There was some discussion on BlueSky about whether No Kings protests were effective, blah, blah, blah. My take on protesting is that any and all of it is good. Plus, liberals / left / progressives have been so demonized by the right-wing media takeover that it’s good to remind everyone that we still exist. In that sense, No Kings is kind of like Pride for progressives. We’re here, we’re proud of what we believe, and we’re mad that some of us have been killed for our beliefs.
Just like every pride is different, every No Kings / 50501 / etc. protest has a different flavor. I’ve been to the downtown Denver one twice, and also one in the suburbs. We also encountered the suburban protesters getting off of the train that we were taking downtown — they were definitely older and whiter than the Denver crowd, which, because it’s Denver, was still pretty white. There were also some kids dressed up, in this case in princess garb:
As we got off of the packed bus and walked to the state capitol building yesterday, there was a spontaneous whoop of joy from a young hispanic woman attending her first protest. She was excited. Her people were there.
The signs were often profane and angry, because things are fucked up. The time for gentle messaging is over. There was marching, there was a band, there was anger. Like a lot of other political events, it’s not clear what will come of it, but that’s OK too. I hope that some traditional Democrats in Colorado are frustrated with No Kings, or scared of the energy, or worried that they might lose their primary because they are too timid about fighting Republican authoritarianism. Judging from the signs, the marchers want impeachment, they want a fight, and they want it now. Good.
