We had a situation evolve at my small local no kings. After an hour chilling, a trump supporter pulled up in a truck, unloaded a giant MAGA flag and planted himself right in the middle of the group. He was non violent, said very little, and mostly just stood there.
The supervising police would not remove him, and told us he had "the same right to be there that we have".
Obviously we were all quite uncomfortable having this shit flag overshadowing us, but no one was sure what could be done about it, so we sucked it up and continued on as if he wasn't there.
How would you have handled this situation? Is there anytime that can be done in the future to prevent this?
Ps Fuck trump and his cult.
His position is antithetical to our movement and maga symbols taint everything around it. Inserting himself as he did is an aggression. There are three other corners on this square he could have occupied with the asshole sized flag.. no one is silencing anything. There was only agitation and reaction in this behaviour.
This stuff works both ways. If he was non violent, can't do shit.
There are always options. He absolutely was an agitator.
Maybe everybody could have moved location, likely having to repeatedly do so over time, but then illustrating how maga is, at it's very core, reactionary and pointless.
Maybe could have all changed signs to something really bad like "maga ducks children yeaaaahhhhh" so that when magas come by and try to take pictures of bigflag being dominant, there's some cheeky bastards grinning and photobombing.
Mainly to op: Protesting and symbolism is very much a battle of wits, and you are never helpless and without option. Sometimes you just gotta take a deep breath, get creative, and outsmart the buggers. They vote for Trump, they really aren't that smart. If you can outsmart a tantruming child, you can outsmart a maga.
But you also have to take into account the overall image/optics of the bigger situation: the goal is to show of force and support in order to grow the confidence of the people. So even though you worry that you may have lost your little local battle, it did not stain the day of overwhelming victory that Day 1 of no-kings protest. Bigflag may have momentarily pissed you off, and set his bigflag down in a way, but it is still such a small island that this little pissing match looks very similar to the big truck thing: overcompensation for a small ~~penis~~ turnout.
I'd laugh and know he's a dickhead hostile, and not turn my back on him, because these guys can be actually immediately dangerous. But, let it roll off your back like orange sweat down Trump's face when he sees how many people mobilized for the first major protest against him, on his birthday, despite his attempt at a show of military might, and despite his threats to try to detur people. Victory was had that day, and you did not get hurt and can go on to continue to fight for what's right, stronger and wiser.
I appreciate the kind words and advice. He absolutely bothered me, but there was no taking away that ~200 people gathered in a deep red, rural town of 5000. That's near or over the 3.5% and I consider our protest a success regardless of bigflag's presence. Very proud of the community coming together, hopefully we can start seeing change
That's absolutely power.