Protestors with SOKY Indivisible rallied Thursday evening along the road by Congressman Brett Guthrie’s Bowling Green Regional Office.
Organizer Denise Zielinski said the protest was planned because of the latest federal government shutdown, the first since December 2018 – January 2019, during President Trump’s first term in office. Zielinski said she believes the Republicans were shutting down the government because the Democrats would not agree to allow for cuts to public healthcare funding.
In posts on Instagram and Facebook promoting the event, SOKY Indivisible said they “demand bipartisan government that works for the people.”
Demonstrators held signs and chanted about a variety of issues. Several demonstrators said they believe the Trump administration is threatening civil liberties and subverting the Constitution for personal and political purposes. The demonstrators were also concerned about the administration’s attempts to strip away funding for essential public services, especially for minorities and those with disabilities and chronic illnesses.
“I don’t think that anybody in the Republican Party at this time is going to be brave and follow the Constitution,” said Sonja Griffith, a member of SOKY Indivisible.
Protester Sharon Campshure held a sign that read, “The disabled should just die, said Donald J Trump,” a reference to a quote attributed to Trump by his nephew, Fred Trump III.
Trump III wrote in TIME Magazine about his and his family’s experience caring for his own disabled son. He said that in May 2020, he brought a leading doctor and other disability advocates to meet with the President and health officials in his administration to advocate for programs for families like his own.
After what he believed to be a productive meeting, he said the President pulled him aside and said, “Those people… The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.”
Zielinski said disability rights were personal to her because of her experience with her own disabled son, who relies on Medicaid. She said she has worried about federal funding cuts, understanding that—as far as some are concerned—individuals like her son are “a drain on the economy.”
“But, we’re human beings,” Zielinski said. “They’re human beings. They need to be taken care of.”
Zielinski said she is concerned about the Trump administration’s attempts to “politicize” and “weaponize” institutions that are supposed to be bipartisan, like the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court and the military. She said she worries about cities like her native Chicago, in which Trump has ordered federal officers and National Guard troops to patrol and conduct raids alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to The New York Times.
Demonstrator Mike Harkreader said it bothers him that “the Republicans are doing absolutely nothing to stop this man.” He said that Guthrie is not standing up for what’s right.
William Compton, a Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, Kentucky District 2, which Guthrie has represented since 2009, also appeared at the protest.
Compton, who teaches in the Warren County Public School system, said he sees a bleak future for his students when they graduate.
“Ultimately, he (Guthrie) is not fighting to make the world a better place for my students,” Compton said.
Scott Crocker said he is concerned about Republican policies like the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act, a budget reconciliation bill that Guthrie voted for in July. He mentioned that cuts made to Medicare by the bill will put 35 rural Kentucky hospitals at risk of closure.
The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy reported that number in June, as the state could lose “up to $28 billion of federal funding over the next 10 years,” which would leave hundreds of thousands without health coverage.
Crocker said he first started protesting in his college years against the Vietnam War and strip mining in Eastern Kentucky.
“Everybody feels they want to do something, and this is something that we can do,” Crocker said.
