So are you planning on showing up for No Kings rallies on the 18th? Word from Indivisible is that the turnout will be massive. Up significantly from the 5 million people who attended June’s rallies. In fact, organizers are claiming the turnout will be the biggest protest in the country’s history. But as the New Republic reports, Trump’s allies are just raging about Saturday’s events.
Some background:
From “The cavalry is coming': Indivisible predicts massive 'No Kings' turnout
Every day, five to eight new Indivisible groups form, in red, blue or purple areas. Each congressional district has multiple groups, as do 27 countries, with the latest in Milan, Italy.
Indivisible held a “Hands Off” march in April that drew 3 million people nationwide holding 750 events. The first “No Kings” day this year, in June, brought around 5 million people and 2,200 events. On Saturday, Levin’s expectation is that the numbers will jump again, with more than 2,000 rallies planned.
“We are looking at the largest protest in modern American history on Oct. 18,” he declared.
Significant turnout is expected at major rallies in Washington, D.C., outside the Capitol; New York City; Chicago; and Portland, Oregon.
In anticipation of Saturday’s events, Axios reports “Trump administration officials and Republican lawmakers are escalating blame for the government shutdown on Saturday's No Kings protests.”
The New Republic reports:
President Trump’s allies are suddenly raging over the October 18 No Kings protests. MAGA Mike Johnson and MAGA-fied Representative Steve Scalise are angrily sliming expected attendees as America-haters, antifa, Marxists, and terrorists. MAGA influencers and other GOP figures have done the same, with one hinting that the National Guard should crack down on them. This unanimity of messaging about “terrorists” means it’s all almost certainly being coordinated by Stephen Miller. Yet it’s backfiring: Democrats and rally organizers are using it to galvanize attendance, which will likely succeed. Robert De Niro amplified the call to turn out, inspiring more anger on Fox News. Indeed, the GOP demonization of legitimate protests itself ratifies the “No Kings” message. We talked to Jill Lawrence, who writes well for The Bulwark on Trump’s hatred of blue America. We discuss why large legitimate protests infuriate Trump-MAGA, why the correct response to their smears is to turn out in force, and why that’s likely to happen. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
“If you're not scared, you're not paying attention. These folks are serious. They are actively trying to take away your constitutional right to peaceful protest, and that is how authoritarian regimes work," said Indivisible cofounder Ezra Levin, another of the organizers. "They fear more than anything one thing, which is the mass, peaceful, organized population pushing back against their unpopular designs on the system." www.usatoday.com/...
"The anger level is way higher" than it was in June for the last protests of the same name, said Public Citizen copresident Lisa Gilbert, one of the organizers. "It's not just policies we don't like … but it's also actual chipping away at democracy, at foundational rights and prerogatives that we all expect. … People are saying 'I've never been moved to action before, but now I feel like I have to.'”
Things have changed in the past four months, organizers and activists told USA TODAY. The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement, sent troops into several Democratic-controlled cities, made massive changes to American health care and eroded First Amendment rights, they say. www.usatoday.com/...
Preparing for Your Event
In a recent entry to her Reframing America substack The Big List of Protest Signs for #NoKings 10/18, Antonia Scatton writes about what atmosphere we should be aiming for in Saturday’s protests. She suggests we focus with our signage more on what we are for rather than what we are against.
Managing the Optics
In a previous post, Protest Strategy: Managing the Optics, I talked about how all confrontation benefits Trump, and how projecting safety and innocence works to our advantage.
“Trump has been looking for an excuse to declare Martial law since he took office. Don’t give him one. We need to make it absolutely clear that Trump is creating the chaos.”
“Our strategic goal should be to look so completely peaceful and harmless that calling out the National Guard look like the wildest kind of overreach, like calling them out to attack a family picnic. The fact of our protests being peaceful should be unassailable.”
In that post, I shared some excellent recommendations from actor and activist, Peter Coyote, for how to manage the “theater” of protest like, “dress like you are going to church,” “only protest in daylight,” and “no images of violence or vandalism.”
On her Open Windows substack, artist Ann Telnaes is offering free use of her cartoons on posters.
The NoKings website provides an extensive toolkit with advice and guidelines as well as downloadable graphics.
A core principle behind all No Kings events is a commitment to nonviolent action and no civil disobedience. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values, and to act lawfully at these events. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events. All events should be held in public spaces or on public property.
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