Why We Stand Up on Saturday...Let Me Count the Reasons

GOP panic rises as millions prepare to turn out on Saturday

This Saturday, all those who oppose dictatorship will have a chance to engage peacefully in the second No Kings Day, which may wind up as the largest mass demonstration yet against an unhinged, lawless authoritarian regime that is tightening the noose on our democracy. 

Images will appear of millions of ordinary Americans waving American flags, peacefully reminding Trump that we are not a monarchy and demanding that the regime abide by the Constitution. When they surface, the MAGA propaganda machine sputters. 

Like the inflatable menagerie of characters now appearing in Portland, the appearance of No Kings protestors (e.g., a 70 yr. old holding a flag, or parents with kids carrying clever signs) undermines the MAGA lie. The true nature of the opposition (i.e. patriotic, diverse Americans) becomes harder to conceal.

reasons to protest have increased, including 

• the big, ugly bill’s jaw-dropping maneuver to cut health care coverage for ordinary Americans to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires; 

• the ongoing cover-up of the Epstein scandal (i.e. protection of powerful, rich men who enabled child rape); 

• attacks on the press and free speech more generally; 

• efforts to destroy public employee unions; 

• and RFK, Jr.’s endangering public health by destroying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) while peddling crackpot non-science with his fringe movement.

• large-scale corruption and self-dealing to enrich Trump and his family;

• politicization of the military; 

• demolition of the Justice Department (transforming it into a political weapon to persecute opponents based on flimsy charges); 

• illegal and unconstitutional use of military to blow up boats and murder suspected drug smugglers without due process; 

• giving $20B $40B of taxpayer money to Argentinian President Javier Milei, a MAGA mini-me; 

• and of course the ongoing, abusive, violent, and a lawless actions by ICE that victimize entire communities.

• unilaterally-imposed and unconstitutional trade war that effectively taxes every American consumer and business while fueling inflation; 

• the attack on the Federal Reserve’s independence; 

• evisceration of the National Institutes of Health including hundreds of millions in critical funding for cutting-edge medical research; 

• dismantling USAID, which has killed hundreds of thousands of adults and kids and marred America’s international image; 

• and mass layoffs of veterans together with unconscionable cuts to veterans’ care.

• transformation of the Supreme Court into a band of partisan MAGA operatives who have so egregiously abused their power and strayed from their constitutional mission as to incur the fury of lower courts; 

• the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act; 

• the criminalization of abortion and life-threatening forced birth laws that ensued; 

• the mean-spirited bullying and persecution of trans Americans; 

• and the attempt to rewrite the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship.

• the do-nothing GOP House and Senate majorities that have abandoned their jobs, ceded the power of the purse to Trump, and resorted to demeaning and vilifying the majority of Americans who oppose Trump and virtually all his policies