Saturday’s “No Kings” protest on Courthouse Square in Scranton was a joyful, defiant showcase of inspiring messages delivered by organizers, speakers and patriotic citizens who let their clever signs and chicken costumes do the talking.

To the jaundiced eye of this veteran observer, the conspicuous absence of some top local Democrats sent a more subtle message about the divided state of the Democratic Party in Lackawanna County.

While registered Republicans and independents were among the 1,500 or so in the crowd, registered Democrats naturally had the largest representation. It was a golden opportunity for elected Democrats to interact with voters determined to oust MAGA Republicans in the midterms and rein in the mad wannabe king who’s looting Our Republic and destabilizing the planet.

State Sen. Marty Flynn wasn’t there. Neither was Mayor and 8th Congressional District candidate Paige Gebhardt Cognetti. Their truancy was noted by many attendees who lamented the quiet intraparty schism that will only grow louder as this mean election season grinds on.

Marty and the mayor are the avatars of this barely behind-the-scenes civil war, party allies on paper but low-key “frenemies” in private. Marty bristles at the title, but many of his constituents view him as the chief engineer of the Democratic Party Machine. Paige is the eternal outsider who dared to defy the decrepit political order imposed by the Old Guard.

I spoke with the senator on Tuesday. He said organizers Action Together NEPA didn’t invite him to the protest, and he went to his daughter’s soccer game instead. The mayor was in Oregon with her two young daughters visiting their grandfather, she told me Monday.

Marty said I’m making too much of the bad blood between him and the mayor. The intraparty schism I see is mostly in my cynical head and simply part of the democratic process that decides who leads the party. He insisted he’s no Machine kingpin or a “MAGAcrat” and supports Paige in her bid to unseat MAGA Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan in November.

“I want to see her win,” Marty said.

On that last point, I will take the senator at his word. Democrats like Jessica McGuigan are unlikely to do the same.

In a recent letter to the editor, McGuigan, a candidate for the local and state Democratic committees, accused Marty and the Machine of using MAGA Republican tactics to challenge her signature on a nominating petition for Democratic newcomer Jeffrey Lake, who is challenging Marty in the May 19 primary election.

McGuigan recently updated her voter registration to reflect her married name, an “irregularity” ripped straight from the’ so-called “SAVE America Act,” which could strip voting rights from 2.8 million married Pennsylvania women and 69 million nationwide, according to the Center for American Progress.

“For lack of a better word, it seemed really hypocritical to me, but it also aligned with what I feel like this group of ‘MAGAcrats’ have been showing us all along,” McGuigan said Monday. “And I feel like they’ve been getting away with it for so long that they’re not even catching up to the fact that they’re not getting away with it anymore. They’re so empowered by what they’ve gotten away with for so long that they don’t even stop and think, ‘Is this too blatant?’ ”

McGuigan, 41, is part of a growing cohort of younger Democrats who want better from party leadership and are willing to challenge the Machine on the ballot.

“I think that what we’re actually doing is being role models for what Republicans who are not MAGA could be doing in their own party, which is standing up,” she said.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the elected Democrats who attended the protest. State Reps. Bridget Kosierowski and Kyle Donahue were there. State Rep. Kyle Mullins skipped it for a family commitment, but attended previous “No Kings” rallies. Jeffrey Lake was also in the crowd, as were former Sen. Bob Casey and his lovely wife, Terese.

Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan – the Machine’s Public Enemy No. Two – seized the moment to deliver a stirring speech promoting unity and decency over political affiliations.

“We should ask ourselves what kind of people we are and not what party we are from,” he said to raucous cheers. Gaughan challenged the crowd to reject fear and division and lay the groundwork for reform and reconciliation after the Trump regime and its MAGA minions in the House and Senate are dethroned.

“Choose the path of empathy, courage, truth,” he said. “Not to merely win an election, but to care for others.”

Even when you don’t care for their company.

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, cares about you. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.