By Rose Bombagetti’s estimation, the cars honking as they whiz by the protests for which she’s come out have been feeling more supportive as the weeks drag on.
There are still those who aren’t, of course — one man in his 20s yelled, “Trump! Wooooooo!” as he drove past Highland’s Highway of Flags Monument during the “Fight the Trump Takeover” National Day of Action Saturday afternoon; earlier, another yelled, “Heil Hitler!” and gave the Nazi salute, Bombagetti said. But overall, people seem to finally comprehend that the protests aren’t just to annoy people.
Highland Democrats Chairwoman Kelly Bridges has been feeling the change too, and was thrilled to see the small-but-dedicated crowd of 50 who convened on the corner with them. It’s why her group put out the call.
“More and more, people are waking up to the necessity to fight against Trump and his destruction to our country,” Bridges said. “These people that came out today and stood in the heat in solidarity are just one example of what it means to stand up for your rights. This is about saving our country. It’s about saving our friends. It’s about saving our neighbors, and we won’t stop fighting.”
Bombagetti, who calls Cedar Lake “home” but snowbirds to Florida in the winter, said she’s been feeling the shift down there as well. When she moved into her community, the like-minded sort of met in secret as to not provoke MAGA jeers from their neighbors.
“It was a secret ‘Liberal Club,’ but now, we’re starting to open it up to discuss with everyone what’s happening,” she said. “Prior to coming back, I went to five protests in Florida, and I was shocked in my solid-red district, there were thousands of people out there protesting with me. And it gets bigger every time.”
There are so many things that appall her about President Donald Trump’s second term that bring her out to protest, she said, but no one should be surprised at any of them since he said what he was going to do if he got reelected.
“He said he would be a dictator on Day 1,” she said, referring to Trump’s comment during a Fox News town hall where when he was asked if he would abuse his power as retribution against anyone and responded, “Except for Day 1,” before clarifying he wanted to “close the border” and “Drill, drill drill.” “He’s destroying the Constitution, and he’s killed our health care. I can’t understand why Republicans are accepting of (this administration) literally choosing who can live or die. Are they really paying attention?
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“I wear my ‘Resist’ shirts everywhere I go, and I come to protests so I can know that the whole world hasn’t closed its eyes to morality. I even bring chalk with me so I can protest slogans; they’re graffiti, but not the permanent, damaging kind.”
Nick Egnatz, the de facto protest leader at the Highway of the Flags — first for 14 ½ years prior to the pandemic, then now — was a born-and-raised Republican. The first ballot he ever cast, in fact, was an absentee ballot from Vietnam for Richard Nixon, he said.
He plans to continue.
“We have a 250-year-old democracy. It’s flawed, but that’s why we come together and work them out. Trump has torched that,” Egnatz said. “We’re watching what he told us he would do – he attacks truth, and science is out-the-window – and it’s unacceptable.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.