Fighting Authoritarianism at the Busiest Street Corner in Panora, Iowa

And other rebellious efforts...

Robert Leonard

and

Van Garmon 3

May 14, 2025

Note: Check out Spencer Dirks and my podcast, Iowa Revolution. Our guest this week is Pete Buttigieg!

On Thursday, May 8, 2025, I was honored to stand at the four-way stop in Panora, Iowa, with maybe 15 locals representing multiple generations protesting the atrocities of the Trump administration. We stood under a Casey’s sign. For many of us in rural Iowa, our Casey’s stores are an important part of our lives, and the center of much commerce and connection.

I was happy to see the young people of Guthrie County are helping lead the way, standing arm in arm with their elders.

I was there at the invitation of my friend Liz Garst. Liz is an Iowa treasure.

Liz filled me in on what was going on. Below is the audio of my short interview with her, followed by the transcript. Please listen to the audio to get the sense of being there.

1×

0:00

-2:10

Below is the transcript. I’m in bold, Liz in italics:

Okay, Liz. What's the background?

Liz: I'm a member of the Guthrie County Central Committee, and we were having our rather tired, very elderly, off-year caucus, when we were stormed, the six or seven of us, by about a dozen people, quite a few of them young, and their parents and even the grandma or two.

And they said, "We heard there were Democrats here." And we said, "Yeah, this is the off-year caucus and welcome, and they said, "What are you doing? This is a crisis. Do something!"

So, we had a discussion about what to do, and we decided we would protest, these newcomers, and so we started doing it about six weeks ago. So, the interesting people here are those newcomers.

Sort of the leader of their pack usually shows up about half an hour into this. He has a job. So, he'll be here a little later, and then we'll advertise this through our Democrat Central Committee, but we've collected additional names of people, you know, to invite them to come, and the young ones wanted a theme of the week.

So, this week the theme is the crazy economy, the crazy economic decisions that Trump is making. Next week, we're going to have the general theme of crazy science, and the promotion of crazy science in our government now.

Okay, well, good for you.

Of course, everyone could protest about anything they want, but right...

We've had Ukraine, we've had tariffs, we've had protect Medicaid, we've had protect Veterans and Federal Workers. We at first thought about meeting in front of the courthouse, but we decided to go for the busiest corner in the county. Guthrie County has no stoplights, not a single stoplight. This is the busiest corner in Guthrie County, so that's where we've been protesting.

Above is a video I took of the group.

Here is a recording of other voices at the protest. They are worth listening to. A couple of people were reluctant to share their names. This is Trump’s America, where citizens now fear retribution for expressing their First Amendment right of free speech. Is this the America you want?

1×

0:00

-10:38

In the 2024 election, approximately 68% of Guthrie County voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump. Yet, I saw and heard more support for the protestors than against them. Liz and I agree that support for the protestors is about 3 to 1 in favor.

What appeared to be a middle school boy rode amongst us on his small bicycle with reckless abandon. Liz tells me that sometimes more than one kid is engaging in this manner, which I presume is a quiet form of protest. By the time I thought about asking him what he was doing, he was gone.

Twice while I was there, diesel pickups stopped at the stop sign and then purposely discharged vast quantities of exhaust at us. I learned that this is called rolling coal.

From Wikipedia:

Rolling coal (also spelled rollin' coal) is the practice of modifying a diesel engine to deliberately emit large amounts of black or grey diesel exhaust, containing soot and incompletely combusted diesel. Rolling coal is used as a form of anti-environmentalism protest. In most jurisdictions, the practice is illegal, due to it violating clean air laws.

Others who disagreed flipped us off or yelled “fuck you.” In the audio above you will hear what I thought was a man yelling “fuck you!” He was in a pickup, and traffic had him boxed in, so I went to talk to him. He filled me in that he was actually yelling “fuck yeah!” and added, “be a human being!”

Indeed.

One guy with a new truck pulling a new boat leaned out of his window, yelled at us, saying something like, “It’s a consumption tax, you don’t have to buy something if you don’t want to pay it!

That puzzled us, and one of the Guthrie County regulars replied, “What, not buy anything at Casey’s?”

Liz tells me that when they first started protesting, people driving by didn’t understand what was happening, and were quiet. Then they started engaging.

The Guthrie County Democrats are making a big difference and changing minds. Every Thursday, people drive by, see the signs, and think about what the words mean. They also see that the people holding the signs are their friends, family, and neighbors, and they think about that. The protests are educating and changing minds. Please think about joining them on a Thursday if you live nearby!

One car/truck at a time, and one Thursday at a time, the Guthrie County Dems are resisting authoritarianism and the atrocities of the Trump administration.

Why? Because they are patriots and proud Americans, who believe in the last phrase of our pledge of allegiance, “with liberty and justice for ALL!”

My friend Matt Russell writes that these protests in our small towns are a big deal:

Read the signs at these protests. Americans, including rural Iowans, are connecting the dots, because none of this, including tanking the economy, is merely collateral damage or unintended consequences.

Team Trump is doing all of this at a speed meant to create so much chaos that institutions crumble under the weight of their blows. They are counting on breaking the economy, the courts, the rule of law, due process, and democracy itself all at once. That’s their play. Republicans are going along with it.

What they haven’t counted on is that we, too, are responding. Even in Greenfield. Even in Spencer. And Vinton. And Carroll. And all across Iowa and the nation.

And Panora.

My friend Van Garmon was at the May Day! National Day of Action organized by the Iowa State Educational Association, fighting for our public schools. I was pleased to see teacher Michael Davenport of Roosevelt High School in Des Moines in the video. Michael directed the musicals at Knoxville High School a few years ago. The kids loved him.

Why do elected Republicans hate public schools and great teachers like Michael Davenport? Because they want our kids and grandkids to be ignorant and pliable.

Van also attended the “Impeach, Convict, Remove #50501” event in Des Moines on Saturday. Check out the energy. Van does an excellent job of capturing the power of protests.

My friend, the great organizer Jan Libbey, asked me the following question:

Have you featured how folks are moving/organizing/taking action beyond protesting, how they are channeling their energy to build/ hold on to...or even more to my imagination these days...creating anew...the pathways to the vision of community they hold dear?

This is such an important question. The answer is no, I haven’t, but I should. I’m hoping Jan will write a column that I can share here, and if you, dear reader, have an idea, please share it in the comments.

Protesting is a critical first step, but we need organizing as well to save democracy. Share your wisdom, please.

Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture

Discussion about this post