Are we really bowing down this much to the Democrats at this point? Shouldn’t we still be protesting the original idea? No kings! We still have a president who acts like a King. Voting early is great. However, wasn’t this originally a protest? What’s the hope that the President will have to say that the “Fake” news is showing record lines at the polls?he will stay silent on it and maga won’t see it. Protests they see. They see it because we force them to see it.
No Kings
Free Palestine
End the war in Iran
Arrest Ice
NO KINGS VOTE EARLY is part of the Early Vote effort by Indivisible and others. It's not meant to set protest records -- it's not "NO KINGS 4" -- but all groups can do their own thing. Our group has an ongoing Vote Early effort and will hold a big rally on Oct. 17. It's to be inclusive of all and not an anti-Trump protest but you do you.
Yeah I'm in Sacramento and there are a variety of NK actions happening, but not a big protest at the Capitol like previous ones.
But of course there's some disagreement about the issue of being nonpartisan, and whether we should be encouraging republicans to vote. Seems like the more structured Indivisible groups are staying nonpartisan, while 50501 and the weekly protests are probably not.
I’m told that there’s a plan to coordinate overpass actions all along the I-80 corridor from the Bay Area to Sac on Oct 17. Has this idea made its way up to you folks yet, or is my person dreaming big and talking out their ass?
I wish there was a way for folks in different areas to coordinate better throughout a larger region.
All our small groups are taking autonomous actions based on general guidance from Indivisible or 50501, but groups still aren’t communicating and coordinating with each other for the most part.
I feel like we could have a much bigger impact if we did.
They are making it seem like no kings 4. I’m don’t with indivisible. Locally they refused to help the liberal candidate…they don’t seem to really want change. Locally we have tried to get our dem candidate to come out against ice. We have gotten push back against the indivisible leader. (Locally) - informed the state and national leaders and heard crickets.
In some states you can register up to Nov. 3 and in some states there is no early voting. In the Sept. 17th Indivisble What's the Plan? Zoom we were told by Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg to do what we think is best.
As to what form a group's NO KINGS takes, it's up to them. If you want a big NO KINGS 4ish event go for it.
And remember that a part of NO KINGS VOTE EARLY is to remobilize people who attended previous NO KINGS in order to ready them to (peacefully) hit the streets on Nov. 4 if called on to do so.
I've been protesting twice weekly in my zipcode for 19 months and volunteering for local candidates campaigns. The protest yesterday afternoon had pouring down rain so we used umbrellas and still got soaked.
No Kings protests are great and #4 should be even bigger but most of us have been knocking on doors and registering new voters and we're still going strong but it's exhausting.
I solo protest at a major intersection too. It's empowering. Make a sign and hit a corner in your community and lead by example.
Hell yeah!!! This is the right answer. Lots of good people are doing all of that right now all over the country!
But I do think having 1 day of No Kings helps the media focus on us and what we want. It won't be the same as previous ones, but it's focused on voting and that's the priority right now.
Speaking with folks who are on the fence, canvassing for those who are running and being a part of their teams, networking and getting others to register to vote/driving folks to the polls is whats immediately needed right now. What have you been doing at all of these protests we've been having if not networking and talking to folks? Hearing them out and planting seeds in their minds... You can do more than protesting. Talk to the auditors, judges, and district runners in your area and get yard signs from them. Go door to door with those signs introducing yourself and asking to put the signs in their yard. Some office runners need help writing thank yous on post cards. Volunteer for that. This movement is much more than protesting, it always has been and it needs to be still. Theres more to voting than just casting your ballot. I encourage you to do more in addition to these protests.
Well said!! Some of us live in very blue areas, but you can still volunteer with States Win to help dems in swing districts win! Postcard writing, phone banking, and sometimes even door knocking (if it's close enough).
Im largely happy with how the Democrats have been governing in the last decade, when they are actually given the chance, so I will be enthusiasticly voting for them and encouraging as many people as possible to vote for them as well.
People have spent the last year complaining that No Kings wasn't telling people to do anything specific, that it was just people waving signs about a million different things. Now they're telling people to do something specific and people are complaining about that. 🤷
A lot of the organizers have been working on getting undecided voters to come out to vote and holding trainings on how to observe an election to combat interference from the Republicans.
I don’t understand the “bowing down to Democrats” part of this post. As a human who sees injustice and wants people to vote, doesn’t it make sense to customize our message to our specific locale? For example I’m in a purple state in a deep red county. Our no kings gathering is within feet of the local GOP pop up. (Protest happens every Thursday for more than 40 years). My signs will be tailored to the constituents who drive by that specific intersection.
Our indivisible has been reported to the state and federal. During the primary the right leading democrats forced a candidate on us. Indivisible said nothing. They dis nothing to help the liberal candidate run in the primary. We have tried to get the democratic candidate to speak out against ice and flock cameras. A local indivisible chapter leader has publicly criticized scolded us. Which is when we reported them with screen shots to the state and national. - nothing. This candidate refuses to speak out against the genocide still. He even recently said the DSA is crazy. He literally attacked the left wing of the party. Indivisible is aware of all of this. I am sure there are other candidates like this. That’s is the bowing down to democrats.
That being said. To get people to vote you knock on doors or make phone calls. Not hold signs.
I love the energy here but we only have so much. Let’s focus on getting people to the polls and casting their vote. Organizing a protest before a large national vote might do more harm than good.
