In case you were not aware, many people gathered around America this past Saturday to wail about how extraordinarily mean the Trump administration has been to illegal aliens, non-essential government employees, and a broad array of Leftists and looneys in academia and the entertainment industry. 

As much as eager news media and their social media multipliers might want to suggest that these well-funded and wholly inorganic protests represent a grass roots rejection of President Trump and his policies, the numbers seem to tell a different story. Estimates of total participation (helpfully supplied by the protest organizers themselves) seem to lock in on a number of around 7 million people showing up around the country. Sounds like a lot, right? However, given that the adult population of the United States is 255 million, this works out to less than 3% of Americans who might have chosen to show up on a lovely early fall Saturday to wave preprinted placards and celebrate their own virtue; this does not, if one were to be brutally honest, seem to indicate a revolution is in the making. For helpful comparison, nearly 128 million people enjoyed watching last year’s Super Bowl, despite the fact that it was a blowout win for the Philadelphia Eagles that was notably lacking in any drama, although many apparently still enjoyed the halftime show.

One can easily understand how important these types of performative protests are for the participants. Still in shock over the thumping Kamala Harris took in the 2024 elections—and peering ahead to grim election prospects in 2026 and beyond—a little self-comforting solidarity is definitely necessary for the radical fringe driving the agenda for the Democrats today. If ever there was a time for reinforcing the In-Group/Out-Group Dynamics of Trump Derangement Syndrome that substitutes for practicable policies, this was it. After all, when you feel the cultural zeitgeist is no longer going your way, it is a good idea to gather together to rant and rave for the cameras to reassure the perpetually aggrieved and terminally insecure that they are not alone in their misdirected rage. Worse still, having had the animating wind taken out of their sails by the miraculous foreign policy triumph of a Trump-brokered peace deal between Hamas and Israel, one which many on the political Left to this day resolutely refuse to celebrate (or even acknowledge), the disorientation of protestors who had been sanctimoniously demanding a Middle East cease fire to end the suffering—and got one courtesy of the President they deem a fascist tyrant—definitely deflated much of Democrats’ righteous ire this past Saturday.

Nonetheless, the “No Kings” protests were necessary both to give geriatric 1960’s radicals a final chance to march (or limp) through our streets and, more importantly, provide proof to those funding these protests that they should keep cutting checks to “activists” who have bills to pay. The exposure of the many millions of dollars flowing from a network of non-governmental organizations, non-profit foundations, billionaires, and shady overseas financiers into what has been called “Riot Inc.” has called into question the purposes of these made-for-media events that are long on anger and short on solutions. 

Aside from dreaming about the deaths of their political opponents and singing the praises of liberal Federal judges who keep signing off on Temporary Restraining Orders that delay law enforcement for a few weeks, these protestors showed little appetite for the grunt work of proposing and passing legislation that is congruent with the goals and ideals of today’s radical Left. This is, of course, largely due to the plain fact that most Americans are actively repelled by those who insist felons deserve a special place in our hearts, the sexuality of children should be the business of bureaucrats and teachers (certainly not the parents!), and insisting people work to support themselves is a pernicious form of oppression. In the final analysis, the violent fantasies and repugnant characterizations of average Americans by “No Kings” protestors, however distasteful they might be, make logical sense because they provide an adolescent outlet for their frustrations concerning their utter powerlessness in this Trumpian political and cultural age. 

Imagine an outraged teenager who has been told they can’t borrow the family car unless they do their household chores if you want a peek into the minds of those who are intent on inflicting their own misery on everyone else in the vicinity. Responsibility and rules are a real bummer, but this is a burden we have to bear for being adults—in a world sprinkled with spoiled, overgrown children.