Staff Reports
The so-called “No Kings” protests blew up across the country this weekend, with marches in major cities and small towns alike as organizers painted their opposition to the current administration in the most theatrical terms. What started as a self-styled movement against “authoritarianism” and a military parade ended up looking more like a series of coordinated street festivals than sober civic dissent.
Organizers have been bragging about massive turnouts, with some outlets repeating claims of millions taking part and hopeful activists crowing about a nationwide mandate of outrage. Those heady numbers—promoted by movement allies online—are useful PR for fundraising and headline-grabbing, but they don’t change the fact that many events were dominated by costumes, banners, and performative stunts rather than concrete, sober policy debate.
The grievance list driving these protests is familiar: complaints about an Army parade, immigration enforcement actions, and what protesters call “democratic backsliding.” Those are legitimate topics for debate in a free society, but dressing them up with clownish royal imagery and chants about dethroning an elected president crosses from protest into spectacle.
Let’s also call out the bankrolls behind the show: these events enjoy expensive ad buys, celebrity endorsements, and merch lines that turn resistance into retail. When billionaire-funded full-page newspaper ads and mass-market merchandise prop up a movement, it’s hard to take the “grassroots” rhetoric at face value; it looks like another well-oiled leftist campaign designed to manufacture outrage and media moments.
Even where turnout was genuinely large, the coverage mostly highlighted street theater and a carnival atmosphere rather than meaningful civic discipline—Chicago’s massive rally, for example, read like a political concert with celebrity speakers. A handful of flashpoints and clashes made headlines, but they were the exception to a generally theatrical procession across American cities.
Patriotism isn’t measured by the loudness of your sign or the cleverness of your costume; it’s measured by respect for institutions, support for service members, and a willingness to engage in the hard work of fixing policy through the ballot box and the courts. Americans of every political stripe should reject performative contempt for the rule of law and the military, even while debating the right policy answers in good faith.
At the end of the day, the “No Kings” spectacle is less a defense of democracy than a marketing campaign dressed up as outrage. Real patriots want results, not viral clips, and they want a country governed by laws and accountable institutions—not by whoever yells the loudest on social media.
