"No Kings!"
At an anti-Trump demonstration in a small town in the USA
Under the motto “No Kings”, an estimated seven million people took to the streets against Donald Trump and his government – in over 2,500 locations across all 50 US states. I was able to observe a rally in Bellingham the beautiful Pacific North West.
Bellingham is a small town in Washington State, located in the far northwest of the United States at the Pacific Ocean and only half an hour from the Canadian border. This tranquil university town, affectionately known by some as the “city of subdued exitement,” is home to just under 100,000 people. According to “official figures,” 5,000 people took part in the “No Kings” rally this Saturday to protest against Donald Trump and his adminitration, local newspapers report. I came with a friend who is a member of the Unitarian Church. From their parish hall, we walk in a group of about 30 people to the meeting place in Maritime Heritage Park. From a hill, I look down on the roundabout with the stage. A local band gets the participants in the mood for the event with a lively “No Kings” song. The atmosphere is almost exuberant, friends and acquaintances greet and hug each other and invoke the spirit of joint resistance.
“This isn’t about right or left. It’s about right or wrong,” I read on one participant’s banner. Others hold American flags upside down, the international symbol of distress, and chant “SOS.” Many in the crowd are dressed as life-size frogs, chickens, dinosaurs, unicorns – characters from the “Star Wars” rebellion. They are imitating protesters in Portland who have made inflatable costumes a staple of recent protests against ICE facilities. “ICE” is the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest police and customs agency of the Department of National Security. It was formed after the attacks of 9/11, and has the task, amongst others, to monitoring federal borders and illegal immigration. During Donald Trump’s second term in office, ICE has caused a stir and sparked riots, primarily with their often seemingly arbitrary arrests of alleged criminal immigrants.
Seven million people said to have demonstrated across the country this Saturday -more than ever before in the history of the United States. At the first marches on June 14, there were an estimated two million fewer. The Epoch Times reports on a possible infiltration of the “No Kings” movement by communist groups. My immediate reaction is that, well, as is well known, anything to the left of center in the US is very quickly labeled as such. On the other hand, after it emerged that many of the founders of “Black Lives Matter” were trained in Marxism, such considerations are understandable. The friend with whom I came to the “No Kings” rally in Bellingham, as well as the other protesters I spoke to during the event, can certainly be classified as “left-wing” in the classic sense – but they are certainly not communists.
A small drone is circling above our heads. Are we being spied on? On the stage, the presenter once again explicitly emphasizes the nonviolent nature of the event. She urges participants to remember that “organized groups and organized money” mean power, and has the crowd repeat this slogan several times. Democrat Alex Ramel, member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 40th district that includes Bellingham, praises his party colleague, California Governor Gavin Newsom. And the assembled crowd cheers and applauds. At this point, I begin to have some doubts about how critical the protesters here really are. Under Gavin Newsom, crime has exploded, as has the number of homeless people. The exodus of people who can no longer afford to live in California, as well as those fleeing the tax burden, continues unabated. And when the people at the “No Kings” rally here in Bellingham demand “Trump must go!”, do they consider what or who will follow him?
Of course, money still means power these days. But don’t those who possess our data now hold the real power? And what about the burning issues of our time: the gradual replacement of cash by digital currencies, which could then be programmed, just like China’s social credit system - and therefore, out of civil disobedience and self-interest, to pay in cash instead of by credit card; the advancement of artificial intelligence and the mass unemployment that can be expected as a result; ubiquitous surveillance through biometric facial recognition and digital ID. None of this is addressed at the “No Kings” rally in Bellingham. I miss the call for people not to so carelessly reveal their data and sometimes most intimate informations on Facebook, Instagram, X, and other social media. Where is the call to stop buying goods on Amazon out of convenience and penny-pinching instead of supporting physical shops? And where the suggestion to reduce energy consumption by simply turning the air conditioning thermostat a few degrees higher in the summer and putting a lid on the pot when boiling water? Instead, I hear the traditional pleas for Green energy, “diversity, equality, and inclusion,” as well as, in the same breath, trans rights and women’s rights. Again, apparently without the critical distinction that transgender athletes not only take medals from competing female athletes, but also the university scholarships that come with them; and that puberty blockers can cause serious health damage.
