A 'No Kings March' to Nowhere. Again.
October 20, 2025
I have come to believe that we Americans mistake symbolic action for real sacrifice and expect the same outcome either way. - Christine Merser
People keep asking me why I don’t support the new Kings Day marches.
I’m a strategist. America might be the only country in the world that marches to nowhere. In Iran, citizens took to the streets with a clear demand that women no longer be forced to wear hijabs. In Bolivia, people flooded the streets demanding that their president step down, and as the crowds grew larger, he had to flee the country.
We don’t have a king. Watching mostly over-fifty white people with signs they made the night before mocking Donald Trump, then high fiving themselves for standing out there for a few hours every few months, makes me sad. Not angry, sad. Because I understand the impulse. It feels good to stand next to others who agree with you, to share outrage and feel like you’re part of something bigger. That sense of unity, the energy of being like-minded and focused on a common villain, is heady. But have we learned nothing from MAGA? That kind of solidarity built on anger feels powerful in the moment, yet it rarely builds anything lasting.
If we want to participate, do something that truly matters. Go on the school board. Join the library board. Canvas. Run for office. Talk to someone who should be running and promise to help them. Show up at the courthouse and demand real justice. Reach out to our undocumented neighbors who are being targeted and give them our phone number. There are so many real ways to make a difference. Instead, I watch my fellow citizens marching on a bridge to nowhere, and I wish that energy could be redirected into work that leaves a mark.
When I have put my feelings in front of others, they respond, “There is nothing I can do. This at least is me doing something.” Really? I think that philosophy needs some reworking.
So it gives people comfort, a sense that they’ve taken a stand when they really haven’t. A stand is when you say, stop illegally pulling people off the street or I will not leave the street. And, more and more people take to the streets, and they can’t stop it, and so they realize they can’t keep doing what they are doing. That is doing something. And, I promise you I will be there for that.
If everyone marched and said they would keep marching until the Epstein files were released, they would have been released. If people marched to demand that Johnson swear in the deciding vote that should have been sworn in a month ago, we’d be getting somewhere.
We are the only nation that treats protest as performance. And because of that, we’ve become a punchline. And all those clever signs about kings let people who simply want healthcare and stability for their families say, “see, the liberals are lost too.”
The worst moment for me was talking to a few young people who work in a coffee shop where the protest was taking place. They told me how it felt when marchers, mostly over fifty and white, came in and scolded them for not being out on the streets. Really. On a Saturday. When it would have cost them their jobs. Marching on a Saturday works for some people, but not for everyone. And, because you went out with friends and family on a sunny day and grinned (what are you smiling at?), you can tell someone else that they should do it too? Oh my.
Just look at the coverage. The New York Times barely mentioned the march. The Associated Press ran a short wire story. A few regional papers picked it up, and that was about it. Ten years ago, a national protest like this would have filled front pages and dominated the nightly news. Now, it’s a footnote. Even the media seems to understand that it’s no longer a story.
So that’s why. I’m not against protest. I’m against pretending it has an end game. I’m disturbed that this has become the American way, where we don’t really have to give up anything. Third march. No one changed even one behavior. We can just put on a show and feel righteous about it. I include myself in that. I’m struggling with my own commitment, but I know the difference between when I’m sacrificing for my country and when I’m not.
As you know, I so agree with you on many levels of this. But I have a little personal story that is opening my mind to what is possible. I went to Plymouth to meet my daughter's soon to be mother in law for the first time. A lovely woman - we instantly connected. She lives in central Florida and is not very involved in her community. Never having done anything like this, she attended the protest with us at Plymouth Rock with an open heart and mind. She was inspired by the whole experience. We talked about how other forms of activism and community involvement are happening as a result. She expressed a desire to look into groups back home in her own community. Maybe she will, maybe she won't but seeds are being planted. I want to believe that underneath the "performative" piece of this is a building of a new foundation and shift in consciousness even if it happens one person at a time.
I believe we need an “everything everywhere all at once” strategy and the No Kings rallies are just one “thing” in the mix.
For people in red areas, it’s helpful to see that you’re not alone and that there are many like minded people. For those who are already engaged, it’s a pep rally to keep up resisting. It’s a public way to take back the flag and be patriotic. It shows businesses, civil servants, and even elected officials that there are massive numbers of people who are not OK with what this administration is doing, which may give them some strength to stand up and do what’s right too.
People often compare today’s US to 1930s Germany, and for sure there are a lot of disturbing similarities. But one big difference is there weren’t any massive protests against Germany’s move to authoritarianism back then. Of course, they didn’t have the means of communication that we have today.
It’s important to acknowledge that the numbers are even bigger than the 7M+ people who were physically holding signs and waving flags. There were probably millions more who drove by honking and waving, or who cheered along quietly inside because they felt personally unsafe joining in themselves (which itself is heartbreaking).
Silence is complicity, so for that reason alone these protests are important.
Lastly, for those who signed up for their local protest, they’re receiving frequent emails and/or texts with other actions and next steps to continue to resist and throw sand in the cogs in the gears grinding deeper and deeper into authoritarianism.