No Kings” peaceful protest this past Saturday, October 18. Demonstrators opposed what they described as President Donald Trump’s authoritarian takeover and breakdown of the rule of law.

The Oneonta demonstration, held at 1 p.m. on the field next to the Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center and then on Main Street, was organized by CooperstownOneonta Indivisible, Butternut Valley Indivisible, Cherry Valley Indivisible, Indivisible for Schoharie County, and the Otsego County Democratic Committee. Cherry Valley Indivisible organized its local event near the village’s Civil War monument at 10 a.m.

“We are not out here today for ourselves,” CooperstownOneonta Indivisible leader Virginia Kennedy said from the stage in Oneonta. “We are out here today because we care about our country.”

Demonstrators held a wide range of signs: “No Kings,” “Peaceful Protester,” “I Too Am Anti-Fascist,” “Hate Will Not Make Us Great,” “Nothing Is More American Than Opposing Dictator Trump,” “Healthcare Matters,” “Fire ICE,” and “Resist Tyranny With Compassion” were just a few. Many brought American flags, and some brought Palestinian ones. A handful wore costumes, including a dinosaur and a banana. Devon LaBoy and duo Keith Torgan and Barbara Siesel gave musical performances.

In the weeks leading up to the national protest, which is estimated to have had as many as seven million participants across more than 2,700 events, senior Republican leaders including Speaker Mike Johnson said the event was a “Hate America rally.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Democratic Party’s “main constituency” is “made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals.” Other national level Republicans described the protest as of the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party or claimed protesters were paid by the Jewish billionaire George Soros.

“You’ve heard it all, right?” Kennedy asked the crowd. “We are the opposite of what they are saying,” she said to applause. Several later speakers hit the same theme.

Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek addressed the crowd. “On behalf of myself and the City of Oneonta and everyone who still believes in the American way and in being on the right side of history, welcome,” he opened.

Drnek compared Trump to Benito Mussolini, the early 20th century Italian fascist dictator. He walked through a six-point checklist on the warning signs of fascism with the crowd: “authoritarian leadership and a cult of personality,” “suppression of dissent and punishment of opponents,” “demonizing and scapegoating of minorities,” “media manipulation and censorship by intimidation,” “militarization and violence turned inward,” and lastly, “subversion of government institutions and the erosion of the rule of law.”

“That’s what we are fighting,” Drnek told the crowd.

In an interview, Drnek told AllOtsego “we wanted to join 2,500 other groups, cities, municipalities, towns, villages and small communities in a national message to the Trump administration. So of course, we need to be here.”

Otsego County Democratic Committee Chair Caitlin Ogden and another member, candidate for Otsego County Board of Representatives 7th District Leslie Berliant, urged attendees to support Democrats in upcoming local elections.

Ogden said Indivisible national had advised against cursing to keep the protests family friendly. “So I guess that that means that I’m not going to be able to quote [for] you Cooperstown’s own Bobby Walker,” Ogden added.
Walker, a longtime local GOP operative and chair of the New York State Young Republicans until it was disbanded recently, was caught in a hateful, violent group chat by a recent Politico investigation. State Senator Peter Oberacker’s congressional campaign, which Walker had been in line to manage, cut ties with him sometime after their launch on October 6. See page 2 for more.

Ogden said Walker offered an opportunity to demonstrate the importance of involvement in local communities and elections “because fascists like him are rising to the top of power all across the country.”

“USA, USA, let’s go out and vote today,” the crowd would later chant.
Berliant asked people to raise their hand if they were willing to volunteer to “make sure that the next Bobby Walker and those tactics that the Otsego County Republicans have paid for year after year after year, and are now pretending they’re shocked by, don’t continue to happen in Otsego County.” Many raised their hands.

The Otsego County Republican Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

Speakers also included Geoffrey Doyle, Erin K. Wagner, the Rev. LaDana Clark and JayLynne Garelick.

Doyle, an organizer and local arts leader, condemned the “radical” actions of Republicans, including Speaker Johnson refusing to promptly seat Arizona Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva and “masked men in unmarked cars invading our cities and disappearing people to unknown places for indeterminate amounts of time.”

Wagner, an immigration advocate, said that the same day as the last No Kings protest, ICE came to Oneonta.

“They took members of our community away from their families to detention centers,” Wagner said. “ICE has quotas to fill, and they are active even in rural New York.”

Clark said that had President Barack Obama done what Trump is doing, he’d have been impeached already. “As a 1960s baby,” Clark said her family “all had to deal with this misguided mindset and distorted discriminatory reality.”

Invoking the Civil Rights Movement, which was also often led by Black religious leaders, Clark said, “Let us continue to come together as a human race and as keepers of humanity to do the work of removing this federal administration that is a threat to all Americans.”

Garelick, a Republican who has worked with Job Corps, a federal career training program, was met with cheers.

“There’s a lot of things that you and I are going to disagree on,” she said, but she will “live and die” by two things: the scripture of Jesus Christ and the American constitution. Scripture “tells me to conquer evil, not by doing evil, but by doing good.” The constitution “quite clearly says all men are created equal, not just the men that agree with me.”

Garelick said it appeared many of her fellow Republicans did not understand these values.

After speeches, the crowd marched up the hill to Oneonta’s Main Street, lining both sides. Many cars honked as they passed by. Demonstrators began to leave around 3 p.m. Organizers say they plan to host more events.