Protestors push for Dan Meuser town hall, organize against Trump policies

An estimated 200-plus protestors gathered early Thursday evening to voice dissent with Congressman Dan Meuser and his support of President Donald Trump’s policies.

The “Good Trouble Lives On” protest, an independently organized but nationally coordinated protest corresponding with the anniversary of civil rights leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis’s 2020 death, marked the 19th protest organized by Mike Schroeder and Laura Quick since March.

Former Pennsylvania Lt. Governor and one-time acting governor Mark Singel spoke Thursday, citing the census data that around 65.3 percent of citizens of voting age voted in 2024, with around 32 percent voting for Trump and around 31 percent voting for Kamala Harris. He urged attendees to vote in midterms and encourage friends and family to do the same.

“We lost this election because people stayed home,” said Singel. “Our job is to correct that as soon as possible. In the midterms, our responsibility is to get those people off of their couches, get them to the polls, and make sure no one can claim a mandate with that kind of a tiny, tiny win. We need to re-address the priorities that matter to us, and the way you’re gonna do that is by bringing people to vote. That is our strongest weapon, and that is what we have to exercise come the midterms.”

Between 4 and 6 p.m., during the city-approved event at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Cumberland Street, there were no violent or aggressive interactions between protestors and passersby or passing vehicles.

Many vehicles honked as they passed protestors (with some protestors holding signs telling passerby to “honk for good trouble,” with others slowing to shout to protestors in support or opposition.

“Overall, the perception among passing motorists has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Schroeder. “Not everyone’s going to be supportive, but I think the atmosphere is shifting.”

Of the protestors LebTown spoke to Thursday, most identified themselves as coming from within the county, though a few protestors said they were from Hershey.

Peter Gawron of Hershey, a veteran of the Vietnam War era, said he feels compelled to protest largely due to Trump’s disrespect to veterans and the military. He cited a 2018 instance that Trump opted to skip a ceremony honoring fallen World War I soldiers due to rain and an anonymous report that Trump referred to veterans as “losers and suckers,” which Trump has denied.

“To me, that is not respect,” said Gawron, explaining that he worries Trump’s actions, including the hundreds of judges elected by his administration and public musing on running for a third term (prohibited by the 22nd Amendment) are storing too much power within the executive branch.

Protestors voiced concerns with the Trump administration’s actions, both in terms of executive orders (170 total, with the most controversial including the revocation of birthright citizenship, plans to close the Department of Education, and Department of Government Efficiency cuts to federal bureaucracy) — some which federal judges including Trump appointees have blocked, though the Supreme Court has curbed judge’s ability to block executive orders — the attorney general’s handling of the Epstein investigation determining there to be no client list, which Trump recently called a Democratic hoax, and the deportation of undocumented immigrants without typically afforded due process, including some cases of individuals being deported to foreign prisons in countries they have never visited.

A frequent topic of mention was the recently-passed “Big Beautiful Bill,” which, over the next decade, cuts taxes by around $4 trillion, increases the deficit by an estimated $3.4 trillion, makes cuts including $930 billion to Medicaid, and more. Advocates say the bill cuts down on corruption and promotes the free market, but opponents say it primarily benefits the upper class and harms working- and lower-class Americans.

When asked by an organizer whether the Trump era was their first time participating in protest, around half of attendees raised their hands.

Tom Overholt, a retired physician living in Cornwall, spoke Thursday in opposition to recent cuts to Medicaid (which include a strict 80-hours-per-month work requirement for beneficiaries and documentation changes) and the rise of misinformation about vaccines.

On Medicaid and Medicare, Overholt said that hospitals are required to treat people who are severely sick or injured, regardless of their insurance status — with many bills left unpaid, swallowed by healthcare providers who are sometimes assisted with government aid. Overholt called President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act a “triumph of the early 21st century,” which brought down uncompensated care costs from 62.8 billion per year from 2011-2013 to 42.4 billion per year from 2015-2017.

Overholt described himself as a very conservative independent, believing that government expenses should be limited save for legitimate and necessary functions of the government, which he believes includes some healthcare.

“Medicare and Medicaid save lives,” said Overholt, noting the potential effect of the recently passed “Big Beautiful Bill Act” on nursing homes. “These older people in nursing homes that we’re paying for with Medicaid aren’t grifting Medicaid,” he said, referencing Meuser’s earlier statement that the bill focused on ending “waste, abuse, fraud and corruption” in Medicaid.

Overholt lamented what he considers a reduction of politics into slogans, emphasizing the importance of being fully informed and not coming to conclusions based on misinformation. As an example, Overholt referenced recent discussions on vaccines; though health organizations should work to make vaccines safer wherever possible, he said, modern society has lost memory of the severity of many eradicated or mostly eradicated diseases.

“The truth about vaccines is that it’s what people in the 1950s prayed for,” Overholt said in reference to the polio vaccine. Polio, he said, claimed the life of his uncle and led his sisters to be among the first to get the vaccine. “My mother had acute, tragic memories of the disease.”

After most protesters had left, Schroeder said he felt the event was a success, explaining he felt it lived up to his values of peaceful, civil, and respectful (both to people and property) protest.

Schroeder said organizers have no intention of stopping the weekly protests, and noted that next Monday, they plan to begin a tradition of walking to Meuser’s local office in the Lebanon County Municipal Building to hand-deliver letters from constituents to the office.

Quick said organizers are attempting to network with Meuser’s constituents in other counties (including Schuylkill, Sullivan, Bradford, and eight other counties) in order to coordinate events.