Where There is a Trump, There Are Trump Protesters

Ashtyn Britt
abritt@lc.edu

Lewis and Clark Community College received guest visits from Ivanka Trump and Rodney Davis Aug. 8. The pair held a roundtable to congratulate the college on the new Weber building and to speak of training programs, as well as for Davis to show visibility for his current campaign for the midterm re-election against Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, which will be held Nov. 6, 2018.

Naturally, as the word of Ivanka Trump’s visit spread through the community, a protest was also held by locals who opposed the Trump administration and Davis on the same morning as the roundtable.

Protests have become common at Trump events even before the 2016 election took place. Local Robyne O’Mara came to the college that morning to protest both Davis and Trump.

She gathered with other protesters outside of the north entrance to Lewis and Clark College.

“Many people in our area have been terribly disappointed in our congressional representative Rodney Davis,” O’Mara said. “He ran as a moderate but has voted with President Trump 98 percent of the time. He ran saying he would protect our healthcare and yet he voted to disband the Affordable Care Act which provided good healthcare at a reasonable cost to many people, some for the first time. Davis said he believed in repeal and replace, but proposed changes put people with pre-existing conditions at risk and eliminate the requirement for ‘essential care.’ He and fellow members of the GOP have made good healthcare costly and difficult to obtain.”

O’Mara isn’t happy with Trump either.

“Ivanka Trump is a woman born into wealth and privilege who played at running a company her father bought for her,” O’Mara said. “Her products are manufactured in China where the workers make pennies a day. She has no qualifications as an advisor to the President of the United States. She has no idea what typical American families need.

O’Mara feels that Davis has failed her and his constituents.

“Rodney Davis is simply a failed Representative,” she said. “He puts a rubber stamp on whatever President Trump wants. Rep. Davis has no idea what his constituents want or need. Despite repeated requests, he refuses to hold town halls. Constituents deserve the opportunity to tell our elected representative how his decisions affect and hurt people he represents. He refuses to hold town hall meetings because he doesn’t want to hear what we need and want. He cares only for special interest groups who provide about 95 percent of his campaign financing.”

O’Mara said she knows who is getting her vote.

“Fortunately, we have Betsy Dirksen Londrigan running against him in November,” she said. “She has been holding town hall meetings throughout our district asking people what they want and from a congressional representative. What they and their families need from our government. How they feel about our nation and the world. She cares, why doesn’t Rep. Davis?”   

O’Mara said voters would be better served if “big money” is removed from politics.

“Citizens United needs to be overturned,” she said. “Corporations are not people and money is not speech. This legislation allows our Representatives and Senators to be bought. They work for the people who fund them, not their constituents We need an administration that puts country over party and people from both sides of the aisle who work together in the best interests of our nation and the world.”

O’Mara also thinks unions could help a struggling middle class.

“Unions are chiefly responsible for the middle class,” she said. “Before unions, it was basically the rich and the poor. Unions ensured a living wage and income equality, access to health care, a five-day workweek. They ended child labor. They spearheaded the fight for the Family and Medical Leave Act.”

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