There is a phrase making the rounds these days: “If you ever wondered what you would have done if you had lived in Germany as Hitler became the all powerful leader of the country, well, whatever you are doing today is what you would have done.”

Those of us opposed to what the federal government is doing today are both frightened and outraged. We are wracking our brains trying to figure out what to do in response. There are millions of protesters out on the streets of towns and cities all across our nation today. Several thousand people have protested right here on Whidbey Island. They are protesting the failure of the president and his departmental heads and their operatives to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

And there is the new “big, beautiful budget bill,” as the president has called it, which not only transfers more wealth into the hands of the privileged few but will leave millions of Americans in increasing poverty. Equally disturbing is the tenfold increase in funds for ICE enforcement. That money will allow even more men in masks and unmarked vans to grab people off our streets without any form of due process. The money will also enable them to deliver people into a growing for profit system of detention centers. Already a Florida center has been christened “Alligator Alcatraz,” a name that emphasizes the intentional cruelty of such a prison.

It takes a bit of courage to step out of the safety and security of our homes and familiar daily routines to join a gathering of neighbors in a protest against all of this. However, it will become easier as we see others join in. Even some of our most vulnerable neighbors are protesting. I attended a “No Kings” rally at the Bayview park and ride a while back. Some of the organizers urged the vulnerable to stay home. But I saw a woman in a wheelchair and two elderly people shuffling around in walkers. This was just a couple weeks after Bayview was the site of gunshots from a Trump supporter trying to frighten off protestors.

The governor of Minnesota urged citizens to cancel protests due to a political assassin on the loose. Many thousands refused to be silenced by this killer and showed up anyway. We are being tested as a nation. Who will cringe and obey, who will pretend it isn’t happening, and who will resist.

We have the historical example of the founders of the nation in 1776 and the five perilous years of struggle that followed their Declaration of Independence from the king of England. The lawful order of their day allowed the king to use military force to compel obedience. He sent some of the most formidable military forces in the world at that time to put down the rebellion. Those who opposed his troops did so with inferior weapons and only volunteer citizen soldiers. Any number of times it appeared that the British troops had vanquished the American forces so thoroughly that they would have to abandon their cause.

As we know, however, the American Continental Army under General George Washington persisted in their fight against the British army. They persisted through the cruel winter of 1776, when many volunteers felt compelled to return home to neglected farms and businesses and those that remained were short on food, clothing, weaponry, and other necessities, often cold and hungry and with flagging morale. Most of us know that it was only through cunning and courage that the army succeeded in leaving their winter camp at Valley Forge and crossing the Delaware River at night under harsh weather conditions to mount a successful attack upon an unwary foe stationed at Trenton, New Jersey on Christmas Day. Their unlikely victory at that time and place was one of a number of battles that could easily have gone the other way before final victory at Yorktown in October of 1781.

Then as now one man demanded the subjugation of the nation to his personal will. Somehow, many Americans found the courage to resist that king. They refused to pledge their loyalty to him or obey his commands. They were frightened, but they were also angry, just as many of us are today.

Those in control of our federal government are increasingly using police state tactics to try to get us to cringe and obey. Today greed and cruelty rather than generosity and love appear ascendant in America. But they are merely part of a passing storm that cannot last. I believe that the vast majority of Americans will resist this, because it is wrong, and it is not who we are.

Dr. Michael Seraphinoff is a Whidbey Island resident, a former professor at Skagit Valley College and academic consultant to the International Baccalaureate Organization.