The first one was huge, purportedly five million people. The second even bigger. And the third said to be a whopping eight million people. Eight million is a lot of people. So what?
Protesters filled streets and town squares across the United States on Saturday at thousands of rallies, the third in a sequence of nationwide, loosely coordinated demonstrations under the banner of “No Kings.” They came to denounce President Trump and much of his second-term agenda, wielding signs and chants about issues such as mass deportation, restrictions on voting, attacks on diversity and two matters that have suddenly moved to the fore: the war in Iran and the soaring gas prices that have resulted from it.
People certainly have a right to protest, to air their grievances against the government and let the president know that the streets are filled with people who, contrary to his self-announced claims, do not think he’s the greatest president ever. Many people turned out to add their voices to the chorus of condemnation. Many people turned out to do something, anything, about what they see as an American travesty. Many people turned out because Trump broke his promises and made their life more miserable than it was before.
“Prices are going up, and it feels like we can’t even afford to live anymore,” said John Moes, a Minneapolis resident who was dressed in a 15-foot puppetlike costume resembling the singer Prince, a local icon.
“This is one of the ways we can say we’re fed up,” said Mr. Moes, who described himself as an independent who leans Democratic.
Not every independent who leans Democratic has a 15-foot puppetlike costume resembling the singer Prince in his closet to be pulled out for occasional protests. But the stars of the protests was Jane Fonda, remembered by us grey beards as “Hanoi Jane,” and Asbury Park’s favorite son, Bruce Springsteen, who had this to say.
“Here in our home they killed and roamed. In the winter of ’26,” he sang.
“We’ll remember the names of those who died. On the streets of Minneapolis.”
Indeed, we will. But we would regardless. Did Trump listen when Springsteen sang? The official reaction was the typical toxic mix of bravado and denial.
The White House has reacted to No Kings rallies with mockery. On Thursday, a White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, said in a statement that “the only people who care about these Trump derangement therapy sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them.”
Was that true or merely the face Trump wanted to portray, the one that calls everything, anything, less than sycophantic adulation “fake” or a “hoax”? As Trump’s approval rating sinks to its lowest ever, 36% (and less in other polls), does he realize that things aren’t going particularly well for him these days?
The next step in the “No Kings” sequence is a general strike on May 1, which is a date with a message that might not be fully appreciated by many who attended the rally. There will be call for people to not go to work, not go to stores, not go to school, shut down the nation. Will people heed that call? It’s a very different thing to walk down the street with a sign than it is to not show up for work or school.
But the larger question is what has any of this accomplished? Has it changed Trump’s mind about asserting and exercising powers the president does not, and should not, possess? Has it empowered protesters to go vote, and get others to vote, for Democratic candidates so that Congress will flip in the midterms? Has it prevented Trump from doing anything that pops into Trump’s head at any given moment, or is it all an exercise in anti-Trump masturbation, where it feels good for a few minutes but produces nothing?
At a time when conservative control of Washington remains complete, in the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court, the marches were a chance for Democrats to make their voices heard and to try to portray Republican domination as teetering.
The protesters seized the opportunity to express their condemnation of Trump, but were their voices heard or were they merely shouting into the abyss?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.
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What did it accomplish? It got more lardasses off the couch and out walking than Jenny Craig and Richard Simmons combined.
It also led to some great signs. I saw one I quite liked, “Rage, rage, against the lying of the Right”*, though I wonder how many people got the joke.
*I’m not convinced those on the Right tell lies appreciably more often than those on the Left, thought Trump’s lies have eclipsed the record previously held by Bill Clinton (in volume if not inventiveness/ creativity).
Let’s be fair. There will be many young progressives similarly unfamiliar with the oeuvre of Dylan Thomas, since he made the unfortunate decision to have not been alive at the same time as said youths. Further, and perhaps even more unforgivably, he was a white, male author, such that in the eyes of many of today’s young radicals, his work and opinions are irrelevant at best and outright oppressive at worst.
As a friend and political operative told me a long time ago – negative campaigning has its place and can stop someone on the margin from voting for a particular candidate. But the negative campaigning won’t motivate them to vote for the other candidate.
To get them to vote the other side, you need to provide a voter with a reason to be motivated in favor of some other candidate.
Where are the leaders of this land? Where are the rallies in support of what makes America great (as the liberals recall it)?
As insane as it seems right now, I fail to see the democrats finding anyone to articulate, let alone embody, a positive rationale as for why some alternate candidate should be handed the keys.
Maybe that’s why we have a “No Kings” protest instead of a rally supporting something.
I’m sure that Congress will flip – maybe even dramatically – at the midterms.
And as Howl points out in the usual musical way, “So what?”
Ironically, it may well be the D congress that ends up taking the blame for the crapstorm that’s unfolding and 2028 could be an election pendulum swing BACK to the Rs….
Truly a popcorn-worthy time we live in!
Sin though it may be, I tend to despair. A horrific confluence of electorate- depravity (that approval rating is STILL 30-36%), a Congress unwilling to rediscover any jealousy of its powers, a temperamental caudillo in decline, and a rogue’s gallery of truly malicious characters in high places…I don’t know what can be done. Every govt action seems to result in decreased living standards, added harassment, greater abridgments to liberty, and lower standing in the world. I plan to continue trying to say things that are true. We’ll see how that works out.
While the No Kings protest was going on, my wife and I were removing invasive weeds from a local park. If we could get one percent of the protestors volunteering locally, our parks would look great.
They could make a real difference to our community but prefer to attend a futile protest.
A No Weeds movement is a practical and metaphorical undertaking I could get behind.
A ‘No Weed’ movement will immediately alienate a significant portion of the populace, particularly in blue states. However the feds have been behind it for decades.
Thanks, LY. It was hanging right there, and I wasn’t the one to pluck it.
Twofer Tuesday.
Thanks, Howl! That made me smile.
It also made me think of (obscure Rob’t Hunter reference), the lyric where Daniel tells the King, “It means your days are numbered, indeed they’re almost run”.
If you shout into the abyss, does the abyss shout back?
Apologies to Nietzsche.