The following comments were made at the No dictators! rally in Göteborg Saturday morning 28 March, a gathering of a couple dozen protesters at Gustav Adolfs torg held in solidarity with 3,000 demonstrations happening across the US that drew an estimated 8 million people onto the streets.
"I am here today in my capacity as acting chair of the Western Sweden chapter of Democrats Abroad Sweden, part of the overseas wing of the Democratic Party USA aimed at Americans living abroad.
"We are gathered here today to protest efforts by the Trump regime to dismantle the American system of checks and balances and, with it, the unique creation that is American representative democracy.
"We are here to protest the transformation of ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – into a paramilitary force used by the president to go after immigrants – most of them legally in the US and law abiding – and non-immigrants alike. We are here to protest the way ICE has been sent into communities like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Portland, Maine, disregarding the law and court orders alike with impunity. We are here to protest the killing of peaceful protesters like Renee Good, whose final words to her killer were “that’s fine dude. I’m not mad at you.” We are here to protest the killing of Alex Pretti, who died trying to protect another peaceful protester from ICE agents. We are here to protest the killing of Keith Porter in Los Angeles by an off-duty ICE agent. We are here to protest the description of these people as domestic terrorists.
"We are here to protest the detainment of journalists like Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, and Estafany Maria Rodriquez Florez for pursuing their constitutionally protected right to engage in journalism. We are here to protest the hateful and violent rhetoric that has come not least from the president himself, who offered no words of condolence or sympathy after the killing of Melissa and Mark Hortman by a far-right agitator with a hit list of politicians he saw as favoring abortion rights. Instead, Trump skipped the funeral and circulated a video suggesting that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was somehow responsible for the attack. Calls from the family to remove the video and apologize went unheeded.
"We are here to protest the SAVE Act that Trump is attempting to push through the US Senate after clearing the House – the SAVE Act that, by its stringent registration and proof-of-citizenship requirements, would disfranchise millions of Americans in the US as well as most of the nine million Americans living overseas.
"We are here to protest Trump’s decision to go to war without the consent of Congress and with motivations and goals that change from one announcement to the next. We are here to protest the loss of lives that the administration’s actions have led to in the US and – in part through the administration’s unilateral elimination of the US Agency for International Development and the consequent reduction in funds for HIV prevention and treatment – around the world.
"We are here to protest a president who has repeatedly declared himself above the law, who has attempted to rewrite the clear text of the 14th Amendment by executive order – a case that is even now before the Supreme Court. We are here to protest an administration that treats unfavorable court decisions as safely ignored. We are here to protest a president who has, together with his family, made billions of dollars off the presidency since returning to the White House, who by all appearances sells pardons for money, whose highest officials are textbook cases in corruption. Consider Tom Homan, acting director of ICE, who was recorded on audio appearing to accept a $50,000 bribe in cash during an FBI sting operation during the final months of the Biden administration.
"We are here today to call for a renewal of American democracy, even as we acknowledge that the US has never been the paragon of democracy it has often portrayed itself to be. While other countries have made it easy for all their citizens to vote or even legally required them to do so, the US has a long and sordid history of excluding one or another group from the process – be it Blacks, who only properly gained their right to vote after peaceful protests compelled the government to action in the 1960s, and who are at risk of losing it again; or women, who only gained the right to vote after, again, a long and difficult process of peaceful protest; or Native Americans; or others. Too many states have, in recent legislation, made it difficult to vote. Too many states have made it easy to anonymously challenge the rights of individual voters to vote, with often little recourse for those thereby stricken from the voting rolls. Too many states have engaged in overzealous purging of the voting rolls, as when – in the 2000 election – Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered the removal of 57,700 supposedly ineligible voters. That election was ultimately decided by a difference of 537 votes in Florida, thereby giving Florida’s electoral votes and so the presidency to George W. Bush instead of Albert Gore.
"We are here to call for a recommitment to the ideals that the United States of America has long espoused. We are here to call for a recommitment to the inherent worth and dignity of every individual, be they American or not. We are here to call for a recommitment to due process, without exception. We are here to call for liberty and justice – and equality before the law – for all.
"As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, 'we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women we should add today!] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men [and women!], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.'
"Today we call for a peaceful revolution at the ballot box. Today we call for taking whatever peaceful actions we need to in order to ensure access to that ballot box. Today we commit to doing all that we can to ensure that this year’s elections are as free and fair as possible, and that one party is not able to rewrite the rules in its favor or ignore the results. Today we commit to taking the government back.
"If you are a US citizen, and you have not already requested your ballots for the 2026 election cycle, please go to https://votefromabroad.org today, to make sure you are not left standing on the sidelines.
"We are not here today as members of the Democratic Party USA, though many of us are. We are not here as Americans, though many of us are. We are not here as political or national partisans. We are here first and foremost as human beings protesting the advent of tyranny – tyranny that has been pursued in the name of freedom. As Hillel the Elder said, 'if not now, then when?' As US Marine Travis Manion said, 'if not me, then who?'
"May who or whatever you hold holy bless you and each and every one of us gathered here today. God bless, if not the America we are today, then the America we can be again."