Some personal reflections on No Kings, the day after
Like millions of Americans across the United States (and beyond), I spent part of yesterday at a No Kings protest. I attended ours here in Santa Fe, where attendance estimates ranged between 5000-7000, several thousand more than expected. I had the pleasure and honor of being quite involved in the planning and in activities at the protest, working with my marvelous fellow members of Indivisible Santa Fe.
Before the event I did multiple radio interviews and one political podcast for the Santa Fe New Mexican. I also worked hard advising Indivisible Santa Fe about safety and law-abidingness, especially because No Kings – Santa Fe included a sidewalk march on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far.
In the pre-No-Kings interviews, I found it easy to draw a line between the rather quaint sounding "No Kings" label and the need to fight Trump's ever-more assertive efforts at dictatorship. We must keep exercising our First Amendment rights, a cornerstone of U.S. constitutional democracy. As I told the crowd in Santa Fe: just showing up to protest what the Trump regime is doing and and seeks to do is itself a manifestation of a rejection of authoritarianism.
It might be harder to see why I spent so much time on public safety and law-abidingness before the event in Santa Fe. But if you think about the wretched, despicable political shootings in Minnesota yesterday, which certainly seemed timed to keep people away from the day's public demonstrations, maybe it becomes more obvious the connection between my commitment to acting responsibly, peacefully, and law-abidingly and my absolute determination to fight Trump and Republican Fascism with all I have.
Dictatorship, authoritarianism, and fascism are all forms of constant, ongoing violence. They cannot succeed without continuously threatening and continually using massive force to inflict pain, suffering, injury, death. I will never be party to anything like the malevolence and indifference that people like Donald Trump – and the assassin in Minnesota – display toward the misery of others. I do not eschew all risk-taking. I know that when I urge others to come out for hours on a warm day in the New Mexico sun, in a country riddled with guns, I'm asking them to take risk. But out of respect for their basic well-being, I will also do whatever I can to protect the bodies, as well as the spirits, of my fellow-protesters.
Today, I have been decompressing, letting the full welter of sentiments and emotions produced by yesterday wash over me: pride, satisfaction, grief, anger, excitement, resolve. I also keep experiencing deep gratitude for my bonds with dear friends and with comrades online and off. Love and mutual support make it easier for any of us to join in this latest chapter in the struggle to protect and further the best ideals of the American Declaration of Independence, to eschew dictatorial prerogative and unrepresentative government. The closing words of the Declaration are "And for the support of this declaration ... we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." Never have those words resonated so personally with me.