Jon Reisman

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?”-- Rodney King, May 1, 1992, after widespread Los Angeles riots in response to the acquittal of police accused of beating him.

“Defiance”- No Kings.org.

Our deep and widening divisions were on uncomfortable and transparent display in California,

Washington, D.C., and even Washington County, as a “No Kings” sign was conspicuously posted on my travel route through East Machias. I initially thought “No Kings” was an anti-Angus King III Democratic gubernatorial primary effort, or perhaps an anti-Senator (Daddy) Angus King Jr. effort, but it is actually an anti-Trump effort by Indivisible. 

No Kings sees Trump as an existential authoritarian/Hitlerian threat to “Democracy,” not to mention the environment/climate and basic human decency. Based on the number of Trump signs still visible and proudly posted, free speech is alive and well Downeast. Hopefully, we will not be crossing the Margaretta Rubicon.

My initial reaction to the Trump/Newson Reality riot show was inspired by California Dreaming and the broad parodic nature of the principals.

California Screaming

(With apologies to John and Michelle Phillips and the Mamas and the Papas)

All the lines are blurred and the border’s gone

I’ve been quite dismayed on a spring June day.

I’d be with the Guard if I was in L.A.,

California’s Screaming on a June spring day

Stopped in to a court, appealed along the way.

I pleaded to deport and I tried to say

I know the left likes open borders, but felons cannot stay.

All the lines are blurred and the border’s gone

I’ve been quite dismayed on a spring June day.

I’d be with the Guard if I was in L.A.,

California’s Screaming on a June spring day

California’s Screaming on a June spring day

California’s Screaming on a June spring day

California’s Screaming on a June spring day

Divisions over policing policy and accountability, race, identity politics, and public safety were at the heart of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles in 1992, and the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter riots and disruption in Minneapolis, Seattle, and across the nation in 2020. Riots seem to be becoming more frequent and common, although that’s probably just my right-wing white nationalist paranoia.

It may be that Trump’s “authoritarian” response nipped these 2025 riots in the bud, but that remains to be seen. The divisions remain deep, raw, and unaddressed. The fire may have been doused, but the hot embers could easily be rekindled if the wind picks up. 

The principals involved from all sides should try to tamp this down, as opposed to pumping the Bellows (sorry) and/or dumping accelerants on it. When burning cars and organized anarchy are described as “non-violent” and “mostly peaceful,” the Rubicon has already been crossed, perhaps irrevocably.

In 1858, with Fort Sumter and the Civil War still three years away, campaigning Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln speechified that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We are deeply divided. As the fissure widens and we all stare at it, an earthquake of Iranian war makes our domestic contretemps seem petty as missiles fly and nuke fears metastasize. I’m pretty sure the No Kings/Indivisible spin line will still be that it’s all Trump’s fault.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at [email protected].