One speaker addresses something specific that makes me stop. He says that during the current budget freeze, fueled by disagreements over short-term financing and health programs, the government is “selling off” national parks and natural resources. Unfortunately, this vague statement is all he says. I take a closer look at the speaker and see a young man with red and green dyed hair and a black and white Palestinian scarf. He is the only speaker who does not speak in a normal tone of voice. He is shouting. So loud that his voice comes out distorted from the microphone. “Are you also angry?” he bellows at his audience. And when they shout back “YES!”, he makes them chant it several times. An older woman steps in front of the stage and asks him to stop shouting. Without success. I am still wondering why he lists all kinds of groups of people who are being wronged, but then talks about the LGBTQ community first. The question mark disappears for me when the speaker says he is a transgender woman. S/he ends his/her speech with “Free America! Free Palestine!”
It fits that I see a small group standing on the hill next to the stage with a banner reading “Free Palestine!” Once again, I wonder whether the transgender woman is aware that she/he would probably be lynched by Islamists in Gaza. Like 25-year-old Ahmad Hacham Hamdi Abu Marakhia, who fled to Israel after his homosexuality was discovered, but was then abducted to the West Bank in October 2022 and beheaded. And do the other Palestine supporters who consider themselves “progressive” consider that virtually all women in videos and TV reports from Gaza are covered in hijabs? Do they know that Muslim women inherit only half as much as men? That a Muslim man can have four wives and “divorce” his wife with a few words – but a woman has none of these rights. How does this discrimination against women fit in with the idea of gender equality? Not to mention the demand for reproductive rights and “gender-affirmative care”? Most Muslims, including those in Gaza, would probably strongly oppose such rights. Where are people who offer nuanced criticism?
“Progressive-minded, educated people consider themselves to be particularly open-minded and tolerant. Forget that,” writes comedian and physicist Vince Ebert in his book “Wot Se Fack, Deutschland?” (“What the F…, Germany?”). A nationwide survey conducted by the American market research company PredictWise in 2019 found that the most politically intolerant Americans are found in urban districts where the majority of residents describe themselves as left-liberal. “Once academically educated intellectuals have formed a certain opinion, they are much more difficult to convince of the opposite than uneducated people, despite factual counterarguments,” Ebert quotes from the survey. The higher the level of education, the more unyielding and stubborn they behave in political discussions and the less able they are to question their own point of view, he adds in his Facebook post.
I cannot judge whether this characterization also applies to the participants of the “No Kings” rally here in Bellingham. They all strike me as open, peaceful people who love justice and freedom. On signs and in words, they reject the accusation from the Republican side that they are America haters and not patriots. The opposite is true, they say: they are taking to the streets because they see democracy and the Constitution at risk and want to preserve and defend both. I believe them.
However, I wonder how they intend to prevail with their “old-fashioned” aganda against an opponent who has the concentrated “military-digital-financial complex” on his side, as the German economic journalist Ernst Wolff puts it. Or are the participants at the “No Kings” rally one step ahead of the speakers’ demands? I put it to the test and mention the digital euro, which the European Union has announced will be introduced on October 25. And I make the connection to the digital dollar and digital central bank currencies. In response, I am asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Americans may be more rebellious than Germans and much more resolute when it comes to defending their rights. But they don’t seem to be any better informed or alert. So I am all the more pleased to discover several signs at this “No Kings” demonstration that, despite their seriousness, make me laugh with their humor.
This text was first published in German on my website and translated by me.
I like your coverage and comments.
I just wish we could have more discussions between the left and right and look at facts instead of opinions.