The No Kings protests offer hope — and peril

In the four months since more than five million people took to the streets to protest President Donald Trump s dictatorial policies and behavior the administration has rapidly escalated its shock and awe campaign against American democracy The No Kings protests were reportedly one of the largest political marches in U S history On Saturday millions are expected to participate in the latest round with more than events scheduled in all states The need for resistance is urgent Trump has pushed the country even farther into authoritarian territory as Lisa Gilbert co-president of Residents Citizen and an organizer of the No Kings marches put it Trump who promised to be a dictator on day one is acting like a king and he has been empowered by the Supreme Court s conservative majority to behave as such Trump who promised to be a dictator on day one is acting like a king and he has been empowered by the Supreme Court s conservative majority to behave as such He s sent National Guard troops into multiple American cities against the wishes of their governors and mayors Gilbert revealed he s threatened media organizations and comedians pressuring ABC into firing Jimmy Kimmel for jokes on late night TV and he s blatantly ignored court orders The state of the country and our democracy feel more dire than ever before MAGA world has gone on the offense ahead of the protests White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson disparaged the protests as an example of the scourge of left-wing violence Speaker of the House Mike Johnson R-La labeled them a Hate America rally and described Fox News the protests were pro-Hamas and sponsored by antifa These lies and the hostility behind them reflects a larger dynamic Trump is seen by a multitude of of his supporters as a type of god-king on a divine mission In this worldview resisting Trump and the MAGA movement is an act of evil unpatriotic at best and outright treasonous at worst Related Donald Trump s new American Midnight is upon us But for Gilbert and millions of others Saturday s events will be a peaceful day of unity and resolve She disclosed Millions of people are coming together fed up with an authoritarian regime that s forgotten the people it s supposed to serve standing together in the belief that America belongs to its people not to any king or dictator As historian Adam Hochschild reported me in a latest interview when civil society was under attack by President Woodrow Wilson a century ago the country did not have millions of people in the streets The overt resistance created by No Kings he disclosed is reason for hope After the No Kings protests in June a YouGov poll determined that nearly half of Americans supported them while expressed opposition These results were driven by partisanship A large majority of Democrats supported the marches and an almost equally large number of Republicans opposed them Autocrats though are not highly responsive to inhabitants opinion unless they can use it to legitimate their corrupt rule They monitor the society mood for dissent and resistance and in search of opportunities to crush it Democratic processes and inhabitants opinion are treated as tools to manipulate not mechanisms for accountability But America is still a democracy albeit an increasingly weak one and Trump still requirements to maintain a veneer of population advocacy Protests and mass mobilization threaten his legitimacy They counter the narrative that Trump and the MAGA movement enjoy unstoppable popular momentum No Kings will remind political bystanders and the undecided that resistance is not futile Such protests can also send a signal to elites that it may be in their self-interest to reconsider their relationship to the regime Want more sharp takes on politics Sign up for our free newsletter Standing Room Only written by Amanda Marcotte now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat highlighted the moral dimension of collective action T he history of resistance suggests that pro-democracy movements that claim the mantle of moral authority and show care and solidarity in the face of plunder and violence can have an impact she wrote In fact even a tiny percentage of the population often just percent according to one review of flourishing civil resistance movements can make a difference if they mobilize on behalf of democratic values in situations of tyranny Peaceful protests are vital she pointed out allowing activists the chance to model the behaviors the authoritarian state wants us to abandon In a latest essay Ben-Ghiat emphasized how Weak authoritarians fear empathy a sense of justice and morality love for others and collective action All they have is force and lies They may feel immensely empowered right now but those protesting them are on the right side of history But protests and marches also provide an opportunity for autocrats to expand their power Trump has repeatedly signaled his desire to invoke the Insurrection Act which would allow him to navigate around the courts and to legally deploy the military against the American people to put down civil unrest or a rebellion Such a move could also be a prelude to de facto martial law cancelling elections and suspending other civil rights and freedoms Numerous have observed that Trump with his actions against Democratic-led cities like Los Angeles Washington D C Portland and Chicago is looking to create a pretext for a much harsher crackdown This makes Saturday s No Kings protests even more consequential In the event of any violence whether from protesters or agent provocateurs the president will doubtless seize on it to expand his power While central attending No Kings protests is a beginning and not an end It should be seen as a first step of sustained political activity to slow down the Trump administration and MAGA movement s attempts to end multiracial democracy We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in contemporary times to patronage Chauncey DeVega s journalism Beyond the symbolic power of millions of people engaging in corporeal politics one of No Kings the bulk crucial aspects is how it provides spaces for political learning relationship-building agency and self-actualization and coordinating guidance that are necessary to affect long term political and social change Even small actions can make a huge difference when sustained over time Gilbert revealed Everyone should take one more action than they have done before that is how we build a movement Americans are an impatient people we have a short attention span To survive the remaining years of Trump s presidency we will need to unlearn those habits and learn to sit with our discomfort To paraphrase Frederick Douglass power concedes nothing without a demand The struggle to save American democracy will be long and complex It will not be resolved in one day or even days and weeks of marching and organizing What awaits the American people is a generational struggle to save rebuild and strengthen our democracy and to inoculate it against the forces of authoritarianism Read more about this topic Pete Hegseth s press crackdown is backfiring John Roberts is slowly dismantling America How far will Donald Trump go to sell a lie The post The No Kings protests offer hope and peril appeared first on Salon com