Wearing yellow as a universal symbol of Democracy and carrying handmade signs with political slogans, Americans of all ages and backgrounds across the country protested against President Donald Trump and his policies. On Oct. 18, 200,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. to protest under the “No Kings” movement. More than 2,500 individual events were registered with the No Kings website on Oct. 18, with at least one in every state and commonwealth.
The No Kings movement is a democratic series of demonstrations, and a collection of liberal organizations, including Indivisible, 50501, and the Human Rights Campaign. They work to mobilize citizens to protest and speak out against what they view as authoritarian power grabs by President Donald Trump. The term, “No Kings,” compares Trump to a monarch, and calls for democracy to be upheld by the government, according to the No Kings website . This rejection of the idea of monarchy in America is not unique to the movement, and was a core value to America’s foundation.
Sophomore Yshai Bachcofskaya, who attended the No Kings protest on Oct. 18 in Washington, D.C., felt connected to his right to protest, and believes it is an important patriotic value.
“There was a lot of energy in the crowd,” Bachcofskaya said. “People are happy to be together and unified, and I think people get very excited when there’s a common cause to unite against.”
Protestors for the No Kings movement marched about topics such as Trump’s use of the National Guard on cities across the US, dismantling branches of the federal government, cutting healthcare for many Americans and his policies on immigration. Trump described the protests as a “joke” in response to these objections, with other Republicans similarly condemning them. Similar anti-Trump protests are also planned for Veterans day on Nov. 11, organized by the “Vets say no” campaign in seven cities across the U.S., including Washington, D.C.
No Kings also provides community service on top of event organization. On their website, they offer resources to aid families affected by the government shutdown, ways to donate to local food banks and community shelters as well as providing ways to organize food drives. Karen Elrich, resident of Takoma Park, Md., helped organize two No Kings protests in Takoma Park.
“The first step in being an activist is to go to a demonstration,” Elrich said. “I’m a very strong believer that we all need to be activists if we’re going to have a democracy.”
Elrich was responsible for choosing the location of the protests in Takoma, distributing information about them to the public and selecting marshals to keep the events safe.
“It was a really important thing about the No Kings, the stress on being non-violent,” Elrich said. “It also made it much more open to people who wanted to bring their families, and older folks who wanted to go.”
The non- violent nature of No Kings extended to not just Takoma, and allowed many families to attend. Freshman Moses Dauber was able to experience the protest with his family in Washington, D.C., and was encouraged by his sister to participate.
“It was very powerful, there were a lot of people chanting and it gave me hope, just to see so many people fighting,” Dauber said.
