Pennsylvania Democrat Senator John Fetterman told his party to stop with the Nazi and fascist rhetoric. That clearly went out the window at the recent “No Kings” protest. In Jamestown alone, signs labeling the president and MAGA as Nazis and fascists could be spotted everywhere you looked as in “Super callous fascist, racist, sexist, Nazi POTUS.” So much for Fetterman’s admonition. It’s no surprise to hear rumblings among Democrats to oust him in the next primary.

The Nazi signs were outdone by vulgarities and obscenities lacing other signs. People carrying around placards plastered with F-bombs were commonplace, some slightly subtle as in “Brought to you by F-DJT” and others not at all subtle in just 2 words. Was it a commentary of their boorishness or their intellect?

Besides, how can the side that can’t tell the difference between a man and woman be trusted to explain the difference between a president and a king?

A woman at another protest held a sign saying “Love your neighbor as yourself” as a child feet away had one saying, “We hate Trump.” (It reminded of side-by- side bumper stickers on the back of a car I saw years ago saying, ” Love Your Children, Give Them Hope” and “Keep Abortion Legal.”)

y people showed up in Barney-like inflatables. Were they trying to make a “trans” statement by looking “trans-flatable?” My friend got a picture of one loopy-looking inflatable with a person holding a sign next to it, saying, “This is Not Normal.” I know “No Kings” wanted us to take them seriously but such doltish displays made it look like an audition for a lead role in the Theater of the Absurd called “The No Kings Ding-a-Lings”

On a more serious note, Glenn Beck posed a very thorny question: if the No Kings movement is about opposition to millionaires and billionaires, why was it funded by millionaires and billionaires? Operating through 501(c)(3) Indivisible, the Gates, Rockefeller, Ford and Arabella foundations assisted George Soros providing millions in money upfront for “No Kings” establishing a kind of permanent protest- industrial complex to set up “grassroots” rallies, riots and protests, not to dismantle power, but to rearrange it and make true freedom look bad and fake-freedom (i.e abortion rights) look good.

Though the No Kings protest touted 7 million in attendance across America, it fell far short of the 77 million who voted to have “No Queen” last November.

Still outnumbered by signs of vulgarity, others referenced 1776 and resistance to kings. With one exception, absent were signs with a famous slogan from our revolutionary era saying, “No king except King Jesus.” That exception was mine, not to mention another I had that said, “No king would allow a ‘No Kings’ rally.” Even that one did not get the intense negative reaction like two others I had saying, “Charlie Kirk was not a racist” and “Charlie Kirk was a true Christian.”

The negative intensity boiled over at sites elsewhere with two educators expressing their utter hatred for Charlie through one mocking his death by acting out his assassination and the other in the street celebrating his death.

For the side demanding more love, diversity, tolerance and less toxicity, it is hard to reason with them when clips of the protest showed people with no impulse control dreaming of, yearning for and fantasizing over Trump being dead for their birthday. It begs the question: does our nation have a deeper problem with kings or with people in No Kings desiring the death of its president?

All that being said, bless the woman on the opposing side who extended graciousness to those of us expressing our views in the true spirit of the 1st Amendment. That was a thoughtful invitation to lively fair dialogue and open conversation.

The Rev. Mel McGinnis is a Frewsburg resident.