WHATELY — More than 120 area residents packed into Town Hall on Wednesday for a conversation with U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern to voice their ongoing concerns with the Trump administration.

Railing against what he called a “slide to authoritarianism,” McGovern urged folks to block out the noise coming from the Trump administration’s “flood the zone” media strategy and instead focus on banding together to resist the shock waves of change that are hitting communities, businesses, nonprofits and people across the United States.

This moment, the Worcester Democrat said, is for “courage, not acquiescence.”

“This is a time for people to be engaged like never before. If you think your voice is too small to make a difference, think about it again. … There’s a lot to be worried about, but we’re not powerless. It’s ‘We the People,’” McGovern said. “They want you to give up. If you give up, they can come in and do whatever the hell they want to do.”

McGovern also reiterated his call from a March 18 town hall meeting in Greenfield, where he floated the idea of a national general strike to combat Trump’s policies.

“We have to start understanding that, again, these aren’t ordinary times, so we need to think a little bit out of the box here,” McGovern said. “To do that, we’ll need planning and organization we’ve never seen before.

“Sometimes, people in this country, we have short attention spans. We want things done immediately,” he continued. “We may not fix this in a day or a week. It might take longer, but we just have to stay in the fight.”

Other topics touched on by McGovern and residents at the event, which was sponsored by the South County Senior Center, included fears about freedom of speech amid crackdowns on college campuses, potential cuts to Medicare and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as the ongoing battle between federal courts and the White House over Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident mistakenly deported to El Salvador by U.S. immigration authorities.

In response to a question from Deerfield Selectboard Chair Tim Hilchey on the “extra-legal deportation” of Abrego Garcia, McGovern said the violation of the immigrant’s due process should raise alarm bells because it’s a “slippery slope.” One day it might be an undocumented immigrant and the next it could be a U.S. citizen who is sent to a “prison that’s known for torture in El Salvador.”

“This is not just about an immigrant who is in this country. This is about all of us. This is about the Constitution, so this matters to all of us,” McGovern said. “They’re trying to tell you, ‘It’s not you, we’re just talking about immigrants,’ but that’s not the case. … We have something called due process in this country — and even bad people get due process — and it is important that we not let this administration chip away at that.”

As McGovern spoke Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen was on the ground in El Salvador pressing for Abrego Garcia’s release. After the meeting in Whately, McGovern said he was unsure if Abrego Garcia was even alive and he called the president’s thoughts of deporting U.S. citizens to El Salvador “chilling.”

“I want to see proof of life of the guy. This is a prison where, you know, I think people like me are worried that they’ll torture this guy into a confession,” McGovern said in an interview. “Trump’s now talking about deporting U.S. citizens to prisons in El Salvador. If this were a year ago and we were talking like this right now, we would all be in disbelief.”

McGovern also spoke about how the Democratic Party needs to reorient itself in the alternative forms of media, such as podcasts.

“For 10 years, the Democrats were asleep at the switch,” he said, adding that, as always, grassroots organization is the most powerful tool available. “This is not impossible. It’s doable.”

Closing out the Town Hall meeting, in which he fielded questions for about an hour and 15 minutes, McGovern emphasized again the need for people to stick together and keep up the fight.

“Here’s the deal: for us to be able to win, we have to stay the course. I’ll be the wind at your back and I know you’ll be the wind at my back. I look forward to seeing you at protests and demonstrations and campaign rallies,” he said. “And if they send me to El Salvador, can someone come and get me?”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.