Make No Kings bigger
Who can forget then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s fiery pronouncement on the size of Trump’s first inauguration crowd? I’d like to. Spicer declared it “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.” Because for Donald Trump it’s always about size.
That’s why the White House is so anxious about the No Kings protests set for this weekend. About five million took to the streets to protest Trump in June. More than 2,400 protests are planned for Saturday, about 450 more than June.
The White House is sweating. The word has gone forth to brand Saturday events “Hate America” rallies:
For more than a week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and other GOP leaders have cast the “No Kings” rallies as un-American, using increasingly hyperbolic language. Johnson and other members of House GOP leadership, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise (Louisiana), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (Minnesota), and Republican Conference Chair Lisa C. McClain (Michigan), have all described the protests as events for people who “hate America,” with Johnson and Emmer going as far as to suggest they are meant to appease a “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party.
“We call it the ‘hate America’ rally that will happen Saturday. Let’s see who shows up for that,” Johnson said Wednesday at a news conference with other House GOP leaders. “I bet you you’ll see Hamas supporters, I bet you’ll see antifa types, I bet you’ll see the Marxists on full display, the people who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic.”
Like the separation of powers, Mike? Like respect for the law and the courts? Like defending the protections in the Bill of Rights?
Trump has reduced Johnson to a figure so comical it would be tragic if not for it being Mike Johnson.
“If you offer any criticism of this government, then you ‘hate America’? That’s ridiculous, un-American and unpatriotic,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said in a video. “The fact is our country was founded on the idea that everyone has … a constitutionally-protected right to speak up and protest your government, especially when you think they have become lawless and corrupt.”
I’ve never been a fan of protest rallies. They tend to be catharic, feel-good events as substantial as cotton candy. People tend to go home and sit back down on their couches. What I’m seeing on the ground here, however, is a groundswell. Growing weekly sign protests across the county. A couple have grown from a handful of die-hards to 40-50.
We are faced with an authoritarian clique in Washington that sets a lot of store by spectacle. By size. Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and his creation of his own secret police is all about initimidation.
Your job tomorrow is to intimidate right back. Bigly.
And on being branded antifa:
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Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
No King’s One Million Rising movement – Next national day of protest Oct. 18
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