‘No Kings’ Must Do More

No More Kings. Also, No More Queens.

The “No More Kings” rallies are crucial for such a time as this. As the democratic safety nets fray, we cannot afford to sit on our couches vegetating as bad actors seeking greater power, profits and privilege ride roughshod over our governmental agencies.

The series of nationwide rallies is geared to protest the authoritarian tendencies that have been normalized and legitimized during the second Trump administration. Only the most sycophant supporter would deny the weaponization of the Justice Department, the racialization of Homeland Security, the debilitation of Health and Human Services, the provocation of the Department of War, or the capitalization of the presidency.

During its most recent gathering on March 28, held at more than 3,300 locations across all 50 states, between eight and nine million people participated in the largest demonstration in U.S. history. These massive protests were dismissed by the White House as “largely insignificant,” being supported by “leftist funding networks” organizing “Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions.”

We the people have a moral obligation to future generations to stand up against rising fascist sentiments, an obligation to stand for democratic principles. And while the focus of these demonstrations is rightly fixed on the current occupant of the Oval Office, we fall short of our goals of securing democratic principles if we focus solely on this administration.

Younger Than We Think

Let’s begin with the realization that the democratic principles we are fighting for are a new phenomenon, not a standard established 250 years ago this coming July. Lest we forget, only white male property owners could vote until the 1828 presidential election. 

Then, only white men could vote until 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment granted suffrage to white women. Then, white men and women had the vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which allowed Black people, regardless of race or gender, to vote. 

Black Americans were denied the vote despite the Fifteenth Amendment’s guarantee of voting rights, a protection that did not extend to Native people or Asian immigrants. Native Americans gained full formal voting rights in 1970, when Colorado became the last state to allow people living on reservations to vote. The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act granted Asian Americans the right to vote.

It wasn’t until after a biracial man was elected president that a concerted effort was implemented to restrict the recently established universal voting, lest the White House again become nonwhite. This fairly new concept—a voting democracy—had to be restricted, if not reversed, to protect and preserve white supremacy.

Romanticizing some democratic United States that hasn’t existed until a couple of generations ago obscures the purpose of these “No More King” rallies. The goal is not to restore what is being lost, but to forge what never was. And this is accomplished by standing against all who seek to undermine democratic principles, whether Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals.

What Next? Exorcism.

First, when this current regime changes, the next president will face a difficult choice.

Damnatio memoriae will be insufficient, regardless of how self-satisfying it might be. Our focus should be on the concept of “elastic powers,” derived from Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the Constitution, otherwise known as the “Vesting Clause.” This concept has been used to argue that the president may act beyond the Constitution’s explicit language, and it helps justify this administration’s proliferation of executive orders.

Think of this vesting clause as a rubber band. If stretched beyond its limit, it becomes impossible for it to return to its original form. 

Once power is expanded, future presidents become reluctant to relinquish the office’s newly acquired dominance of the political process. Radical reform of the presidency becomes a prerequisite to undo the damage done so far.

 Second, we must protest coronations even if we politically support the future king…or queen.

Don’t forget, during the 2016 presidential campaign, the Democratic Party gave then-candidate Hillary Clinton an unfair advantage. The 2015 Joint Fundraising Agreement gave the Clinton campaign influence over the Democratic Party’s budget, staffing, and strategy, elevated the role of pro-Clinton superdelegates, and limited the primary debate schedule, reducing Bernie Sanders’ exposure. The 2016 Democratic primary was structured to ensure a coronation.

The same occurred in 2024, when President Biden, at the last possible moment, withdrew from the presidential race, allowing his then-Vice President, Kamala Harris, to secure the nomination without going through the Democratic primary process. Again, political shenanigans short-circuited the democratic process, allowing those in smoke-filled backrooms to decide who would be the nominee.

This coronation tendency requires exorcism.

Finally, the entire electoral process, specifically the Electoral College and the gerrymandering of districts, is designed to disenfranchise the voter. “No More Kings” must demand the abolishment of both.

We can see in real time how gerrymandering creates a system where politicians choose their constituents rather than voters choosing their representatives. This current gerrymandering war, started by Republicans in Texas last year, has understandably forced the Democrats to also engage in this nondemocratic process in an attempt to make the democratic process a bit more democratic. The irony! 

“No More Kings” falls short. The protest must go beyond the current president. 

If we truly want no more kings or queens, then we must keep political reformation at the forefront. If not, I fear we might only succeed in trading a fascist for an illiberal progressivist.