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No Kings Marches are Just Memes, Empty as Social Media “Content”
I’m behind on the news. Did the No Kings marches across America finally change everything? Did Trump vanish, Greta ascend, and democracy restore itself?
I actually swung by the local No Kings march. A lot of the crowd were seniors, almost all white in our blue state, decked out in tie-dye for the women, grey ponytails for the men, and bandanas for the dogs. To them he was Donny Dementia, Impotus, Orange Man (many variations), Mango Mussolini, Hitler stuff, The Lying King, Cheeto Benito, Comrade tRump, and many more unprintable here. Back in the day many of these same marchers could only come up with “Tricky Dick” to call out Nixon.
Their signs reflected the variety of issues under protest, including some oldies but goodies like reprising endless demands around abortion rights, freeing Palestine again, Defund the Cops and Black Lives Matter, Abolish ICE, of course, and multiple ones saying if Kamala or Hillary were president we’d all be having brunch now. One adjacent said “No Kings, Maybe a Queen Someday.” They don’t seem to fear dictators who’ll dictate the right way, I guess. Points for funny slogans to attract “likes” for the sign; there was a “No Kings But Burger King” and one which read “Tylenol Over Tyranny.” A favorite was “Ikea has a Better Cabinet.” Leftists could even get away with homophobic mockery about Putin they’d condemn from the other side.
It was clear almost anything fit under the No Kings meme. In fact the whole thing was simply a 3-D version of what Democratic social media has become. Everything was perfect until Trump and anything from your Netflix bill to war anywhere could be fixed today if Trump would disappear. Words like “fascism” were just pop synonyms for “stuff I don’t like.” What stood out most of all was the sense that the people may be united, not on the range of topics represented, but on their childish hatred of one man.
At the same time as all this righteous anger, the protests offered no road map for restoring institutional balance or civic trust. The lack of cause specificity in the signs was not accidental; it was integral to the movement as emotional glue to attract enough marchers to secure TV coverage. Like many modern protest movements, No Kings thrived as social media, where symbolism and identity matter more than outcomes. The movement’s decentralized nature allowed anyone to participate without hammering out a specific agenda. However, that same openness made it difficult to hold anyone accountable or to sustain pressure on political institutions. And once the marches ended, participants returned to comfortable partisan echo chambers.
It was thus no surprise that in the crowd ignorance was bliss, as random conversations with marchers suggested a wet blanket-like naivety about real Nazism and Hitler, or the mechanics of impeachment or the 25th Amendment, both of which had their supporters. Both crews seemed under-informed that successful employment of either would lead to an equally-hated President Vance that same day.
What made the protest’s moral certainty most jarring was how little awareness there was of how ongoing and bipartisan the “king problem” has been. There seemed no sense that Trump’s didn’t “create the danger of presidential dictatorship, he inherited it.” No one remembered any No Kings marches when George W. Bush granted himself vast powers of domestic surveillance, and to imprison people without due process after 9/11. No one protested much when Bush, without a word from the Supreme Court or Congress, tortured prisoners at secret dark sites and then allowed his CIA to destroy most of the evidence. Obama ordered wedding parties in Afghanistan drone killed while sipping coffee in the Oval Office, and authorized the assassination of American Citizens via those same drones without any due process. He started and/or continued undeclared wars in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan. His use of the Espionage Act against journalists was egregious and authoritarian. Joe Biden essentially cancelled his party’s presidential primaries and tried to appoint a chosen successor. His FEMA workers improperly collected data about political affiliation of disaster victims. The politicized distribution of hurricane aid money before the 2024 election was no “isolated incident,” a Homeland Security report concluded. Nobody wants to admit America has a bipartisan comfort with executive over-reach on their side. The new boss looks a lot like the old boss, just at times poorly mannered.
“Millions flooded the U.S. streets for the No Kings protests,” wrote one Substack pundit, “to oppose a monarchy which does not exist without making a single tangible demand. Power was not challenged in any meaningful way. The status quo wasn’t disrupted in the slightest.” It was catharsis, self-therapy for political anxiety. It was theatre. It was a self-delusion that watching Gavin Newsom lose in 2028 would be an act of revolutionary resistance. The good news is the No Kings I observed broke up on time, as an unrelated Pride group had a permit to march right after them.
