No kings here?
President Trump doesn’t like the idea of people protesting that he has become a king: “I don’t feel like a king; I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.”
I think the chief executive is on to something here. If he were really a king, his unilateral edicts would be enforced on the nation with little to no pushback from anywhere. He is up to speed with the regular publishing of edicts, but he is getting a little bit of pushback here and there on implementing them, so his crown sits just a little bit precariously on his head.
“He (a king) wouldn’t have to call up [Speaker] Mike Johnson and [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune and say, ‘fellas you got to pull this off’ and after years we get it done,” he added. “No, no we’re not a king. We’re not a king at all.”
Number 47 is clearly chafing at the fact he has to get the help of others to get things done and that stuff takes an extended period of time to get done. A true king would have the full faith and credit of the people for whatever he wants to do, and it would get done pronto. Yep, he would much rather be the real deal. The real deal has God, an established church, and all the fawning, ignorant people worshipping him, not protesting against him.
Also, a real king’s statements cannot be contradicted without risk to health and property, even when the dissent is made by a judge, a Congressperson, a newscaster, military brass, leaders of other nations . . . you get the picture. A real king is King! Trump is not quite there yet.
—Kimball Shinkoskey
No Kings Demonstration at Drake Park and the Peace Corner
No Kings demonstration held in Drake Park was a simple act of public dissent free speech. To me, it signaled something much deeper: a quiet Constitutional reawakening
Among the booths lining the gathering was one that crystallized this event’s meaning: Health Care for All Oregon (HCAO). It isn’t simply a .org nonprofit advocacy group. It is a living expression in Oregon’s Constitution as the first state in the nation to do this through Measure 111.
I asked difficult questions. How will Oregon fund this right? Will it challenge federal inaction by taking initiative under its own Constitutional authority? Can this state-level action be reconciled with federal tax structures, perhaps by treating increased state tax as federally deductible?
Behind those questions was a deeper recognition. This is not rebellion. It is governance. Not insurrection but resurrection of the Tenth Amendment in modern form. If the federal government neglects its duty to “promote the general welfare” then Oregon quietly says: We will. Would it result in mass movement of people from other states to enjoy our benefits? Build a wall? Or offer it to those that buy a state residence card at a great price to enter?
HCAO, in my view, represents more than a moral healthcare initiative. It is a civic prototype for how data, community intelligence, and policy scaffolding can be assembled from the bottom up at the state level, legally and ethically, to serve the people. It is Oregon’s declaration that statehood is not subservience, but stewardship.
Later I joined those at the Peace Corner. I served 25 years in the Navy defending the Constitution. I said to someone there: “I feel that I have done more to defend our Constitution today than I swore an oath to do during the course of my career.” I shook the hand of a fellow Vet. With full memory of my oath to support and defend the Constitution my oath now lives not in the letter of centralized authority, but in the spirit of decentralized, democratic truth meaning. What if all states established the same Constitutional Right that we did and applied it?
Oregonians have that right to Health Care for All enshrined in our State Constitution. The question is whether we have the resolve to apply it and defend it as a State Right as well as protest a Federal Government King that would deny it and not provide it but extract more from us? To sell off our public lands for his self-serving benefit? Support other countries with our taxes in their denial of human rights and life? Drag us into wars to increase worldwide military and economic supremacy power held by the Papal Crowned King con man and his court?
Authoritarian tyrants and dictators do not like questions or protest! Their response is predictable. Those that supported him on 6 Jan. continue to do that as agitator agents of peaceful protest.
—Tim Lester
Letter of
the Week:
Tim, you’ve been chosen as letter of the week. You can stop by our office at NW Georgia & Bond St. for a gift card to Palate coffee.
—Nic Moye, Managing Editor
This article appears in Source Weekly June 19, 2025.
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