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Republicans mostly silent as millions of Americans protest Trump on No Kings day (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 4 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

160 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Outside of typical remarks from Donald Trump, JD Vance and Mike Johnson and a Fox News report, party stayed mum

Republican voices were mostly silent as No Kings rallies and marches against Trump administration policies unfurled on Saturday, many in the spirit of a street party that countered the “hate America” depiction advanced by senior members of the party.

Instead of provocation, there were marching bands, huge banners with “we the people” references to the US constitution, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance.

It was the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and came against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services but is testing the core balance of power, as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that protest organizers warn are a slide toward authoritarianism.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

First of all, stop calling them Republicans. The Republican party is dead, replaced by the MAGA Party.

The Republican foundation of Smaller Government, Lower Taxes, Responsible Economic/Fiscal Policy, Family Values, etc. has been replaced by the MAGA foundation of Treason, Corruption, Racism, White Supremacy, Rape, Pedophilia, Violence, Cowardice, Ignorance, Incompetence, and Intolerance.

The Democrats get crazy when a MAGA calls them the "Democrat Party," so hit them back, and make it official that the Democratic Party no longer recognizes the Republican Party, and will never refer to it again in speeches, interviews, campaign literature, etc. As far as the Democratic Party is concerned, it is now the MAGA Party.

Then stick by it, and watch them melt down. They LOVE being Republicans, they are proud of it, after building it up in the Conservative Propaganda Machine for decades as an honorable institution. Many of them have to be uncomfortable with being sidelined by MAGA, and getting lip service from them. They already know that the Republican Party is dead, but they are afraid to say it out loud.

So the Dems should do it, and give them their worst nightmare - they allowed the MAGAs to destroy the "Party of Lincoln."

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[–] drhodl@lemmy.world 52 points 3 days ago (5 children)

No shit about staying silent. Even the media is silent. The only references I can find in my news feed regarding the No Kings rallies, is local reports from small local stations. Things like this make it obvious which side the mass media is on.

[–] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Red state navy town here. There were tons of former Republicans at my local protest.

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[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

To be honest, we shouldn't even need Republicans to turn the tide. We just need to get people off their asses and stop pushing both sides bullshit.

Democratic primaries will be fast approaching and now is the best time ever to support Democratic candidates like AOC (likely to primary Schumer), Mamdani, Talarico, Chakrabarti, etc. and get out the AIPAC crap.

[–] Octavio@lemmy.world 101 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Then nobody better tell me that protests don’t accomplish anything. Besides all the things you aren’t admitting they accomplish, getting republicans to shut up for a day is a damn miracle in itself.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 44 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It was supposed to be this dark, violent uprising of slavering feral ANTIFA Commies, and instead, it was a just a huge national street party/ MAGA Roast that MAGAs weren't invited to.

Now they have to explain to their cult how wrong they were about the left being violent and hating America, without looking like their feeling are hurt for not being included in the fun.

[–] allidoislietomyself@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The right wing media is just waiting for the handful of police reports to come in from the weekend to fixate upon, and talk about non stop, so they can make that "violent uprising" a reality for their viewers.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 24 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I just heard an ABC reporter saying that the protests were non-violent, "for the most part."

"FOR THE MOST PART?" He said that without pointing out a single instance of it, and I haven't heard of any reports of violence. So why does he have to suggest, on national TV, that there was at least some violence, somewhere? All that does is feed MAGA lies. Now that can say that the protests were violent, they heard it on ABC, and they'd be accurate.

News organizations, whether left or right, should be required to be accurate.

[–] TronBronson@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Apparently, the LAPD and a few other California municipalities did choose violence at the end of the day. Not the protesters, but the police.

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[–] allidoislietomyself@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Unfortunately the major outlets that claim to be more left are really just right wing lite, and at the end of the day they are still part of the propaganda machine.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 16 points 3 days ago

The "left wing media" is only as left as their right wing owners will allow them to be.

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[–] m0stlyharmless@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 days ago

It’s worth noting that there was an instance of a hit and run driver injuring a protestor, but this sort of violence is hardly what is implied by the ABC reporter’s statement. Of course, this is all on top of the unprovoked use of force by the feds.

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[–] CircaV@lemmy.ca 57 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Mostly silent?! Except for the video King Trunp posted of him literally shitting on Americans. Presidential enough for you??

[–] paperazzi@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I had to find it for myself because I couldn't believe what you wrote. But its true! He's not even hiding how much he hates Americans anymore.

[–] Smokeless7048@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

God, I can't believe you went even exagurating: https://youtu.be/ugrn6DNAYEU

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[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 45 points 3 days ago (6 children)

It's almost like "peaceful protest" is something that fascists can simply ignore.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 days ago

It's almost like peaceful protest is a building block, not a final outcome.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Protesting is peaceful, but honestly, it's a show of potential capacity for violence. I went to the protest, but I went with eye protection, respirator, and ear protection. I wouldn't put it past trump to order the military to deploy LRADs against protestors. Also brought medical supplies, multi-tool and a sign.

