No Kings rallies were staged nationwide last weekend, drawing several million protesters. Anti-Trump protesters said the exercise was a huge success, setting the stage for political action that would topple Donald Trump and his administration.
Trump supporters dismissed the No Kings protests as a political nothing burger attended mainly by white retirees who should have spent the weekend with their grandchildren.
Here's my take on the No Kings assemblies:
First, "No Kings" is a poor slogan for a call to arms against the Trump administration. As several critics have noted, Donald Trump won the presidential election with 77 million votes and a solid majority of electoral votes. How can those election results be squared with the charge that Trump has undermined democracy?
Trump's critics charge him with acting regally and unconstitutionally--particularly concerning his efforts to deport illegal aliens. Yet virtually every one of Trump's policy actions has been challenged in the courts.
Trump has won some court battles and lost others, but the fact that our system of government permits judges to annul Trump's executive actions belies the charge that he is behaving like a monarch. To my knowledge, his administration has defied a court order.
Second, the leftist media has framed the No Kings rallies as grassroots protests with broad support across all racial and economic sectors. However, photographs of protesters show them to be mostly retirement-age white people. And these events were funded by foundations and organizations linked to left-leaning billionaires. The Durden Dispatch reported that ultrawealthy benefactors donated almost a third of a billion dollars to help underwrite the No Kings events and that George Soros's ancient fingerprints were all over the project.
Finally, the protesters' utter lack of seriousness undermines any argument that a cross-cultural rebellion is brewing against President Trump. Videos of protests in cities across the United States showed attendees dressed in inflatable costumes. Indeed, people who identified with the "furry" movement showed up at No Kings events dressed like animals.
I happen to be reading the first volume of Rick Atkinson's masterful history of the Revolutionary War, and I am struck by the contrast between the no-king Americans of 1776 and last week's decidedly unserious protesters. The Americans who fought King George's armies risked being blown to pieces by British muskets and artillery or freezing to death crossing the Delaware River in December.
I don't think the people who wore chipmunk costumes to last week's "No Kings" rallies have the moxie to do anything courageous to oppose the Trump administration--other than perhaps sending a small check to National Public Radio.
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