The No Kings protests offer hope -- and peril [View all]

[marmar]

The No Kings protests offer hope — and peril
As millions gather on Saturday, Trump looks for a pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published October 16, 2025 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) 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 2,500 events scheduled in all 50 states.

....(snip)....

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 said, “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.”

....(snip)....

But for Gilbert and millions of others, Saturday’s events “will be a peaceful day of unity and resolve.” She said, “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 told me in a recent 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 said, is reason for hope. .......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/10/16/the-no-kings-protests-offer-hope-and-peril/