On October 18, close to seven million people took to the streets to attend the anti-Trump No Kings Day protests nationwide. Helicopter recordings showed massive crowds, and multiple events had renowned political figures as speakers. Liberal news outlets such as MSNBC, PBS, NPR and CNN gave their praises to the event. The organizers showed expertise in mobilization and getting people excited to go out to the event to protest the president’s government overreaches. With all that being said, there are many issues with the organization and how it operates. The protests felt weak in demands and there is a lack of action from the No Kings organization. Without these singular events,the spectacles are more like glorified parades than protests.
I want to make clear that this is not an attack on anyone who went to attend the No Kings marches, but rather an analysis and critique of the event itself and similar events.
When you are organizing any sort of protest, some of the main tools are civil disobedience and disruption. If you are protesting against your government, you will need to accept that your movement will more likely than not be demonized by the media. Does No Kings do this? Not really. Their protests are one day events that people show up to in impressive numbers, but outside of this, there isn’t much action. One thing I want to touch on is the RSVP that you can sign for attendance, which is very bizarre. No protest movement, even a safe one like No Kings, should be asking for your personal information in a manner like this, since it can be a danger for people attending. It also demonstrates a strange way to identify the people going, which comes off as very suspicious. I do not believe it is being used for anything nefarious; it is most likely just an email list, but it is still something I find inappropriate for a mass protest.
On the issue of a specific day of protesting, if you want a successful protest movement, the marches should be frequent — about five to 10 a month. You will not always get massive numbers across the country, but there will be consistent opposition, and people will be reminded of what is happening across the country as they are going on their morning walk or commute to work. There also needs to be calls for action outside of the marches, whether that be through donations to an organization that is helping with the cause or through supporting legal fights. No Kings Day works to make sure it is as non-disruptive as possible and, as mentioned earlier, tries to not be attacked by media. Now, optics are important for a protest movement, but they should not be the thing that hamper you and slow progress. There will be people who attack you no matter what you say or do.
The messaging of No Kings Day is concerning because while people are protesting against the things the president is currently doing, it feels as though all the attacks are more centered towards him as a person rather than any specific policies he has or against the institutions that are upholding him. The message feels very incoherent and scattered; people are holding up signs that say “Haha trump is orange” or “if Kamala were president we would be at brunch right now,” insinuating that if Kamala Harris were the president, everything would be fine and there would be no need for big protests. It does not feel like No Kings has a conceivable goal or any demands with these large-scale protests. This is why they do not even seem like protests, but rather glorified spectacles. In order for something like this to be effective, there needs to be a clear message being demonstrated.
Another harmful aspect is that after these events, people go home feeling accomplished for attending even if nothing was necessarily achieved or done. I am not saying that No Kings protests should not be attended, but you should remember that more can and should be done outside of this, and that more will be done if the work is put in. I encourage grassroots political work to push for something. You cannot change the world alone, but you can change your world, and sometimes that is the step to something greater.