Fear and Self-Loathing on No Kings Day

[ericjhensal]

Another No Kings Day is coming up, and we get a new set of packaged pop-up protests across the country. Then Monday, Rachel Maddow will be on MS NOW going through the list of how many people turned up in red districts to protest Trump. Energized picketers will remind anyone who listens that 3.5% of the population in sustained protest is the magic number that topples regimes like Trump's.

At the same time, curmudgeons like me say this Indivisible project is primarily a list-building exercise for mid-term Congressional campaign door-knocking, and that turning out a few thousand faculty and students from a red district's single college town is not a groundswell. And while volunteers are needed and No Kings may be good activist training, its protests are mostly therapeutic anxiety-reduction. They do little to stop the regime. And they do nothing about the deep social problem metastasizing since Ronald Reagan — the problem that drove Trump into office. Twice.

My criticisms of No Kings are not the events themselves, but how I see them falling short in reality versus the broader progressive imagination. This weekend's protests arrive against a much starker landscape after a year spent moving from waiting to witnessing his crimes. As Trump 2.0 unfolds, our understanding of the electorate must match the scale of the challenge. Periodic protests cannot move voters on their own. To understand why, we have to look at the political ground those voters now stand on.

Difficult Ground

Trump is sinking in the polls. The U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February – the third monthly loss in five months – and Trump tariff-driven inflation expectations are now at 6.2%, their highest level since 2022. So no surprise only 29% approve his handling of the economy. And this is before his Iran War and the single largest oil supply disruption in world history: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, sending crude past $100 a barrel and pushing the average U.S. gas price from $2.94 to nearly $4.00 a gallon.

Broader polling reflects the damage. A Reuters/Ipsos poll closing March 24 put him at 36% overall approval. Just 35% support the Iran strikes, against 61% disapproving. Even in the MAGA base, his strong-approve number has slid from 26% to 21%, driven by non-college white women and rural voters worried about the economy. Watching Trump sink in this way must feel like good news to protesters.

However, Americans opposing Trump also find the Democratic Party — especially Members of Congress — weak and ineffective. A Pew survey (October 2025) found 67% of Democrats are frustrated with their own party, with 30% outright angry. YouGov/Economist put congressional Democrats at 21% approval against 68% disapproval. Independents say a pox on both, disapproving of Trump by 41 points (YouGov, February 2026) and giving congressional Democrats a net favorability of -42 points. So no great love for Trump's opposition in our country.

But here is an unexpected fracture in our politics. Americans are pessimistic about – Americans. A Pew survey released March 5, 2026, covering 25 countries, found that the U.S. is the only country where more adults describe the morals and ethics of their fellow citizens as "bad" (53%) than "good" (47%).

To recap: Americans are souring on Trump, see Democrats as hopeless, and distrust each other's morality — all while our economy is tanking and the world sees us as going to hell in a handcart.

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[link:Fear and Self-Loathing on No Kings Day

[Ocelot II]

1. Thanks for your encouragement.

[ericjhensal]

3. wet blanket

Well, no one likes a wet blanket, until something is on fire . This is not about discouraging however, just keeping in perspective what can be accomplished by quarterly protests.

[Lovie777]

2. Nope............

I'll say GQP fear loss of power and that almighty cha-ching.

[Cha]

4. Bull Feathers! .. Is that's Why Dems Are Winning Across

America and Overperforming!?!

Flipping red Seats to BLUE.

Enough Doom & Gloom

[ericjhensal]

5. Just perspective

No gloom and doom here, just grim determination. It is important to not have illusions about what can be done. Remember how enthusiastic everyone was about the size of the Harris events?

[Cha]

6. I'm talking about Reality VS Doom & Gloom perspective..

Democrats are trouncing Republicans in state elections since Trump took office

Democrats have flipped 28 Republican-held seats in state legislatures across the country over the past 14 months, a sign that the GOP is indeed at risk of losing control of the House, and maybe even the Senate, in the midterms.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221093690

[wnylib]

9. After posting your OP, it sounds like gaslighting when

you say that it is not "gloom and doom."

[ericjhensal]

15. we need a revival

If I was gloom and doom, I would have ended my piece with "and we are all condemned to fascism forever" Rather I said we should recognize that the privileged mounted a concerted campaign for decades to alter our political culture and we need a focus to move it back. That protest or even a few good election cycles will not end the problem that gave us Trump twice.