The sad thing is this group of people actually thought they represented moral America. They ignored with gusto the reality that roughly half of the nation voted for Trump and a large number continue to support Trump and his broader political philosophy, especially on immigration. There was no attempt among the marchers to persuade anyone, simply to condemn ideas, many deeply held by the Republican electorate. The marchers served as little more than a reminder of how the Democratic party lacks any real affirmative vision beyond opposition. Without sustained engagement in electoral politics or detailed proposals for reform, No Kings, like Occupy Wall Street and BLM before it, is just neo-hippie ritual rather than a catalyst for lasting change. Like the people who post nothing but AI-created anti-Trump memes repeatedly to their Facebook accounts (and this was indeed a Facebook crowd, not a Trader Joe one) there is an immediate sense of accomplishment, that infamous social media dopamine feedback rewarding performance over accomplishment. You know, like holding a march.
That all this is the face of the opposition party is news mostly only to the marchers. Democrats’ struggle to articulate an issues-driven agenda has created a dangerous dichotomy the Wall Street Journal already noted months ago: although many voters are unhappy with Trump, they trust Democrats even less. Only a third of Americans view them favorably, the lowest for decades.
“Who cares,” the White House deputy press secretary wrote about the marches. But the emptiness of No Kings matters because it mirrors the state of politics heading into an election year. If Democrats hope to win over a divided country, they need to move beyond memes and into policies that actually improve lives. Instead, they are deepening the hole by sustaining a government shutdown over an issue few Americans prioritize. If they want to win in 2026 and beyond, they must relearn how to govern for the majority, not just oppose on behalf of a minority. Otherwise it’s just talk — and noise isn’t power.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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Rich Bauer said...
1The definition of insanity is voting for the Party of Grifters and expect them not to rob the taxpayers again. Speaking of grand theft, When VD loses in 2028 and Donnie Dementia and his Ho have to leave the White House or what’s left of it, who is going to inspect the boxes for thousands of classified documents? While prosecuting Bolton for his serious national security violation, the GOP if it wasn’t a minority party would cover up the theft if DD tried that shit again. Of course DD would do it again as the Demented fool probably won’t remember he stole classified documents the last time.
10/28/25 7:13 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2NODRAFTKINGS Day
Now that the Mad Maralongo King has declared fishing boats a clear and present danger, HeadUphisAss will head the Department of Death or MurderInc. and have total authority to target any NoKings protestors as terrorists. Also, as recruitment for ICE is ice cold lately, HeadUphisAss has initiated a NoDraftKings program for all those federal workers who got RIF notices. And for all you SNAP freeloaders, if you want to eat, get your applications for ICE in first. Winter is coming.
10/29/25 9:47 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3Mad Kings Day
When will Peter write his next novel addressing the moral injury experienced by our military following the Mad King’s orders in murdering unarmed/alleged/drug smugglers/migrants on boats thousands of miles away from the US? Dont hold your breath, folks. MAGA don’t want to read that crap. You can bet history won’t be so kind to those who kept silent about these murders. You can also bet you won’t read about it because billionaires who control the media like Bezos don’t want to rile the Mad King.
The title of the book Peter should write for the history of the fall of the US is “When did the Generals realize Trump was insane.”
10/29/25 10:55 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
4Bauer- Americans were fine with napalming innocent villagers in distant lands to keep the spread of zombie communism from reaching their shores. They are perfectly fine with blasting boats with drugs in distant waters. There were no Nuremberg trials for what we Americans did in South East Asia. I think we’re in a vastly different world from the immediate aftermath of WWII where awful behavior could result in executions of losers by winners. We’ve perhaps entered the shrug era of our empire.
10/30/25 9:10 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
5“The sad thing is this group of people actually thought they represented moral America. They ignored with gusto the reality that roughly half of the nation voted for Trump and a large number continue to support Trump…”
This large number are either sheep wanting to get fleeced or predators wanting to do the fleecing. The Party of Grifters has a larger percentage of the predators who owe their loyalty to the Great Predator.
10/30/25 10:50 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
6It would be ironic that the descent into MAGA MADNESS began with the fat slob descending Trump Tower on an escalator and end with his fatal fall down Air Force One steps. Dementia patients are prone to fatal falls. Break a leg, DD.
