{"id":637,"date":"2025-10-20T17:55:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/?p=637"},"modified":"2025-10-23T10:16:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T10:16:45","slug":"no-kings-rally-has-lost-even-this-sympathetic-critic-of-president-donald-trump-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/20\/no-kings-rally-has-lost-even-this-sympathetic-critic-of-president-donald-trump-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"No Kings rally has lost even this sympathetic critic of President Donald Trump (Opinion)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the time you read this another round of \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests will have taken place across Colorado<\/a> and the country. Participants will feel empowered from standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity chanting slogans and waving signs their voices of dissent heard loud and clear coast to coast.<\/p>\n

But now that the signs are propped against the garage wall and social media feeds feature more dog videos and advertisements than protest pics, it\u2019s worth asking: what did the \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest accomplish? Was the message heard by anyone other than those making it? Did it change a single mind?<\/p>\n

Probably not. The fact that I had to look up what organizers meant by \u201cNo Kings\u201d is one indication. With the dozens of well-funded left-leaning organizations listed as partners on the website, surely one of them could have the lent the effort a descent comms guy. For all its catchy repetition, the website\u2019s declaration \u201cNo Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings\u201d makes no sense. These don\u2019t exist even in Trump\u2019s garishly gilded Oval Office. The \u201cabout\u201d page, which goes on about tyranny, dictatorship, and coronation, is no less illuminating. What country are we talking about?<\/p>\n

This is the kind of overwrought language that even sympathetic readers like me find laughable. And I am sympathetic. President Trump is mendacious, vengeful, and unscrupulous. He continuously violates constitutional boundaries by violating due process and usurping the legislature\u2019s prerogatives. He elevates unqualified sycophants to head agencies, alienates foreign allies, and uses government power to punish opponents. Also, his tariffs are driving up prices. But he isn\u2019t the first to abuse power in these ways (though he may be the most brazen) and the courts are restraining his worst excesses. The republic remains strong.<\/p>\n

Trump is no king, much less a dictator or a tyrant. Words like these should be reserved for men like Russia\u2019s Putin and Venezuela\u2019s Maduro if they are to mean anything. Trump critics have to find better ways to communicate our concerns. Fear-mongering, which comes off equal parts paranoid and patronizing, is the surest way to make people stop listening.<\/p>\n