No to ‘Kings,’ yes to democracy: We must steel our resolve to resist at every step

If I could speak directly to House Speaker Mike Johnson, I’d ask him: Why are you so worried about citizens gathering this Saturday under the banner “No Kings”? You and other Republicans apparently are so freaked out that you’re trying to rebrand this most democratic of actions – a day for people to stand up for democracy – as a “hate America” protest. Pathetic. The name isn’t sticking, especially when the people taking to the streets revere America. We refuse to stand by as Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to the country’s democratic foundation.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said it clearly: “The people coming out [for No Kings] love America. They love it so much that they are willing to take to the streets to proclaim: ‘We do not ever want a king in the United States.’”

Writing in Today’s Edition, activist-writer Robert Hubbell calls the citizen response “the immune reaction of a healthy body politic.”

Across the country, some 2,500 No Kings rallies – up nearly 400 from June – will echo that truth. We rally peacefully in devotion to the Constitution, to democracy, and the rule of law.

By the way, Mr. Speaker, be careful how you throw around a term like “antifa.” Currently, you’re displaying profound ignorance about what antifa means. First, there is no organization in the U.S. by that name. Antifa is an idea; it’s short for anti-fascist. Media outlets would be well advised to remind viewers, listeners, and readers every time the word is used that it stands for anti-fascist.

Meanwhile, although in 2024 Mr. Trump feigned not knowing what Project 2025 was, he knew it’s the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for running the government. The 900-page report is a manual for establishing U.S. authoritarianism. It’s the most radical power grab in modern U.S. history, and Trump is following its recommendations to a T.

Purge civil servants. Check. Politicize the Justice Department. Check. Concentrate control of the government in the White House. Check. Ignore congressional authority. Check. Induce the ultra-right wing gang of six on the Supreme Court to be a compliant lapdog. Check.

Project 2025 is central to what “No Kings” proponents are challenging: a wannabe monarch’s wish list. Analysts from The New York Times and the Brookings Institute have called it “a governing manual for an American strongman.” It is, in essence, a coronation script. Historian Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, and an expert on resisting authoritarianism, warns that “Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.” Patriotism, he reminds us, means admitting both that “it could happen here – and we will stop it.”

Trump’s latest delusion – that President Biden ordered 274 FBI agents to infiltrate the violent Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection – is proof of how unmoored from reality he’s become. He was president that day, watching in silence as his supporters tried to stage a coup, beating police and desecrating the Capitol.

No coups, no kings.

When Trump pledged to send National Guard troops into Democratic-led cities – exposing the authoritarian reflex to militarize against dissent – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker fought back, and a judge blocked the deployment.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom challenged federalization of his Guard. And in Washington, D.C., local leaders sued to end federal control.

These aren’t missteps – they’re tests Trump is administering. For democracy to pass, we must steel our resolve to resist at every step.

By indicting former FBI director James Comey and current New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump’s Justice Department has become his personal law firm, turning prosecution into payback. Governors and attorneys general nationwide are answering with lawsuits and injunctions. Their defiance proves the maxim that action is the antidote to anxiety.

Polls show cracks in the strongman façade. There is deep discontent with Trump’s economic and immigration policies, and more Americans want him to obey the Supreme Court.

Still, tyrants don’t care about popularity – they care about obedience. Our answer must be refusal.

At “No Kings,” millions will do just that. We’ll march for healthcare, for immigrant dignity, for equality before the law. We’ll expose ICE for what it is: America’s secret police. Meanwhile we’ll stand shoulder-to-shoulder across races, genders, and zip codes, insisting with one voice: This is our democracy.

“No Kings” is a line in the sand. Let’s meet the moment. Let’s honor the republic. “We may have come here on different ships,” MLK is credited with saying, “but we’re in the same boat now.” Together, we’ll row toward the America that can yet be: no to kings; yes to democracy.

Rob Okun ([email protected]) is editor emeritus of Voice Male magazine, which for more than three decades has chronicled the antisexist men’s movement. His anthology The Rosenbergs: Collected Visions of Artists and Writers, used artists’ response to the 1950s atomic conspiracy case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as a way to examine the dangers of the anti-democratic McCarthy era.