The No Kings protests have been spectacular, rising from 5 million at the first No Kings on June 14th last year to an estimated 8 million a few weeks ago in March for No Kings 3. There were over 3,300 organized protests on March 28th across the U.S. — plus others in countries throughout the world.
We can’t depend on the mainstream legacy media. CBS News has been completely taken over. Other networks and publications are cowering under threats of multi-million dollar lawsuits, blocked mergers and FCC retaliation against affiliate stations. Kash Patel has sued The Atlantic this week for $250 million.
Since the election, but even before, the mainstream media has been minimizing and normalizing outrageous and blatantly illegal actions by Trump. I remember when Howard Dean was running for the Democratic nomination in 2004. He was speaking to supporters after the Iowa Caucuses and let loose with the infamous “Dean Scream.” And that was the end. He was finished. A dozen years later Trump was boasting about grabbing women by the pussy and he sailed to victory.
We can no longer depend on any of the standard guardrails. The media is complicit. The Republican Party is now a cult of personality. The Supreme Court has been commandeered. The lower courts are trying to hold their ground, but face strong headwinds including an extraordinary level of death threats. And the Democratic Party is a paper tiger. It growls, but hasn’t much bite.
So it comes down to us.
You and I, workers, and progressives in the middle class are the only force that can (hopefully) stop the insane course this country is on. Unfortunately three mass demonstrations over 10 months isn’t enough, despite how truly impressive they were. This isn’t enough to seize momentum away from the Trump Administration.
May Day Strong
There’s a call for May Day Strong this Thursday, May 1st, billed as a nationwide “no work, no school, no shopping” day of action. I need to examine the people behind it and the events a bit, but in principle I think this is good. A General Strike, which this doesn’t rise to yet, is among the highest forms of labor organization.
Bottom line, we need to do more and we need to do it more often. The movement against Trump and autocracy has to become impossible to ignore. It has to force itself into the national consciousness and the front pages and lead stories of the mainstream news. Washington must be made to feel the sting. A No Kings day of protest each month could be a start.
Viktor Orbán was finally driven from power in Hungary despite 16 years of embedded authoritarianism where he applied all the tools and methods that Trump is working to implement here. The people of Hungary ultimately prevailed and we can to. But for the period ahead this has to be our driving mission.
