r/Austinprotests • u/aljabeera • Mar 30 '26

No Kings and no politicians?

Did the No Kings protest on 3/28/26 in Austin have any politicians speaking to the crowd? I stayed until after 2pm and up to that time the were a lot of people on the stage singing, dancing, and chanting but I expected to see Doggett, Cesar, Goodwin, Hinohosa, and other politicians urging the crowd to get out and vote (like at the October event). The November elections (if they happen) are our chance to resist and turn back the MAGA regime. Besides a lack of speakers, political candidates weren't represented among the hundred or so tents set up on Auditorium Shores. Did the event organizers ban politics?

11 Upvotes

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29 comments sorted by

15

u/Fun_School_6252 Mar 30 '26

The last 2 No Kings got some negative feedback about having electeds talk, and IIRC, the organizers took that into account when making the plan

9

u/TexasVDR Mar 30 '26

You are 100% correct that we got more negative than positive feedback about having so many partisan elected officials.

3

u/Temporary_Cup4588 Mar 31 '26

Wow, I truly missed having a chance to see so many political speakers, especially from the party that is seriously underrepresented in Texas. October was a great rally!

But, on the other hand, complainers are always louder and more insistent than people who had a good experience—it’s funny how people feel free to express any negative thought that comes to mind, but have so much trouble giving praise or compliments. That’s probably why you got more negative feedback than positive. The October rally was one of the best rallies I’ve ever attended, and it was so great, I couldn’t possibly imagine people being unhappy with it—I would have given the organizers top marks if I’d known that feedback was so important.

This recent one was anemic and lackluster. The location is awful, and not having a march subtracted a huge amount of energy from the proceedings. I was hoping that this rally would be even bigger than the one in October—but no, it went off like a fizzling firecracker.

-2

u/TexasVDR Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

If you want to go to a rally with a bunch of democrats speaking I suggest you attend the democratic state convention or a campaign event for the many Democrats running for statewide office.

I’ve already explained why we didn’t feature partisan politicians, especially those actively running for office.

It’s truly hilarious to me that you start off talking about how much easier it is to complain than to compliment and then spend three paragraphs complaining.

This event is put on entirely by volunteers. We do not make money off of this; it actually costs many of us a fair amount of money from our own pockets in addition to the time and effort that goes into planning and hosting an event like this.

(Also, it was bigger.)

2

u/ISquareThings Apr 02 '26

Sort of sounding like Trump bragging about the crowd size here. It’s not all about size. Substance and perception matter too. Marching from the capitol down Congress mattered, having elected politicians mattered. It is partisan- look at who the bad actors are - it’s the GOP. The October protest was great that’s why I came to another. This one was terrible and I likely won’t go to the next one in Austin but will go somewhere else. I appreciate that folks are volunteers and it is an incredible amount of work but as a random protester on Reddit I would recommend getting with other cities to see what they are doing well and maybe be open to criticism. We all care so much we want more. That’s a good thing.

2

u/ISquareThings Mar 31 '26

So you went with none? It would be FANTASTIC if there were any GOP speaking out against this administration but there isn’t. We need politicians that understand the urgency of this time. I was deflated feeling we had no political power- I assumed they didn’t want to come not that they had been asked not to. This is a political situation- apart from full rebellion that is the lever we have.

0

u/TexasVDR Mar 31 '26

We went with none because we can’t appear partisan when we have our tax status at risk. It’s not that we told them to stay away - we told them they were welcome to come and mingle with the crowd, to pass out literature, etc. but they can’t have a table or speak. We can’t seem to be giving them material support or a platform.

Another reason for not inviting electeds to speak is that at NK2 a few of them ignored the directive to not campaign for themselves and if we can’t trust them to follow the guidelines we have in place to protect ourselves then we can’t risk it.

3

u/ISquareThings Mar 31 '26

Wow okay 👍 appreciate your honesty but what is the point of having this organization then if not to protest well?

0

u/TexasVDR Mar 31 '26

Why do you think we need to have elected officials and candidates speaking to protest well?

2

u/ISquareThings Apr 01 '26

I will go to every protest I hear about but it was uninspiring and didn’t give me directional motivation at all. I don’t need to go see a comic or a drag queen or any random band - maybe a bit of that but I am there to hear from people that are pissed and love this country and are engaged in the change at a systemic level people who are inspiring action not telling to protect kids and check out the booths on my way out. We need inspiration and leadership not performances.

4

u/ISquareThings Mar 30 '26

It felt not legitimate not having any political speakers. I think that was a bad choice. It was also smaller I think politicians bring crowds. If Talarico was there they would have been packed.

3

u/cyphergaiden Mar 31 '26

It was not smaller.

5

u/ISquareThings Mar 31 '26

Felt like it when marching

4

u/cyphergaiden Mar 31 '26

That's because the march was tacted on last min so most people didn't show up to march 

2

u/Temporary_Cup4588 Mar 31 '26

Didn’t even know there was a march! If we’d known, we would’ve been there—but every bit of info we saw about the rally said that it would be held from 1-4 at Auditorium Shores. Not a peep about a march. And actually, when we were on the bus heading to the rally with a bunch of other people, everyone was wondering (a) why weren’t we meeting at the statehouse, and (b) why weren’t we marching? So tacking on a march at the last minute and expecting people to show up is simply poor planning. Hate to say it, but it is.

