Imagine spending your Saturday afternoon outside in 8-degree cold, holding signs and chanting hatred at the very people whose job is to take rapists, violent criminals, and sex offenders off the streets, and to remove people who aren’t here legally. If that’s your idea of civic engagement, fine. Protest is a right. But what happened in Lewiston at the “Stop ICE” rally wasn’t just protest.
It was performance politics wrapped in hypocrisy.
Because here’s the part they don’t want to say out loud: the Maine Wire was the only press outlet banned from a public event where elected officials were featured speakers, while the crowd screamed, “This is what democracy looks like!”
Really?
Listen, I like debate. I love debate. I genuinely enjoy a back-and-forth with someone who sees the world differently, and I’ll do it politely even when I’m being disagreed with. That’s the point. That’s how adults operate in a free society.
So when a woman with a nice smile, holding an anti-ICE sign, tells me the Maine Wire posts “right-wing propaganda sewage” and “race-baiting, hate-mongering bullshit,” I do what any honest person would do.
I ask for an example.
Just one.
Crickets.
That pause, the uncomfortable moment when you realize your outrage is running on fumes, said everything. And then, right on cue, the conversation ends. Not because I raised my voice. Not because I insulted her. Not because I threatened anyone. It ended because facts are inconvenient when your worldview depends on slogans.
And then the cavalry arrives: a friend with a bullhorn, blasting in my face, “What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like!”, as if shouting a mantra magically turns censorship into virtue. “Karen” is thrilled to move on and back into the warm embrace of the mob.
That wasn’t democracy. That was intimidation dressed up as moral superiority.
One of the speakers, Graham Platner, posted online just before the rally: “Public execution.” “Dismantle ICE.” That’s not rhetoric aimed at reform. That’s the language of elimination, the kind of talk people use when they’re not interested in oversight, accountability, or better policy. They’re interested in tearing down the people doing a difficult job, then pretending public safety is optional.
Hey, Graham, maybe get the facts first. The border agent had every right to defend himself. That man wasn’t there for peaceful dialogue. He was there to cause chaos. And if your judgment is getting cloudy, maybe ask yourself whether the constant drip-feed of online outrage is affecting your ability to think straight.
Here’s the bigger point, and it’s the part nobody on that stage wants to touch:
Maine’s top Democratic candidates, except for Governor Janet Mills, “increasingly stand in solidarity with immigrant Medicaid scammers.”
At least four people on that stage, directly or indirectly, have some responsibility to protect Mainers from fraud. They’re connected to systems that are supposed to safeguard taxpayer dollars, enforce rules, and stop scams. But they won’t touch the issue, because you can’t win a primary if you admit the obvious: fraud exists, enforcement matters, and law-abiding citizens shouldn’t be the ones paying the price.
So what did Lewiston’s rally actually show us?
- No freedom of the press, at least not for the “wrong” press.
- No facts to back up the slander and talking points.
- No elected politician willing to speak honestly about fraud and taxpayer exploitation.
- Plenty of people eager to smear law enforcement and defend policies that protect criminals over communities.
And they still had the nerve to chant, “This is what democracy looks like.”
No.
Democracy looks like tolerating dissent, not banning it.
Democracy looks like argument backed by evidence, not slogans backed by volume.
Democracy looks like equal access, not ideological bouncers deciding which reporters are allowed to watch elected officials speak.
If that’s what democracy looks like to them, a stage, a bullhorn, and a blacklist, then we’re not watching civic engagement.
We’re watching a movement that wants power without scrutiny.
And I hope to God that isn’t what democracy looks like in Maine.
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