Across The Country The Tide Is Turning… Just Not At Any No Kings Protest

 

Well its springtime and that means that the first No Kings Protest of the year has occurred. Yes after months indoors forced to show their vitriol against all things MAGA all the forces that the left can muster put a fresh coat of paint on the anti-Trump signs, readied their buttons and bracelets on their wrists, walked into the bright sunshine across the country and said that they wouldn't take what the President was doing lying down any more. No they'd take it milling around.

All joking aside I have to give them credit. Because the third time was the charm. And I'm pleased to announced that Donald Trump has abdicated the throne.

No, I'm sorry, I got that wrong. But he resigned.

No he didn't do that either. But the Senate impeached him.

No they didn't? But the House introduced articles of impeachment.

They didn't? But the Supreme Court renounced presidential immunity.

They didn't?  Ted Cruz shaved his beard? Steve Bannon got a haircut?

I could go on this line for quite a bit longer and really drive this point into the ground but I'm well aware that the people in these protests, like the forces that inspired them, don't understand satire or sarcasm unless is directed against the right.  (That's basically limited to late night hosts reading Trump's tweets in a funny voice or yelling obscenities at cable newscasters which isn't Noel Coward, but that's neither here nor there.) So let me try being slightly more serious.

I don't like Trump or ninety percent of the things he's said or done before he became President the first time, what he did during that first Presidency, what he said and did after it and what he's doing now. But unlike the people who've been marching in rallies like this the past year and a half and who basically have been doing so for the past decade I've never been convinced that marching and making a loud, discordant noise unto social media for a few hours on a weekend or any other day of the week is the most productive way to do anything about it. I understand their frustration as to how the world is these days, believe me, and there have been signs in the last year in particular that the masses are getting tired of all things Donald Trump. I'm actually going to talk about them later on this article. But my fundamental opinion about the protestors is unchanged from what it was last year, two years ago, a decade ago or really for my lifetime before Trump even entered the political arena.

There are incredible problems in the world today. I won't deny that for a minute, I'm not delusional. I won't deny that things are going to get worse before they get better (though again I do see signs of improvement). What I do deny is that any protest movement – which is the main thing the anti-Trump forces have done pretty much he was elected the first time non-stop – will ever be able to do anything to bring about an ideal world, do anything to stop what Trump is doing, and most of all will continue to contribute to how he originally got his power and how he continues to have a hold on a swathe of the electorate to this day. 

That last part is  the most important because it represents the biggest flaw in the model the left has in what the post-Trump will be. I've mentioned in many previous articles the long term strategy the conservatives have had to gain their foothold in every branch of political power. I don't need to repeat because people at this blog and other have written it countless times over the years. The problem is that even after knowing all of this they have done nothing to change their strategy which pre-dates the rise of Trump and has no track record of success anywhere that counts. The fact that there was a third No-King Protest on Saturday demonstrates their tendency to double down on a failed strategy.

Now I have no doubt that they will argue that this protest was the biggest one yet in history. Which is impressive… but so what? From an organizational standpoint I'll grant it is impressive to organize protests in every state of the union and manage to get millions of people to show up at the same time to express their rage against everything that's going on the country.

The problem is that none of them are going to be the ones that can do anything about what Trump is doing. And the reason I know that for a fact is because this was the same weekend as CPAC.

Yes as I write all of the people that are everything that the people at these protests consider the worst aspect of everything that is wrong with the country, the world, the universe and recorded history are having their annual meeting. And there will be far fewer of them then at a protest that was in California or New York yesterday. But there are quite a few things that make it more important.

First most of the people of there have something none of the people at any of the No Kings protest have. Power and influence with the President of the United States, the conservative movement and the Republican Party.  I may not like any of these people, indeed I openly loathe many, but they're the ones who can make differences in policy involving immigration or what's happening in the Middle East, something no one at the No Kings Protest can claim.

Second these people understand at a basic level that all of their power comes from politics. I suspect they understand the workings of Congress and the Judiciary far more than the left does, if for no other reason then they've had a huge amount in putting many of those people in power in the first place. You'll get no quarrel from me about the damage that Fox News or the Heritage Foundation or the Federalist Society have done to this country but the fact remains these people have power or can talk to people with power. And one of the benefits of having power is you can ignore the people who you find disagreeable to your vision. To be sure those at the protests are doing the exact same thing except they have no power of their own to counter it.

Third I have no doubt people at these protests will talk about the size of the movement as if it matters. Except all of those people gathered, expressed their outrage at MAGA for a few hours – and then went home thinking they'd accomplished something because social media and the news covered them. As I made clear satirically above they did not: Trump is still President, for the next several months at least he controls both houses of Congress and while the Supreme Court has been showing signs of occasionally breaking with him in recent months, there is still a conservative supermajority. That was true the day before the protest and it was true the day after.

By contrast the CPAC gathering – which will absolutely use what happened this weekend to make points about the 'radical left' and why we have to use this to protect America -  has one mission in mind. It's the same one they always have: we have to keep Republicans in power no matter what.  They understand that crowd size only matters if you come away with a mission statement at the end of it and all of their meetings are based on that simple statement.  Vote Republican so we can keep America safe from 'them'.

Both the right and the left know who they mean by them. The difference, aside from the left considering that label a badge of honor, is that the right knows what needs to be done to complete their mission and the left will do anything but that to complete theirs.

