Version imprimable“I think the president is breaking our country,” said Vic Cerra, a Vietnam War veteran, speaking to a reporter in Wheeling, West Virginia. “He’s destroying our friendships with other countries; with our neighbors to the north and our neighbors to the south. He’s fighting a war we don’t need to be fighting. Taking money away from programs that should be helping our people. We need a change and voting is the best way to do it.”
With the midterm election coming on November 3, participants’ placards, speeches, and chants angrily criticized everything they hate about Trump’s last two years: the war on Iran, higher fuel prices, climate change, the firing of thousands of federal employees, the reduction in government health, education, and social welfare programs, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s violent attacks on immigrants, the oligarchy of billionaires, the erosion of civil rights, threats to democracy, the proliferating construction of data centers, the unregulated expansion of artificial intelligence, and the 150,000 Flock cameras that track every movement of our cars.
Carrying a large sign reading “Defend Democracy,” Kelsea Bond, a labor organizer and member of the Atlanta City Council, speaking at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, said, “We need to build a society that works for the working class, not the billionaires.” Her remarks were met with cheers and she went on, “We need an economy, we need a society that is democratically run by working people because we keep this economy running.”
This latest No Kings protest was not built around mass marches in the big cities, but rather around local protests everywhere. Wherever they were held, many of those participating were older people in their 60s and 70s while young people were few.
An official No Kings slogan was “Hands Off My Ballot.” No Kings organizers, protest participants, and millions of other Americans fear that Trump may try to steal the election or even launch another coup such as the one he attempted on January 6, 2021. The U.S. Constitution gives the states virtually total control over elections, with Congress having some oversight, and the president no role whatsoever. The Trump administration, however, has been trying to get access to the voter rolls of 31 states, supposedly to ensure that non-citizens are not voting. Trump has also suggested that ICE agents or the military might be sent to polling places on election day in violation of the federal laws that forbid armed people at voting sites. These are seen as efforts to intimidate voters and keep them from casting their ballots. They could also be the first step in a coup, leading to the seizure of ballots and a declaration that the election is invalid.
So, the key slogan of the demonstrations was “Vote Early.” Some 47 of the country’s 50 states permit early voting, getting the ballots into the hands of trusted state and local officials to collect and count them fairly. In this way, protecting the vote from Trump’s shenanigans.
Esther Rodríguez, 73, participating in Denver, Colorado said, “I’m going to do everything I can to participate in active resistance against what is happening in this country. We have to preserve our democracy.”
