Don’t just party and go home. Again.
Not to be a complete downer this morning, an anecdote about No Kings 3 tomorrow. I chatted the other day with a neighbor I had not seen in years. Standing in her yard as I walked by, she told me she planned to attend Asheville’s No Kings rally on Saturday. She has never attended a protest in her life, she said. Her husband planned to attend as well. The last time he joined a protest, she said, he was running from police in Chicago. Nearly 60 years ago. That means something.
I plan to attend out of solidarity, but do not expect much to come of another nationwide rally four months apart. Consistency matters. Few have the endurance for it, even if they are angrier now than at No Kings 1 or 2. The protests are cathartic, a national primal scream. Then people go home. Things will change when they refuse to.
Paul Waldman writes this morning about what lessons Democrats should take from the 3,000+ rallies planned for tomorrow:
The first and most obvious one is that people are mad, and anger is one of the most powerful motivators in politics. Don’t let the festive costumes and funny signs mislead you; millions of people won’t turn out to protest unless they’re seriously fed up.
Democrats talk a good game about fighting without backing it up with actions. It’s why people perceive the national Democratic Party as weak. Take risks. Your actions have to mate up with your apocalyptic rhetoric. Show us what you got.
Waldman continues:
The second lesson of the No Kings rallies is that this moment isn’t just about Trump — but in the short term it’s still mostly about Trump. It can’t be denied that without a president so horrid in so many ways, this kind of mobilization wouldn’t be possible. We’ve seen large protest movements before, but never one focused so intently on the issue-spanning idea that the inhabitant of the White House is a danger to the country.
Maybe stop criticizing his policies as if Trump is anything resembling a normal president. Focus that anger on him. He’s weakened. Recent election flips prove it. Hammer his weaknesses.
As Rachel Maddow recently pointed out, Trump has committed an extraordinary number of abuses of power just since the last No Kings event, including bulldozing the East Wing of the White House, trying to arrest six members of Congress for explaining the moral and legal obligations of servicemembers, slapping his name on the Kennedy Center, waging war on the city of Minneapolis, and starting what increasingly looks like it will be a disastrous war in Iran. Anyone who was angry and frustrated before has even more reason to be so now.
Trump is weakened. Recent election flips prove it. Hammer his weaknesses.
Which leads to the next lesson of No Kings: Act like you’re the majority, because you are. The last No Kings event drew 7 million participants, according to the organizers; other estimates put the figure only slightly smaller. Either way, it was the biggest one-day protest in American history. While that may be a minority of the public, you don’t get that many people out in the streets unless they represent tens of millions more who didn’t participate.
Trump’s numbers are in the toilet. His cabinet members’ cringeworthy licking of his boots simply amplifies that impression and highlights weak wills no bluster, tattoos, or pushups can conceal. These are people Americans should be ashamed to have in leadership. Democrats should pull no punches in broadcasting it and making Team Trump feel it.
Waldman points out that underlying the surface anger is the same unease (mislabeled The Deep State) that helped elevate Trump in 2016. But it’s not civil servants who really have average Americans by the short hairs. That was Trump misdirecting anger the way he blames immigrants for people’s economic woes (NBC News):
According to the latest NBC News survey, 59% of registered voters agreed that those systems are stacked against them, while 38% disagreed with that sentiment and 3% were not sure. The share who agreed with that notion tied a high point in April 1992, a record set after NBC News began polling this question in 1988.
An overwhelming share of voters (84%) say they agree with the statement that “the very rich and powerful are above the law when they do something wrong, they look out for each other, using their power and connections to get special treatment,” while 14% disagree and 2% agree.
Waldman adds:
It matters to people that this president is so nakedly corrupt, that the Supreme Court is controlled by partisan hacks, that America’s image around the globe lies in tatters, and that the entire federal government has been degraded. They can see the connections between the way power operates and the fact that they don’t have affordable health care or better wages. Politicians have to show they understand that too.
The key lesson I’ve learned from my streetcorner and overpass antics of the last seven months is that people feel unseen by either major party. The first Gen Z woman who spoke in the Bulwark Focus Group I mentioned Monday said just that. It’s one thing to hear it or to read about it. It’s another to experience it in person day after day out on the street. Democrats who pitch policies before communicating that they see Americans’ struggles are tone deaf.
Waldman finishes up by emphasizing (again) that mobilizing is not organizing. Democrats are good at the first. Republicans are better at wrapping their partisans in movements that make being citizen activists part of their identities.
If Democratic politicians can understand these lessons, they can take them into governing the next time they win power. Then maybe they’ll actually make progress on creating the change all those protesters are demanding.
See you in the streets tomorrow.