"We do need a social movement to recapture our political self-worth, a grand revival of democracy, not by elections, but within ourselves. Our future faces a greater challenge than defeating one man. Unless we all, as a nation, truly change how we see ourselves as political actors, governments at every level will subvert our pursuit of happiness and deliver us the next Trump — one who will have learned from past mistakes. We must all be Kings, sovereigns with political agency and worth, or abdicate and lose democracy for all."

[usonian]

7. Leaders lead when the people lead them.

This is crucial. They didn't in Germany.

No opposition arose.

We, the people gotta kick butt.

I posted long ago about the people with the track record and following seeming to keep their powder dry while the tyrant goes mostly unchallenged and unaccountable.

Two of them took a vicious public battering from the lowest scum in congress.

It's up to us. Butts move when kicked.

[lame54]

8. There is a King - it's you...

The King of great timing
Jesus Fucking Christ

[DinahMoeHum]

11. Your "concern" is noted.

n/t

[yellow dahlia]

12. If you're not a part of the solution - you're a part of the problem.

I have been conducting a weekly vigil since April of last year.

In my local community there are other weekly visibility events that have been going on since the beginning of this take over. In my immediate vicinity (within a 45 minute drive), I could attend an event five days a week, if I cared to.

The feedback from these events is positive and growing. We spread information and solidarity.

Many of these dedicated activists also spend time engaged in other acts of resistance, such as organizing others and calling Congress critters.

Are you doing what you can to protect our Democracy?

[ericjhensal]

16. working for democracy

We should just not have illusions and realize there are systemic problems beyond what protests or a few election cycles can reach. We thought Trump was done after Biden, everyone was always happy pointing out how large the crowds were at Harris rallies, and here we are today.

The one thing I had to cut because my piece was just getting too long is I appreciate local ongoing work a great deal. The most hopeful thing in America are neighbors stepping up to help neighbors contend with ICE. This is the kind of grassroots work that can grow into a broader, effective resistance.

Perhaps another way to say it is I want to be sure our side runs through the tape. I don't want anyone stopping short because they are reassured by large periodic protests.

[chowmama]

13. I believe there is value to these protests

As long as there go on being crowds in every state, including states, cities, and communities previously assumed to be solidly red, the administration can't pretend to themselves that they have the support of the 'silent majority'. I go back long enough to remember when just shaking your head, voting, but saying nothing, allowed them to claim that they represented the "Real Americans" and that the rest of us were a puny minority of disaffected cranks, easily dismissed.

Of course, they're going to go on pretending it out loud, but nobody will believe them. Our strength in numbers emboldens others to step up and open their mouths as well. It might convince some of them that voting wasn't a waste of their time. We scare the fascists for good reason. And if we also scare a few of our congress critters into stepping up or going home, good. It's time they stopped being the gentlemanly party and started getting something done.

No, this rally isn't going to immediately change anything. Hardly anything immediately does anything. But an avalanche begins with a tiny chunk of snow. And we're already past that point.

[leftstreet]

14. That's a good perspective

I agree with the OP in substance, but you drop an important reminder - we scare the fascists for good reason

[ericjhensal]

17. Necessary but not sufficient

I agree a rally won't change anything immediately and I wrote they are useful. We just should never have any illusions about what needs doing to end fascism. Our problem ultimately cannot be solved by throw weight of protestors or even winning some election cycles. I mean we won in 2020 everyone was gushing about Harris rally crowd sizes in 2024, but here we are.

I go back to days when you could door-knock and find folks who were democrats because they lived through the Great Depression and the New Deal. Since Reagan, the New Deal has been undone and today most of the electorate have no working memory of a government that actually accomplished anything significant. Just look at Obamacare. That was a great leap forward that too many americans were easily convinced was some sort of plot and we lost congress in 2010--because it had been so long since anything like it had happened.

The New Deal wasn't just giving folks relief and a public works job, there was civic education and with the National Labor Relations Act, a protected way to form unions so workers could protect themselves. Programs supported musicians, artists, writers to spread the word that people mattered beyond having a job. This was the culmination of the progressive era and it killed off the remains of the gilded age. The New Deal made government available to the people in a positive way at a scale never seen in our history. Since Reagan so much of that has been undone. We just need to get our country back to those values and expectations.

I can be a wet blanket because I just want everyone to run through the tape and not take large turnouts for more than they are--necessary but not sufficient for change.