NORTHAMPTON — It wasn’t the coffee that had the people inside the First Churches of Northampton energetic and on edge Saturday morning. Some 500 people crowded into the church shoulder to shoulder, mutually distressed about national politics, and voiced those concerns in a coffee hour town hall with U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern that lasted close to two hours.

“When are Democrats going to stop showing up with knives to a gunfight?” one person in the audience blurted out.

Another frustrated audience member told McGovern, “A lot of us don’t think you’re trying to win. ... Your party is part of the same two-headed snake.”

Both comments filled the room with resounding applause from McGovern’s progressive constituents.

Researchers, immigrants, veterans, people with disabilities, trans-identifying people and progressive voters from across western Massachusetts all vented frustrations with the Trump administration.

But just as powerful were the voices of those who showed up to berate the Democratic Party for its powerless responses, including a move by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey to remove the state’s sanctuary state status — thus cowering in the defense of immigrants, said attendees.

They also fumed over immense federal funding cuts being made by the president, the reversal of former President Joe Biden’s clean energy initiatives and the rights of trans people being stripped away. Many were curious how the Democrats allowed “fascism” to take over all three branches of the federal government.

McGovern, who is on the House Rules Committee, wasn’t defensive on Saturday as much as empathetic to the fear and loathing. He shared that even the mindfulness advice he received from the Dalai Lama has proved insufficient while living in Trump’s America.

A major contributor to that anguish for him is the fact that Trump’s ideas have even gained traction in Massachusetts, a dependably liberal state. For McGovern, that’s a wake-up call that his party will need to face before midterm elections in 2026.

But he also hyped up the base, reminding those in attendance that “every act of pushback matters.” He outlined efforts by Democrats and others in trying to slow the Trump agenda, either in Congress or by judges blocking or delaying executive orders, and a flurry of lawsuits being filed nationwide.

“We’ve got to recognize that power doesn’t concede anything without a fight,” said McGovern, who represents the Hampshire County communities of Amherst, Belchertown, Hadley, Hatfield, Northampton, Pelham and Ware, and most of Franklin County. “We are not going to defeat Trump by sitting back and waiting. We need to make demands. We need to break outside our bubbles.”

The congressman said that pushback might have to come in smaller actions rather than a grand moment of resistance.

“I don’t think it’s going to come from one big act,” he said. “It’s going to come from a million small acts.”

He assured his base that the Democratic Party is cracking down, will come back, and that they are taking a route that is sometimes pragmatic but uncompromising. One example of pragmatic actions, he said, is Massachusetts lifting its designation as a sanctuary state to retain federal funding. But the party is also uncompromising in its advocacy for trans people, the positive role of immigration and more humane ways to balance the federal budget, McGovern said.

Part of the Democrats’ plan must include finding allies in three Republicans in Congress.

“Three Republicans,” McGovern repeated, saying it would give the Democrats voting leverage.

“There are a number of Republicans across this country who won reelection by a percentage point or less. Clearly, clearly we can have some influence on that,” he said, adding that “we can’t take our eye off the ball, because politics is about addition.”

Addition is doubly important, he explained, because Democrats are powerless right now, since without a majority they are not able to call congressional hearings.

Funding cuts

If the Republicans pass a budget bill that was recently proposed by the House’s Budget Committee, McGovern said the country should gear up to be in a scene reminiscent of “A Tale of Two Cities,” referring to the classic novel by Charles Dickens that juxtaposes the opulence of chocolate-loving high society with a lower class so poor they cupped their hands and drank off the cobblestones when a barrel of wine had fallen in the street.

“It’s an unbelievably cruel document (the budget proposal) ... and it basically cuts everything that everybody here thinks is important,” he said when asked about it by Joannah Whitney of Greenfield.

“So if you’re an activist within the disability community, there are cuts there. ... There’s $230 billion cuts in the SNAP program. If you care about the environment, they’re cutting the environmental protection program,” McGovern said. “You know, they basically want to eliminate the [U.S.] Department of Education. They want to cut all your humanitarian aid feeding hungry people from around the world, the USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development).”

Overall, he said, the bill “is an opportunity for everybody to come together with one voice and say, ‘Enough.’”

McGovern said “people think foreign aid is like 25%” of the federal budget, but informed the room that it’s less than 1%.

Veteran Michael Palmer asked McGovern, “The majority of veterans voted for Trump. What are you doing? What is Congress doing?”

McGovern responded by checking Trump’s track record on veterans, saying that, “There are 1,000 fewer employees of the VA since Trump came in,” which he said will mean longer and more difficult wait times for veterans.

Judy Huang, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts, expressed anxiety in light of potential slashes to federal National Institutes of Health funding, which fuels research. McGovern told the packed house about the importance of research, saying it’s “about economic development” and gives rise to cutting-edge results that impact everyday Americans.

McGovern also flagged nutrition as a key component in controlling federal spending.

“A lot of the money that results in, you know, an increase in spending and in our debt is health care-related. And there are better ways to control health care costs than asking you to pay more or denying coverage and certain things, and [nutrition] is one of them. ... Making sure our kids get good meals in schools can help produce a healthier adult,” he said.

McGovern was applauded when he praised the dedication of federal workers currently under threat of being fired or bought out. He said: “The reason why you want an experienced federal workforce is because you want people who know what the hell they are talking about. You want people with knowledge, right?”

Immigration

“I believe that Massachusetts should be a sanctuary state,” said McGovern, when confronted with a question about the state rescinding that title.

“I think let’s just be honest about what’s happening,” he told those present, reminding them that by keeping the designation, Massachusetts would become an automatic target for having federal funding blocked. He said he and his party at the state and national level would continue to protect immigrants in other ways.

“You know, at the end of the day, we just want people protected,” he said, noting that farmers rely on an immigrant workforce.

Perhaps the largest applause of the day came when he said that the “majority of rapists and murderers are white men — maybe you should deport them.”

State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, took the stage briefly to voice her fight to continue funding family shelters, which house some of the state’s undocumented population.

“Right now, we’re on track to spend about $1 billion on family shelter in this fiscal year,” Comerford said. She added that she will continue to support this funding, and next year’s budget will feature another $500 million toward family shelters. She said that’s an exemplary way for state officials to be “humane” and “effective” in sheltering people.

Social media/news

McGovern shared that his regular news sources include local papers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, and that he watches some CNN and MSNBC — so-called legacy media outlets.

But, he said, “A big chunk of this country is getting their information not from the places most of us do, not from newspapers, not from TV, you know, not from radio, but from all these kind of crazy platforms that push conspiracy theories and push all kinds of lies.”

For this reason, he told those gathered to “infiltrate” these platforms.

“It’s important we have voices,” he said, adding that he is branching out into platforms that proved to be difference makers for Republicans in 2024.

The congressman is now on X, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram.

“I even did my first Instagram live the other day,” he said.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.