What are we accomplishing with No Kings? Nothing locally, that’s for sure

Local Democrats, and Democrats nationwide, will hold their first mass anti-Trump No Kings protest of 2026 this weekend.

And what will we accomplish?

Asking for a friend, because I’m not sure we’re getting much of value out of these things.

Other than, every three months, we get great drone shots of big crowds in big cities and small towns, like ours – and it’s fun to snicker at the clever messages on signs, gotta admit.

But in terms of moving the needle, nothing.

Because nothing happens of consequence in between the protests.

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Local No Kings rallies, Saturday, March 28

• Lovingston: The Nelson Center, noon-2 p.m.
• Staunton: Gypsy Hill Park Bandstand, 12:30-2 p.m.
• Harrisonburg: Turner Pavilion, 12:30-2 p.m.
• Charlottesville: 2100 Hydraulic Road (across from The Shops at Stonefield), 1-2:30 p.m.
• Forest Lakes: 3493 Seminole Trail (near the entrance to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport), 2-4 p.m.
• Lexington: March beginning at Oak Grove Cemetery (316 S. Main St.), ending with rally at Hopkins Green (22 W. Nelson St.), 2-4 p.m.

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The most recent Staunton rally, held last fall, drew about 1,500 people to the Augusta County Courthouse and surrounding area.

There were tables with sheets for people to sign up for whatever the organizers were prompting people to sign up for.

Maybe email lists? I didn’t sign up for anything; I’m on too many email lists as it is.

I saw a few people – literally a few – that I didn’t expect to be there, meaning, people I didn’t know from local hardcore Democratic circles.

Not any obvious recent former MAGAs; a few crossover center-right Republicans, at best.

The recent former MAGAs, the current MAGAs, that’s who we need to be reaching out to, if you ask me

I know, I know – ask your average Democratic activist type, and they’ll tell you, enough with this reaching out to the MAGAs, the deplorables, the irredeemables.

Hard disagree here from me.

My life’s work has been about figuring out how to reach out to the people that I grew up with, viewed me as the oddball for being a liberal Democrat in this sea of red – I was that from an early age, because I was blessed with the ability to see that we weren’t being treated right by the Republican machinery, which does a good job of convincing working-class folks to vote for them, but then doesn’t do anything for the working class once it uses working-class votes to get into office.

The working-class folks that I grew up with and vote overwhelmingly MAGA would be materially better off if our country enacted universal healthcare, if we prioritized public K-12 education, if we returned Pell Grants to the levels they were in the ’70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, which is how a trailer-park like me was able to get a degree from the University of Virginia, obviously changing the course of my life.

The Republican idea of economic development is low-paying jobs that allow their buddies in big business who donate to their campaigns to make more money off the labor of the working class.

They mask all of that – making us start GoFundMes for each other when we have bad accidents or health issues, keeping us just uneducated enough to have to be happy to have our not-even living-wage jobs – in America First jingoism, racism, sexism and transphobia.

And what do Democrats do to try to counter this?

I’ve been writing about this for years – our Democrats in Richmond ignore us out here.

They won’t fund our candidates for local office and the General Assembly; they gerrymander the General Assembly to give them supermajorities in Northern Virginia and Richmond, and leave us out our way to the wolves.

And now that they’re about to gerrymander our congressional districts to counter what the Trumpers are doing in other states to try to rig the 2026 midterms, they’re giving us a McAuliffe as the favorite in a district stretching from Fairfax County to the West Virginia border through Augusta County?

And we’re supposed to, what, thank them?

If we were doing this No Kings thing right this weekend, we’d use our local protest, no doubt, aim at Trump and his circle, they’re corrupt, in addition to inept and just plain mean.

We’d also add in, hey, Democrats, stop ignoring us out here.

And by us, I don’t mean the comeheres who turn their noses up at the locals who vote for the other side, because the Democrats gave up on them 40 years ago.

And one last thing – somebody needs to figure out how to use whatever energy is out there in the streets on Saturday for more than just having another protest in three months.