The story of the day is the “No Kings” rallies going on around the country. Chicago has been the site of one of the largest. It probably won’t be as large today because of the rain.
I don’t object to them so long as they remain non-violent but I don’t see much point to them, either. I don’t believe in kings (probably less than most Americans since I hale from a particularly Anglophobe part of the country). I don’t even watch Downton Abbey. I do believe in democracy (probably more than most Americans since I hale from a particularly populist part of the country).
But I don’t think they do much good or mean much, either. That may be colored by my living in Chicago, a remarkably oligarchic even hereditary oligarchic place. Here we are governed by lawless oligarchs and have been for most of the last century. Oh, yes, we have elections. Those are mostly pro forma.
Update
I want to agree with something that Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy has been quoted as saying at the DC “No Kings” rally:
We are not on the verge of an authoritarian takeover; we are in the midst of an authoritarian takeover.
My recommendation would be to vote against every incumbent politician.
History will remember the crowds that led up to the invasion of Canada.
Nothing ever changes from a single protest. Taken in isolation, one protest is pretty meaningless. That doesn’t mean it’s worthless in terms of moving the needle toward specific goals when it’s part of other actions.
Contrary to the mythology the protests of the 1960s-1970s didn’t have much to do with our withdrawing from Vietnam. Look at the contemporaneous opinion polling.
Meh. While the polls showed that people didnt like the protestors and their protests made people hate then even more it made the negative sides of the war more apparent. My Lai probably gets glossed over absent the protests. The Pentagon Papers get a lot more mileage because of them. The shock of the Tea offensive is amplified as it became clear we were being lied to by the admin. So after about 1968 the war itself was unpopular in polls.
Since I was in the military at that time I can tell you that in my experience and those I served with the demonstrations was one of the things that drove skepticism about the war. I would say that while most of us hated Jane Fonda and the celebrity protestors and thought the protestors at places like Berkley and Columbia were mostly rich kids with a cause that kept them entertained it was hard to ignore that their message along with the evidence was that it was a war that served no purpose. We weren’t defending America and there was no end in sight.
Steve
It was the biggest gathering of paid professional protesters and aging/retired hippies in quite a while.
“Contrary to the mythology the protests of the 1960s-1970s didn’t have much to do with our withdrawing from Vietnam. Look at the contemporaneous opinion polling.”
I think they did play a part in turning the public against the war and enabled Congress to cut off South Vietnam. I think they were also non-trivial in the eventual end of the draft.
Protests were arguably very important in most successful movements in US history including the temperence movement and civil rights movement. The Tea Party protests during the Obama admin went on to grow into an actual political movement, albeit one that abandoned the principles the originators supported.
That said, protests are magic and won’t do much absent other supporting and complimentary actions and activities.
As far as what effects the No Kings protests will have, that remains to me seen. And it could be the case that in our post-liberal, post-literate , and extremely online society that public protests are an anachronism – that they only matter in terms of online engagement they might generate. This may explain Drew’s observation about the age demographics – young people are online, they engage online, and so they aren’t as interested. Protests may be like cable news – a demographically dying industry.
But humans are social creatures and even if protests are no longer relevant for political change, they can still provide cohension, meaning, and community with like-minded people.
Estimates are 5 million to 8 million people protested. All were paid according to Drew. Yet everyone claims they didnt receive any money yet. Yet another conspiracy of silence by millions of people.
Steve
Sadly I think a lot of the Boomers who turned out for these things were unpaid. But they were moved to act by paid agitators as well as decades of media propaganda. I’m sorry but if anyone things Trump is being any more of an autocrat than the last few administrations they are deluded. Sure, they might dislike the type of actions he’s using executive power to enact but there’s nothing new in the fecklessness of Congress which leaves room for much greater executive power.
The while “No Kings” theme makes no sense unless they are also protesting against all of our politicians.
Lucky if there were 3mm.
And no, I didn’t say they were all paid. I said the paid, professional protesters were um, well, paid. And they disappeared after their shift was up. Why lie?
The fact remains: pro’s, hippie grandmas and cosplayers. That’s your rally.
@CStanley
Nice to see you are still around. I hope all is well. We got our @Icepick back, and occasionally, @jan comments. @JanisGore is still lurking, I think. If @Steve Verdon(?) pops-up, we could have a party. ChatAI would not be invited.
Anyway, take care.
Thanks tasty….good to see you too. I do lurk more than I post these days.
“Trump is being any more of an autocrat than the last few administrations they are deluded.”
Just to name a few
He put one unelected person without input from Congress in charge of firing govt employees and changing budgets.
He unilaterally imposed broad based tariffs because it’s an emergency.
He is ordering the military to kill civilians because he can just call them terrorists.
Money that Congress designates by law is not being spent at his disgression.
For political purposes only he is dispersing troops into cities where they are not wanted or needed. So they can do landscaping.
The thing is that power has slowly been accruing to POTUS anyway. Absent Trump maybe we reach this point in 30-40 years. Trump has just massively accelerated things.
Steve
Yep. That’s how “slippery slopes” work.
However, it would be difficult to beat Hoover or FDR for excesses in some areas. Hoover and then Roosevelt shipped tens of thousands of workers to Mexico including Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. No warrants. No process due or otherwise. And then there are FDR’s internment camps.
@steve-
I didn’t ask for a list of examples of Trump abusing executive power. I am asking why the people who are protesting this did not object to abuses by Democrat administrations.