10/30/25 4:25 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
7JP,
Yes, it is sad the common clay of the West, you know…morons, keep falling for the sky is falling. Of course this is not exclusive to the West as it is a defect in the primitive tribal brain at this stage of evolution and easily exploited by predators like Putin, Hitler, Trump, Bush W. (Cheney), LBJ, etc.
If these predators would tell their idiot followers the truth that they were expendable for profit, one would hope they would react like the MAGA MORONS who complain when THEIR PROFITS stand to lose as Trump imports Argentine beef to keep beef price inflation under 20%.
As for the Trump mass murders on the high seas, every AMERIKAN that stays silent is complicit in them. If anyone actually is charged with murder by the ICC, expect the tribe to stay silent. The United States is not a party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) because it has not ratified the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court. Key reasons include concerns that the court could prosecute American soldiers and officials, and that the court’s structure poses a threat to US sovereignty. Despite not being a member, the US has sometimes cooperated with the ICC on specific cases, such as sharing evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Good thing Hypocrisy is not a crime.
10/30/25 9:29 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
8Trumpists admit they don’t need to know who they are murdering..
The Trump administration has admitted that they are not trying to identify anyone aboard boats they accuse of sending drugs to the U.S. before bombing the vessels.
Speaking to CNN Thursday, Democratic Representative Sara Jacobs said she was told in a Pentagon briefing “that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessel to do the strikes” and that was part of the reason why the administration has not sought to detain or prosecute the survivors of the strikes, “because they could not satisfy the evidentiary burden.
Even the Mafia has more requirements before they whack someone.
10/30/25 9:43 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
9If Department of Death Peter HeadUphisAss ventures out of the US after the Trump Crime Family is kicked out of DC, he will be sent to a foreign prison for murder. Then he will have to worry about other things up his ass.
10/31/25 8:19 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
10“Who cares,” the White House deputy press secretary wrote about the marches. But the emptiness of No Kings matters because it mirrors the state of politics heading into an election year.”
Maybe it does in Virginia.
In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger heads into the final weekend of the campaign for governor with a substantial lead among likely voters over Republican Winsome Earle-Sears. On an initial vote preference question, 55% favor Spanberger, 41% Earle-Sears, and 4% are undecided.
In a state closely divided along party lines — 32% of likely voters identify as Democrats and 31% as Republicans — Spanberger’s lead results from drawing a slightly larger share of Democrats (97%) than Earle-Sears does among Republicans (92%) and holding a big lead among Independents (58% to 34%).
The survey shows Spanberger with a modest lead among white voters (51% to 46%) and much bigger margins among Hispanics (61% to 24%) and Black voters (81% to 17%).
10/31/25 9:38 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
11No Kings Flights either
As of Friday, half of the 30 busiest airports were experiencing staffing shortages, including in Boston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Nashville, Houston, Dallas and the Washington, D.C., area.
The shortages are “leading to widespread impacts,” the FAA said. Airports in the New York City area have been hit the hardest, where 80% of controllers are absent. And last week, flights out of Los Angeles International Airport were temporarily halted due to traffic controllers calling out sick.
So no flights available will ground the Mad King?
11/1/25 5:31 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
12The Nobel Peace Prezidunce Strikes Again
DD: If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”
It is a damn shame the world didn’t give this prezidunce his award.
11/1/25 7:57 PM | Comment Link
RichhBauer said...
13For those keeping score, der fatso little dick-hater, who was in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize, has issued threats against Venezuela, Colombia, Nigeria, Canada, BLM, South Park, Seth Meyers, SNL, and the guy who stopped the United Nations escalator. My god, those Epstein Files must be a real threat to this lowlife.
11/1/25 10:40 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
14The Don makes three more swim with the fishes
Trump, Headsuphisass, and others murdered 3 more people last night and the homicides near 100 people, and they expect you to take their word for it that they were transporting drugs and accept it. They murder whoever they want whenever they want.
Don Dementia: Nice little democracy you got here. Would be a shame if something happened to it.
11/2/25 9:07 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
15MAGA getting murdered in 2026
NBC POLL: one year before the 2026 midterm elections, Democrats lead Republicans in the fight for Congress by 8 points, 50%-42%, the largest lead for either party on the congressional ballot in the NBC News poll since the 2018 midterms.