I've seen this play out over and over in the 21^st century: protests against the WTO, the War on Iraq and then the War on Terror; the marches about economic inequality reaching their 'heights' at Occupy Wall Street; endless marches about police involved shootings and police brutality, whether it is Defund the Police or Black Lives Matter, the marches about Gaza across campuses during 2024 and some time beyond it, anti-ICE marches, basically every major march involving the rights of a minority or an identity group that is being abused, disenfranchised or obliterated. The people at these protests are angry and discontented and will show it. For a day, or a week. Then they go home and nothing changes.

 Oh, that's right: Fox News and hard right politicians will show the noise and anger in the street, argue it is signs of the 'radical left' and tell their viewers to vote Republican to make sure America is safe. Their viewers do that. Things get worse. More protests happen, lather, rinse, repeat.  You on the left will always argue about how morally bankrupt the right is for showing these things 'out of context' to 'brainwash the people in Middle America' and yet you never draw the obvious conclusion which is not to protest.

There's also another alternative: you could form your own think tanks, your own PACS, try to take over a political party the way the people at CPAC have managed to do. Oh wait, you did try that. You formed the Justice Democrats in the aftermath of the 2016 election and it was by any rational standard a complete failure.  You've got the Squad and Mamdani after a decade. The entire group of people sworn to your beliefs in the political arena could meet in a small tent outside Berkeley and get your agenda done over lunch.

But, you say over and over, look the crowds at our protests! That's the people. Here's the thing. I'm pretty sure most of the people protesting at No Kings are the same people who've been at every protest movement in my lifetime: some of them  older and grayer, but not much smarter. And the ones you have are mostly college age and upper class. To use terminology I know people at these protests are very familiar with it's not the proletariat showing up at the No Kings Protests, it's the bourgeoisie. Always has been.  For all you're saying: "We're the 99 percent!", honestly at best it's the 10 percent who've been showing up.

When the right organizes to get power, they strategize for months and engage in long-term planning, something you're aware of. The most long-term planning I've seen the left do is staging these protests and that's for one day, three times in the last year and a half.  And what was the point? To remind us that you still hate Trump and MAGA. I'm pretty sure we all knew that without you having to remind us in person. It's not like you haven't spent the six months between the last one silent about everything they're doing to destroy the country. Something, for the record, people like me are perfectly, painfully capable of finding out for ourselves without you having to remind us in long articles in liberal publications or online. At the very least I'd have expected you to come up with something we could do to stop what is happening but you really haven't figured that part out in the decade since Trump arrived, in the 21^st century, the period before that or really since at least the Vietnam War.

What makes this all the more annoying is the fact that there are very promising signs that people are sick of Trump and have been happening ever since he took office. There called election and Democrats have been overperforming in them since last March ever since two Democrats outperformed in two Florida Congressional vacancies just six months after Trump was sworn in. They didn't win, any more than the vacancy in Tennessee last December but Aftyn Behn did overperform compared to last year.

And we've seen this play out in state and local elections across the country. To date Democrats have flipped 28 Republican statehouse seat in the last year while Republicans have yet to flip one. The one you might have heard the most about what the Florida statehouse seat in the district where Mar A Lago is located. There was another flip that same night not far away. Miami and Boca Raton have elected their first Democratic Mayors in nearly thirty years. I'm not saying Florida will be turning blue or even purple any time soon but it gives one hope.

Nor is Florida the only red state where we've seen these miracles. Two Iowa statehouse seats went Democratic for the first time in nearly thirty years in 2025, a Texas statehouse seat that was plus 19 Republican went Democratic in January and we even flipped one in Louisiana this February. None of these have gotten the same publicity as Mamdani's win or even Abigail Spangenberger or Mikey Sherill's last November but they are for more hopeful for Democratic hopes this November.

Congressional Republicans know this and are retiring in droves. As of today 38 House Republicans have announced their retirement, the most since 2018 when the last blue wave came. Democrats are sure to take the House back in November, the only question is how big the margin will be. The Senate is another story but the map is mathematically favorable to the Democrats as the Republicans are defending 23 seats while Democrats are defending only 13.  To be sure in many of them are beyond safe for the Republicans but an increasing number are not at the end of March. By the time the primaries are over even more may be in play for the Democrats.

None of this will appease the impatient nature of the left whose approach to elections at best has always been: "November? But I'm angry now!"  And considering that even after 2016 and well into the second term there are still quite a few people out there who will still say there is no difference between the two parties (many of them are no doubt the loudest voices at No Kings I have no doubt) I suspect this won’t make them any happier even if the Democrats end up sweeping in a huge margin in 2026.

But that's to be expected because these same people were just as pissed when Biden won in 2020 and didn't the day before he was sworn in enact every single aspect of the Justice Democrat platform, expel every single Republican in both Houses of Congress, appoint ten liberal judges to the Supreme Court and execute every single member of the Trump family on the steps of the capitol at dawn. That's the real irony of these particular protests. Many of them would be absolutely fine if the President had the powers of a king as long as he punished the people they think of as 'worthy' and smote those they thought of as 'evil'.  They've always thought the President – regardless of political party -  can merely push a button and make the government work as he sees fit and the only reason he doesn't is because he wants to 'own the left'.

That's the greatest irony of the 'No Kings protests'. The majority of the people there were never fond of democracy when it was working perfectly and made it clear for decades before 2016. They wouldn't mind if Trump destroyed democracy if he was doing it so that their agenda was realized. It's because he's doing it for the people at CPAC that they're upset about the Imperial Presidency.

The thing is democracy still exists, battered and bruised but still functioning. In November the voter is going to get a chance to send a message to those in power that is far more effective than anything that these protests will ever accomplish. I still agree with Churchill that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. And in the last year and a half its been proving to me it still works.  That's where I'll be showing up in the next weeks and months to prove there are No Kings.