TRENTON – Amid the American and Trump flags being waved at today’s Re-Open New Jersey protest outside the Statehouse, I spotted someone I’ve seen at Sussex County political events – William Hayden, a local conservative activist.

I asked his response to a recent poll that gave Phil Murphy – the object of great scorn today – an approval rating of 71 percent.

Hayden was unfazed.

He said there was a time when King George probably had an approval rating of 71 percent. Hayden meant in the colonies, not Great Britain. Not something anyone can prove, but you can see the point. Even King George was once popular on this side of the Atlantic, but then, things changed quickly.

Making things change quickly was the goal of today’s event featuring about 200 or so people congregating – so much for social distancing – on West State Street. Some of the protesters, however, wore masks.

There was no “main” speaker, but there were plenty of angry chants and signs – “Murphy is non-essential,” “Liberty is essential,” and “Say no to quarantine camps.”

In a span of a few minutes, the governor, who was not even all that well-known a year ago among average folk, earned a trifecta of evil.

He was labeled a communist, a fascist and the fuhrer.

Such off-the-wall rhetoric was the norm – like a woman holding a sign calling for the arrest of Bill Gates – but there was also more reasonable disagreement.

A woman from Middletown – the governor’s hometown – said, “This isn’t about the virus anymore.”

What’s it about?

She said it was about fear and keeping people in their homes because of a virus that the vast majority of people will never get.

Frank Bolger, who runs a business in Bellmawr called “Etched In Style,” eschwed the fiery rhetoric, saying simply that he needed to get back to work.

A handful of protesters walked to the closed, front door of the Statehouse Annex and began yelling as if to call out the governor.

Clearly, they were unaware that the governor’s office never has been in the annex.

Murphy, in fact, was a few blocks away at the War Memorial for his daily press briefing as the protest ensued. It later moved to outside the Memorial.

“I don’t begrudge anyone’s right to protest,” he said. But Murphy added that, “I really wish they would do it at home.”

The protest had a pronounced right wing slant as evidenced by Trump flags and the many MAGA hats on the heads of demonstrators. Still, Murphy tried to ignore the politics, saying dealing with the pandemic is not about political belief, but something more basic.

“We’re trying to save lives,” he said. A few minutes earlier, he announced 402 more deaths in New Jersey. But he said some may have occurred over the weekend, not just in the last 24 hours. Either way, the total is now 6,440.

Last week, State Police arrested a woman leading an earlier protest for not maintaining social distancing. Today, social distancing was not being maintained either, but State troopers allowed the proceedings to go off as planned.

Pat Callahan, the head of the State Police, said officers always have discretion. Clearly, someone in the administration decided it was better to let things play out as opposed to making arrests. That would have caused a scene and increased passion.

Protester Ayla Wolf of Burlington County came prepared – with a bullhorn.

In between leading the crowd in chants, Wolf said she was there because state authorities have never paid so little attention to the Constitution.

Talking about business closures, job losses and people stuck at home, Wolf discounted Murphy’s strong approval rating, saying the numbers must have been “fudged.”

Just for the record, the poll in question was done by Monmouth University, a private institution.

She maintained that the virus is not as bad as originally thought, because the number of projected deaths is far from being reached.

Death projections in the United States have varied over time; recent data says an estimated 56,000 Americans have lost their lives because of the virus.

Wolf was asked if she considered maintaining public health a legitimate function of government?

She pointed out that the Founding Fathers did not specifically address that point even though they were familiar with any number of deadly, 18th century pandemics.

This brought us back to the world of King George.