The April 5 “Hands Off” protest in Naples, Fla., as broadcast on the Rachel Maddow show. (Image: MSNBC)
April 11, 2025 by David Silverberg
The last time America had a king it successfully rebelled against him and created a new nation.
Now America has a monarch. His title isn’t “king” but he is a monarch nonetheless.
It bears remembering that the term “monarch” doesn’t necessarily mean “king.” It just means “mono,” Greek for “one,” and “arch,” Greek for “power” or “authority.” One power.
The main point is that we are on a path away from a nation of laws, as founding patriot and second President John Adams envisioned, to a nation of men, or in this case, one man, who is, of course, Donald Trump.
On Saturday, April 5, Americans across the country demonstrated against this trend in what was an astonishing show of dissent and resistance.
In otherwise conservative, Trumpist Southwest Florida, hundreds of people participated in demonstrations in Cape Coral and Fort Myers.
In Naples the turnout was so great that it got the attention of television host Rachel Maddow.
“In deep red Naples, Florida, organizers there said they had 7,000 people turn out in Naples, Florida,” she said with wonder in her voice. “Yeah, that’s good weather so, I know, but that’s also a county that went for Trump by 33 points in November and they had 7,000 people turn out on Saturday?”
While 7,000 seems a bit of an overcount (this author estimated 2,000, still a huge turnout by Naples standards) it was nonetheless an impressive show of independence, opposition and—yes—patriotism.
Maddow made another important point later in her broadcast.
She observed that while Washington, DC had a massive protest, the “Hands Off” protests were nationwide and that was a key element of their impact and strength.
“…Holding disparate protests all over the country, not only one big protest in one place, means that people can do this again and again and again,” she said. “I mean, you look at really effective protest movements against rising authoritarianism in countries like Poland where the population essentially rose up and took their democracy back through frequent mass protests.”
She continued: “One of the things that you realize about mass, peaceful protest movements fighting against authoritarian takeover is that they have to stay peaceful and they have to be relentless. They have to frequently, frequently, frequently protest, again and again and again.”
In keeping up the momentum, supporters of democracy and the Constitution in Naples, Florida will have yet another opportunity to express their dissent and opinion on Saturday, April 19, once again at the Collier County Courthouse, this time at 10:30 am.
The protest is part of the 50501 movement to hold 50 protests in 50 states with one purpose and it is being organized by a new chapter of FREE Indivisible SWFL (Freedom, Rights, Equality, Enforcement).
The call for an April 19 protest in Naples, Fla. (Art: FREE Indivisible)
Resisting Trumpist authoritarianism
The movement to protect democracy has now become a protest movement because the formal mechanisms of government are being used by Trump and his regime to devolve the country from a democracy to a dictatorship.
When it comes to national decisionmaking, the national calculations are no longer based on policy but on personality. The country’s direction is no longer determined on the way constitutional institutions will respond according to circumstance, law and their missions but on the moods, urges and whims of the monarch on any particular day.
In contrast to the structure established by the founders in the United States Constitution, there are no longer effectively co-equal branches of government. The executive branch is being purged of all but the most subservient loyalists and the legislative branch has been subjugated except for only its most hollow, pro-forma functions.
Currently Trump and his regime are working to bring the judicial branch to heel, attacking not only the courts but the entire legal establishment, which includes the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the federal regulatory agencies and the even the nation’s private law firms, many of which are submitting. When confronted with an adverse ruling it is either ignoring or evading the court.
On April 10 the Republican-dominated US House of Representatives passed the No Rogue Rulings Act (House Resolution (HR) 1526). It aims to restrict the ability of federal district judges to issue national injunctions.
Introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-48-Calif.), the bill passed the House by a party line vote of 219 to 213. (All of Southwest Florida’s representatives voted for the bill: Reps. Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.), Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-26-Fla.). The only Republican voting against it was Rep. Michael Turner (R-10-Ohio), representing the Dayton area).
If passed by the Senate and signed into law, HR 1526 would effectively end the ability of the courts to put any checks on unconstitutional Trump actions. It would neuter the judicial branch.
As chilling as it is, the attack on the judiciary is just one element of a takeover that is broad and intended to be thorough. The next Trump targets are increasingly at the state, county and local levels.
This was already demonstrated in Southwest Florida where localities were forced to participate in the 287(g) Program whether they wanted to or not. The program allows local law enforcement to train and work with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directorate of the Department of Homeland Security to take immigration enforcement actions that are otherwise reserved to the federal government.
Even though each municipality and county had to individually vote to approve participation in 287(g), the governor and state attorney general threatened legal action and sanctions if they did not. This was what happened in Fort Myers, which was effectively coerced into approval after initial refusal.
One might ask: if only a “yes” vote was acceptable, why have a vote at all?
A vote is supposed to be a free and uncoerced expression of will, whether that vote is cast secretly by an individual in a voting booth, or publicly by a city council member or a county commissioner in chambers.
The kind of legal limbo that the Fort Myers City Council found itself in last month, where a vote was required but only the “right” vote was deemed permissible, is being weaponized throughout American society. Law firms can take up causes the president opposes but they will be subject to extrajudicial sanctions if they do. The media can theoretically independently pursue the truth but will be punished with lack of access or worse if their reporting displeases the president.
Only one institution still reflects independent judgment and autonomy: the stock market. It represents the decisions of millions of investors pursuing their individual interests and it’s not designed to flatter the monarch, or bend to his delusions, or participate in his manias. It can be manipulated and quite clearly was over the past week, but it isn’t designed to bend a knee to anyone. Last week its participants clearly declared that Trump’s tariffs were economically ruinous and they continued declaring so until he reversed course and paused most of the tariffs for 90 days.
What can I do?
In these circumstances, the only thing that grassroots citizens can do is take to the streets and raise their voices.
As Maddow noted, these kinds of protests have stopped the slide to dictatorship in other countries.
Ironically, in this Americans can learn from Ukraine, whose democracy the United States has been defending up until now. In 2013 Ukrainians persistently and relentlessly protested their president Viktor Yanukovych’s increasing authoritarianism, corruption, defiance of parliament and subservience to Russia.
After months of protest, which grew increasingly violent on both sides, the protesters triumphed. In February 2014 Yanukovych fled and a new government was instituted.
Democratic institutions, the practice of democracy and constitutionalism is much deeper rooted in the United States than it was in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014. At the same time that seeming permanence has lulled Americans into overlooking the deep, fundamental threats to their democracy and Constitution represented by Trump and his regime.
On April 19, Americans have another chance to return their country to its democratic roots and the rule of law.
And that applies in Naples and Southwest Florida no less than anywhere else, including Washington, DC.
Liberty lives in light
© 2025 by David Silverberg