11/2/25 11:18 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
16Donnie Dementia’s greatest fear is getting eaten by sharks. The guy is a prophet. His approval rating is underwater by 20 points. The sharks are circling. He is taking the USS MAGA with him.
11/3/25 10:25 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
17Donnie Dementia: Let them eat yellowcake
While the Fools Gold Prezidunce held his feast for the RICH on the week he cut food stamps for the poor, DD recreated the Repug strategy on yellowcake WMD of lying US into war on false premise. While the corrupt administration has claimed the boats that have been targeted were attempting to bring drugs to the US, a US official has told Drop Site News that many of the vessels that have been struck “do not even have the requisite gasoline or motor capacity to reach US waters.” These war criminals have also framed the bombing campaign as a response to fentanyl-related deaths in the US, but the US official speaking to Drop Site also noted that little to no of the fentanyl in the US comes from Venezuela, where most of the boats targeted in the Caribbean have come from.
The latest US strike on a boat comes amid growing criticism of the military campaign in Congress over the lack of transparency and information. The Pentagon admitted to Democratic lawmakers in a briefing that it doesn’t know the identity of the people it has been killing. Hegseth has also included the bombing campaign in a list of topics military officials aren’t allowed to discuss with Congress without first receiving authorization from the War Department.
Even Judy Miller would be ashamed. The good news is Peter may get a fat State Dept contract in Venezuela after DD destroys the place.
11/3/25 12:59 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
18WINSOME, LOSE SOME
It is a sad situation in Virginia where Donnie Dementia refuses to call the poor black woman candidate for governor by her name. Yes, he doesn’t have the verbal ability in his demented state to pronounce it correctly, but still “fight like hell,man.” The poor black woman needs Trump to come to Virginia and give her a hug like the flags he molests. The poor black woman is about to lose her government job, man. Of course the poor black woman could replace the Fuckner black woman on Faux News.
The Winsome loser suggests that job loss is a common experience, asking the crowd, “How many here have ever lost a job?” When some respond affirmatively, she continues: “Oh, you mean it’s not unusual? It happens to everybody all the time? Okay.” She concludes by criticizing the media coverage surrounding the layoffs, saying, “The media is making it out to be this huge, huge thing. And I don’t understand why.”
The reaction from union officials and political opponents was swift.
“She was caught on tape saying she doesn’t know why this is a huge deal,” said Christine Surrette, national vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) District 4 and a former VA employee.
She will be just another unemployed government worker. Win some, lose some. No big deal.
11/4/25 9:01 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
19“The Best POLLING Numbers…if you aren’t MAGA”
Donald Dementia is slipping into an alternate reality as he described a political landscape in which he’s “getting the best Polling Numbers” of his career, thanks to public satisfaction with the economy and “rapidly falling Energy prices.”
Trump’s approval rating in the poll stands at 37%, the worst of his second term in CNN polling and roughly equivalent to his 36% approval rating at this point in his first term. And his disapproval rating, at 63%, is numerically the highest of either term, one point above the previous high of 62% as he was leaving office in January 2021.
Best polling numbers. I always thought DD was a double agent intent on destroying the Party of Grifters,
11/4/25 9:22 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
20No Kings DD just a Duke and Duke and JD getting Desperate Trading places
The Big Plan to retain corrupt GoP power was for DD to create chaos so he could fulfill his wet dream of the Insurrection Act. Failing that he expected JD to trade places with him so he could be pardoned for all his official crimes. But JD only cares about himself…and his loveseat.
DD: TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER NOW, END THE RIDICULOUS SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATELY, AND THEN, MOST IMPORTANTLY, PASS EVERY WONDERFUL REPUBLICAN POLICY THAT WE HAVE DREAMT OF, FOR YEARS, BUT NEVER GOTTEN. WE WILL BE THE PARTY THAT CANNOT BE BEATEN – THE SMART PARTY!!!”
After the 2028 election-
JOHNSON: JD, Trump is not well! We’d better call an ambulance!
JD: *FUCK HIM!* Now you listen to me! I want voting reopened *right now*! Get those voting machines back on here! Turn those machines back on!
[shouting, in a pathetic echo throughout the Exchange trading floor and hall]: TURN THOSE MACHINES BACK ON!
11/4/25 9:34 AM | Comment Link