Last weekend was shaping up to be a depressing one for the American left. Between the celebrations of Flag Day (which is also President Trump’s birthday) and Father’s Day, it seemed Democrats would have to spend all Saturday and Sunday bed-rotting to survive the “toxic” combination of patriotism and patriarchy.
But their hopes were restored by the efforts of a bevy of leftist protest organizations. Using the anti-ICE riots happening in Los Angeles and elsewhere as their inspiration, these wannabe tyrants initiated a series of so-called No Kings rallies across the country on Saturday. The obvious purpose of these rallies was to galvanize opposition to the Trump administration and its efforts to reestablish law and order.
If this all seems eerily familiar, that’s because we’ve seen it before. Americans should not be deceived by this latest clunky combination of astroturfing and gaslighting by ideologues desperate to return to power.
The Illusion of Populism
Trump’s reelection in November represented the triumph of his common-sense populist appeal in the face of massively organized resistance. To counter Trump, Democrats need to hide their centralized structure behind a façade of spontaneous grassroots activism. Yet the No Kings effort failed to deceive any but the most superficial observer, thanks in large part to Asra Nomani’s efforts with the Pearl Project.
In an op-ed published last Friday, Nomani detailed how Saturday’s protests were organized by close to 200 groups, “all of which are aligned with the Democratic Party and many of which claim tax-exempt ‘nonpartisan’ non-profit status,” with over $2 billion in annual revenue.
Under the moniker of “Indivisible Digital Asset Management,” this protest machine provided promotional materials for demonstration organizers along with an online “toolkit” for messaging and mobilizing support. While these materials seem to emphasize a nonviolent approach, an “orientation” slide deck provided by
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