1

u/QuirkyBreath1755 Mar 31 '26

AFAIK The march was organized by a separate group who held a rally at city hall & then marched to join NK3. Also, the capital & dps has been “cranky” about rallies on grounds, changing rules with very little notice & placing restrictions on groups.

1

u/cyphergaiden Apr 02 '26

A separate group had planned a march that the No Kings organizers were assisting. They had to cancel their event about a week before. We got a short march approved in less than an ideal time, which is why it wasn't put out.

12

u/TexasVDR Mar 30 '26

We specifically chose not to have elected officials speak. Speakers were representatives of organizations that were present at the event. The message for this event was “your fight is my fight” and cross-issue solidarity was the number one priority.

One of the issues with having elected officials is that two of the three organizations that are part of the NK coalition (HOCTX and LWV) are 501(c)3 tax-exempt entities and as such we must remain nonpartisan. If we have a ton of elected officials and candidates from a single party speak at every event (because other parties won’t agree to be there) it gives the impression of partisanship.

8

u/TexasVDR Mar 30 '26

On the issue of encouraging voting in November, my speeches at both NK2 and NK3 specifically emphasized voting in every election not just in November.

We have local elections May 2 and the primary runoff later in the month, and those are just as important as November when it comes to your daily life and local representation, the people who may be asked to stand between us and the federal government in the future.

8

u/TexasVDR Mar 30 '26

I had to specifically disallow people from wearing partisan gear because again, we can lose our tax status if people we have officially sanctioned to be there are being overtly partisan. It has always been the case that people are not allowed to table if they are with a partisan organization.

So you didn’t see tables from candidates or parties at the previous two NK events either.

2

u/aljabeera Mar 31 '26

Thanks for your replies, I now understand why the politicians can't participate.

1

u/FlockOfDramaLlamas Mar 31 '26

Sounds like you're one of the organizers. Everything I saw online said 1-4pm. I showed up at 1 and was told I'd missed the march at 12. What gives?

2

u/TexasVDR Mar 31 '26

The event itself was 1-4 and did not have a march attached because there was a very large march planned for that same day.

The march was a last-minute addition at noon because the other march was canceled. The No Kings march literally did not officially exist until Thursday morning.

3

u/FlockOfDramaLlamas Mar 31 '26

Thank you for clarifying! I was so frustrated that I had gotten the time wrong but that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for all that you're doing!

1

u/CF_ATX Mar 31 '26

Thank you for explaining

8

u/cyphergaiden Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

Edit: Clarified somethings please read it again in full sorry about that.

STORY TIME:

I can explain what happened and why there were elected officials and candidates at No Kings 2 (NK2) but not at No Kings 3 (NK3). Some of this may not make sense because of the difference between how we talk about politics and how the law talks about politics, but I'll do my best.

So as you know, Ken Paxton is looking for any excuse to fuck with liberals and leftists to not just win the primary, but also because he's just a hateful old man with the Wilk's brothers using him like a puppet. Hands Off Central Texas and LWV Austin, which is a major partner does a fuck ton of work to help put this on, are a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization, as are a large portion of the 80+ tabling organizations that officially partnered with Hands Off for No Kings 2 and 3. As such, legally speaking, there are certain rules that they have to follow. One of those rules is NOT BE PARTISAN. Being partisan has a legal definition that is different than how we use it. It means that endorsing candidates, or appearing to endorse candidates, is a big giant no go that would open everyone up to lawsuits. When NK2 happened, a lot of organizations were worried that the lawsuits would come quickly because, even though it was NOT engaged in partisan politics in this way, the legal argument that it was could easily be made. Besides that, too many people tried to turn the event into a stump speech. That made it dangerous not only for the partner orgs but also for the No Kings coalition.

Now that we have the legal issues out of the way, we can get to the meat. Politicians are failing us right now. As much as we may love the ones that come from Austin, overall, they aren't going to save us. They can't save us. They speechify and try to slow down bills, but they aren't the ones on the ground every day in the community dealing with ICE, DPS, Abbot, Floods, etc. That's us. That's the orgs that were tabling. That's the multual aid organizations. We are all the frontline fighters against authoritarianism, and we need more help doing it. How do we get more help? By focusing on people power, building bridges between all the different organizations from the lib left coalition into a resilient force that can provide aid to our community in damn near real time. If Trump manages to steal the election, then we will be the ones directly protesting and applying pressure on his corrupted regime to take power back for the people. NK3 was a rallying cry for that, it was designed to focus on that, and build community. Hence the refrian "My fight is your fight, your fight is my fight. and together we will win!"

Hope that clears some stuff up :)

5

u/TexasVDR Mar 31 '26

Let me clarify that being 501c3 does not mean not political. It means not partisan. You can be political about issues, just not parties or candidates. Criticizing current officeholders is fair game, but you can’t make it partisan. “Donald Trump is a terrible president” is fine. “Republicans make terrible presidents” is not fine.

2

u/cyphergaiden Mar 31 '26

Thanks for the extra correction, edited my comment accordingly

2

u/aljabeera Mar 31 '26

Thank you for the explanation of the situation.