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By David Waksberg
Maybe it was the decimation of government services that keep us safe – like aviation safety or food and drug safety regulators. Or the corruption, the selling of policy to the highest bidder, like the fossil fuel industry. Or was it the violations of our Constitution, the trampling of due process and habeas corpus, or the flouting of judicial review? Or the sell-out of allies like Ukraine and the coddling of autocrats like Putin. Or the undermining of health standards and the elevation of quackery. Or was the last straw the calling in military troops to violently disrupt a protest in LA?
Or perhaps you feel, as the protest placards state: “Too many reasons to list.”
Maybe you feel less safe, less healthy, less financially secure, and less free.
That is why protesters will take to the streets in 1,600 cities and towns across the United States on June 14. Why Saturday? It’s Trump’s birthday and he’s ordered a military parade, tanks and all, in Washington, D.C.
Trump acts like a king, not a president. And because we don’t do kings here, opponents have declared June 14: No Kings Day!
June 14 is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Continental Army; the day that Americans began actively fighting against the rule of a king.
Peaceful protests will unfold up and down the Peninsula, from San Francisco to San Jose. Here in Palo Alto, we’re doing things a little differently. At 2 p.m.: A parade, along Embarcadero, starting at El Camino Real. No tanks, no missiles, no tyrants. Just people, families, costumes, music. It’s a fun act of defiance, demonstrating what American parades ought to look like.
Then, a Democracy Fair at Rinconada Park at 3 p.m. will showcase what the autocrats seek to crush: democracy and civil society. Workshops, art, “office hours” with elected officials, and music, headlined by Joan Baez.
And yet, maybe you think: what can we do? It feels as if a MAGA steamroller has been flattening democratic norms, laws, and institutions. Elections have consequences.
There is much we can do. The idea that autocrats like Trump are all-powerful and unstoppable is a myth. Autocracies are brittle. All governments rely on a complex set of institutions, in and out of government, to implement policies. Those institutions can determine the success or failure of both the autocrats and the democrats who oppose them. And can influence them.
Trump is not playing three-dimensional chess. The art of his deal is that of a schoolyard bully. Bluster can work; people often back down. Law firms settle because they fear the risk of a fight with the world’s most powerful man. But those law firms that did not settle have won every battle in court. While Columbia University backed down and complied with Trump’s dictates, he continued to demand more. Meanwhile, Harvard pushed back and is winning its legal battles.
When institutions comply, democratic norms are trampled. When institutions resist, the autocrats often back down.
“OK,” people tell me. “Protest might make sense in Pennsylvania or Arizona But here in deep blue Palo Alto? What’s the point?”
Public protest, even in a blue area like ours, can give courage and backbone to the people who lead those institutions, including elected officials. Courage and complicity are both contagious. The more people appease the bully, the stronger he feels and the more daunting defiance appears to others. Conversely, when the citizenry stands up and speaks out, the more cover and courage we provide to institutions to do the same.
If you want your elected representatives to fight, they need to hear from you. If we want them to speak truth to power, it helps if they see us speaking out.
That is why public protest is so important now, even here in Palo Alto. Trump won’t care much about our protests, but, in a way, he’s beside the point. The fate of our democracy depends less on him; rather, it depends much more on us.
Harvard researcher Erica Chenoweth has studied responses to autocracies. She found, over and over, that non-violent protest is far more effective than violent opposition. Moreover, she discovered that when active opposition to the autocratic rule comprises more than 3.5% of the population, the chances of success are high.
Most of our country is unhappy with the current administration. Many are outraged, many are actively resisting illegal government actions. Many more are silent. History suggests we need to fight to restore our democracy (that’s right, restore: The Polity Project, which analyzes the state of democracy around the world has already deemed the U.S. as no longer a democracy). And that fight must involve a critical mass of our friends and neighbors – here in Greater Palo Alto and elsewhere.
Why a Democracy Fair? Because one way to defy Trump is to strengthen what he aims to destroy. Because the decline of civil society enabled the rise of MAGA. And because we need to expand the circle of resistance. If protest rallies are not your thing, try a democracy fair. You might enjoy it and learn something, while defying autocracy.
If you are unhappy with the state of our country, get off the sofa and join us. Change won’t happen overnight, but it won’t happen at all if we do nothing.
David Waksberg lives in Palo Alto and is a member of Indivisible Palo Alto Plus, among the organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” Parade and Democracy Fair. You can email him at: davidw@indivisiblepaloaltoplus.org.
I think he’s right. It’s time to get off the couch and do something about this horrendous path we are on. We need to bend the arc of history.
There’s an actual protest against Trump and his excesses, scheduled for Saturday (June 14), centered in Mountain View. 7,000 people are going to line El Camino Real, from Arastradero to Remington, from Noon until 2 pm. It’s part of the national “No Kings” day. For more information and to RSVP, go to https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/786416/ .
Nothing screams “defending democracy” like the Bay Area’s favorite pastime: performative protests that ignore the elephant (and donkey) in the room.
How can we rage against “the corruption, the selling of policy to the highest bidder, like the fossil fuel industry”—while ignoring the corruption of AIPAC and its galaxy of pro-genocide front groups shoveling cash into Congress to ensure bipartisan support for reducing Gaza to rubble and dragging us into war with Iran, all while launching a new era of McCarthyism under the guise of fighting “anti-semitism”?
Enjoy your sanctimonious anti-Trump chants and the organic, fair-trade sign-making sessions—but remember not to speak too much truth to those who actually have power.
Let’s keep pretending we occupy the moral high ground while ignoring the bipartisan consensus on bankrolling mass slaughter in Gaza or cheerleading a war that could incinerate the Middle East. ICE raids? “No King” protests? Just cosplaying sideshows to keep us squabbling over which brand of white supremacy is morally superior while the war machine chugs along.
Democracy isn’t dying in darkness—it’s drowning in hypocrisy. See you at the next rally! Bring a blank check for Israel and remember Basil Fawlty’s words: “Don’t mention the war(s).”