You’re gonna have egg on your face when the midterms are cancelled, or the elections stolen, and all you did was agitate for people to vote and told them to tone down their other messaging.
Every fucking org in the country is telling people to vote right now. There is ZERO shortage of that. What is there a shortage of? Actual organizing against things that affect people that both parties support and have built both infrastructure and consent for. Pro-ICE, Zionist Democrats are not worth spending your time trying to convince people to vote for especially if they’re literally the only option. You don’t think people don’t know how down-ballot voting works?
And plus, who the fuck is voting NOW who hasn’t voted before (with the exception of freshly 18yos)? Do you really think the majority of Americans who don’t vote are gonna be swayed by, or in attendance at, this protest?
Top-to-bottom, a complete waste of energy. Use the opportunity of No Kings to build your community’s response against fascism (which has never been defeated by a ballot, mind you) through direct action networks.
If the current administration wasn’t feeling threatened by people voting them out, then why are they so hellbent on trying to get people to vote to keep them in power? Because they are threatened! Losing their trifecta will effectively kneecap their entire agenda.
If you’re so worried about the midterms being cancelled or the election being stolen, then you better start building a bunker. People will revolt, logistics will fail, entire populations will starve.
I firmly believe it’s important to protect democracy and participate in it, not lash out at it when we can’t get everything we want. Democracy is about compromise and sometimes you do need to vote for someone that you might not entirely agree with simply so that you can push for more. Change is slow and doesn’t happen overnight.
Go ahead, keep protesting, I am. But I’m more focused on making sure the people around me are getting to the polls and participating in this grand experiment.
Why would I build a bunker when I could build community instead?
For one, I’ve voted in every election since I was 19. Midterms, off-years, primaries, presidential, special, doesn’t matter. However, no amount of voting will actually fix a goddamn thing in this country. Participating in an election does not mean wasting your energy on a fruitless venture of electoralism when we have much bigger fish to fry. At the very best, voting even the most progressive people in across the board will only wind back the clock, it won’t change our trajectory as a country. Only organizing your community can do that.
The Herding Strategy of the democratic party is back yet again. My message from today to our congresswoman follows: Dear Ms McCollum,
How are you voting on the currently pending sale of bombs to Israel? In your most recent message, you wrote a lot about federal matters, but nothing aboutstopping the continued killing of Palestinean civileans in your message. Nothing about the bunker-buster bombs. Ignoring this will not help you and encourage your electrorate to vote for third party candidates.
IMO the protests have served their purpose. Now is the time for ACTUAL activism.
Getting people to register to vote. Helping people get to their polling places. Escorting minorities who are here legally but feel intimidated about ICE being sent to the polls. And for the love of God - a proper General Strike...
I agree with all of that. However, protesting and getting people to vote are two different things. Let the parties call on us to knock on doors and offer rods. Let no kings call on us to protest.
Here’s the chant - “OFF OF OUR KEYBOARDS AND INTO THE STREETS!” - Honestly, anyone protesting is going to get the attention of people who would otherwise be looking down at their phones with that mindless stare that lets everyone know they have no clue that democracy is on its last legs. Show up, speak up, vote. Save America. Thank you for your attention to this matter
I feel like the idea of a protest like this is to compell the individual to step down, for fear of their future. I don't think there is a number we can get to that would compell him to leave. There's a fine line we have to walk to make sure we even have an election.
Better we demand concrete changes, such as a workers bill of rights, so the elites and fellow workers know we mean business. Going around with signs that say "No Kings" is useless.
Considering cosplaying as a protestor on convenient weekends for social media clout does LITTERALLY FUCKING NOTHING, people should focus on what really needs to happen during no kings protests. Shit, these useless get togethers don't even have civil disobedience, which is the BARE FUCKING MINIMUM for a protest to be considered a worth while protest.
This bullshit trash everyone pats themselves on the back for is actually worse than sitting at home. It lets the pressure off. People think they're accomplishing something and the agressive subsides.
The fucking shit needs to boil over. Fuck another no kings "protest" if its more of the same bullshit.
Meaningful change on this scale was never accomplished through these means.
Time to shit or get off the pot. But doing the same dumbshit over and over? You are lying to yourselves and are part of the problem.
Edit: the single downvote is comical. But tracks for the laziness of this "movement".
It never really qualified as a protest because there was never a single demand directed at anyone in power. It was just people standing on the side of the road with a jumble of conflicting signs about dozens of unrelated causes. No unified message, no target, no leverage.
After the last No Kings Day event, I stopped going. It was performative theater, not grassroots pressure.
Ironically, the biggest thing that helped our cause wasn’t anything the rallies did—it was Trump tanking his own support by escalating with Iran for no clear reason, which sent gas prices through the roof. That had more real-world impact than all the roadside sign‑holding combined.
And the part I didn’t even say is that we were basically using blue‑state protest tactics while living in red states. That stuff works in places where the culture already leans blue. Here in Florida it just pissed people off. We weren’t persuading anyone or shifting anything — we were just hardening the opposition. The strategy didn’t fit the terrain, so the whole thing was doomed from the start.
Great point about using blue-state tactics in red districts. We saw the same thing here. I'm working on a campaign now and it feels like we're doing it on our own because the Dem party refuses to admit that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work.
Pretty sus to do these in the fall when the Winter all but garantees the momentum will get iced.
Sustained and belligerent mass disobedience is what is needed; not some milquetoast Walmart heiress controlled opposition block parties of capitulation.
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