Also, for comparison, the largest right-wing protest I could find in the US was a mere ~650,000 people. We just put over 10x that amount on the streets in a single day.

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago (7 children)

You don’t understand how dictatorship works. Something as small as a busted escalator can bring down regime. You can’t afford to look foolish.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Trump has looked foolish for literally the entire time and nothing has changed. Maybe you don't understand how dictatorship works.

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[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (15 children)

Fascism on a national scale requires the consent or fear of the people in order to maintain power. They have to look strong. Anything that disturbs their voting bloc or contradicts the official narrative, especially on a broad stage, is going to cause them exponential problems because it looks like weakness. That's part of why fascism is inherently weak. Being able to ignore dissent is a luxury afforded only to the truly strong.

The fact that they aren't saying anything in this case means that they've calculated that the erosion of their base is preferable to letting the news cycle keep running with this.

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[–] pyre@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Republicans mostly silent

good, it was time they shut the fuck up for once

[–] iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works 119 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I went to one and it had pretty good turnout for a town in the middle of nowhere in Maine

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 53 points 3 days ago

Two small towns in Ohio also had a surprising turnout considering they're both pretty damn red.

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 33 points 3 days ago

Dude, it's insane. I live in the middle of nowhere. Hundreds of people showed up.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 87 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ours coincided with our Pride, they actually marched with us in the parade up to the capitol and then joined us. It was incredible, unlike anything I've seen in this city. Do I think Trump is going to magically be unseated? No. But let's make a habit of this, since I am not sure voting will actually happen in 28, and we need mob size forces to be easily called up.

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 28 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A lot of these protests, especially in bigger cities, have all kinds of booths at them too. The one near me had like 6 for just one congressional candidate, one for a mayoral candidate, and multiple for revolutionary socialists/communists, along with people walking all over the rally handing out fliers about a general strike.

Tons of people sign up for these things, or even if they don't sign up to strike/canvass, end up changing their voting habits accordingly. A lot of local stuff can be really impactful, since a lot of the policies most directly felt by people are local policies (e.g. is the pothole in front of your house fixed? Is your rent expensive? Is there visible poverty on the streets? Are the buses slow?) rather than federal ones (e.g. "we cut billions in research grants but you'll only really start noticing the overall effects yourself many years from now")

I do wish we could just get all the people going to things like this to head over to ICE facilities and block 'em day and night, but it's a good consolation that they're taking some other actions regardless.

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[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 71 points 3 days ago (4 children)

They're silent because they know all the protestors will go back to work tomorrow. If you want to force them to acknowledge it you need to show up the next day as well.

[–] psoul@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago

This 💯. No kings was a protest, it is not a movement and is not trying to be a movement.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 24 points 3 days ago

I actually agree. The shit going down in the USA certainly deserves a General Strike.

And that's why unions were invented, to put that option on the table. How many % of workers are unionized in the US? Is there historical precedence of a general strike without unions?

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[–] OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world 48 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

It's part of the propaganda strategy to pick their battles. They never speak on your terms. They only speak when they have the upper hand. Keep in mind in general they never directly acknowledge any of your talking points. Not unless they have an avenue to interject logical fallacies and pivot the dialog to their terms.

The moment they start talking about this they lend credence to your side. It carves open space in public discourse. This is the exact same tactic they use against you. And people fall for it every time. You're never supposed to lend credence to their trolling. You're not supposed to feed the trolls. Yet here we are. A decade into this era of internet troll right wing politics. People started feeding the trolls and cannot help themselves.

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[–] starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works 39 points 3 days ago (12 children)

Can't believe how many people haven't even heard of it when it's one of the biggest protests in US history. Those left-leaning news channels sure doing their job by covering it for 5 minutes I guess. None of my friends nor 3 other people I talked to today even knew what the protest was or that it was happening until I told them about it.

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 47 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (6 children)

I was at a rally all day today. I saw two noteworthy attempts to counter protest the HUNDREDS of "no king" protesters that showed up in my city.

One was a guy who wrote couchfucker propaganda on his car in chalk paint. "JD Vance 2028" or something like that. He flipped us off at 50mph. Few saw it.

The second was a guy that brought his Charlie Kirk flag to the last 25 minutes of the protest, after 2/3rds of the no kings folks went home.

So, one was a coward that drove by one time. One time. I think he yelled something, but since Trump supporters don't believe in science, he didn't realize we can't hear shit when he's speeding by at 50 in a 35.

The second guy... Man, what do you even say? How about 'what the fuck even is a Charlie Kirk flag?' These people are mentally fucking ill. They will villainize and glorify anyone and anything. If Trump told them douchebags were a hallowed object tomorrow, they'd be lovingly calling themselves 'douchies' by next week.

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