“No Kings” Protests Are Just Not Enough

for people wondering what's next:

The protests were never the end game - they're a way to show power and build support. When you're standing with seven million other people, you start to realize that if you take direct action, you can shake the world.

What’s the end game?
- Hakeem Jeffries making a snarky post and @'ing Donald Trump with a meme from 2015.
- Look back in the history of the US. Specifically how the abolitionists in the Northern States resisted the Slave Republic that your founding daddies built up until your civil war. They gradually installed state governments that started putting in place state laws that resisted in practice the federal mandates to protect slavery. Things like the personal liberty laws. That's your next move here: use municipalities and state governments and legislatures to pass laws that resist the enshittification of your democracy and get your local police to enforce them. Take power and use it. That's what the article is trying to say too.
  You got to go beyond protesting. Protesting is asking state power to do something. You got to take power wherever you can and resist, i.e., attach a cost to every authoritarian move. But to do that you need to let go the founding daddy issues and embrace the spirit of John Brown, Frederick Douglass, King, and X, i.e., stop revering the framework built by a bunch of white supremacist slavers and get to framing your own free multiracial democratic Republic.
I could just barely swallow this in April, but we're in October now and it's more of the same shit. The deadline is the Midterms in November 2026, so clearly this isn't working.
Ok, take action then

People need to stop downplaying protests.

As long as they only do them on weekends and then disband like everything is normal, they will be ineffective
At the very least, they need to be held on weekdays so as to disrupt the regular function of the economic machine.
It is painfully clear what tRump's regime thinks of these weekend protests...
- You’re not wrong….
The way they're being staged isn't actually doing more than displaying solidarity, which isn't bad, it's a good thing.
But it's not going to change anything without actual leadership in politics making changes due to POLITICAL PRESSURE. This should be the Democrat's motherfucking JOB, to look at this momentum and use it to call out and depose ineffectual or bought-out congress and senate members, to strike down legislation, to block defunding institutions, or at the very fucking least, get some strong candidates up for the midterms instead of preserving this geriatric social club/American branch of the Israeli government.
We need to be ousting our Democratic leadership and forcing in new people who aren't just playing roles and preserving status quo or all of these protests really will be for absolutely nothing.
I keep seeing people talking about how Mussolini was hanged by freedom fighters who marched in the streets. What people miss in that story is that Italy's ruling government handed the fucker over and he was essentially arrested by the king himself. We don't win with marches alone, it needs to lead to political action and so far I haven't seen more than a handful of democrat politicians even reference these marches.
If anything at all comes from this, it will be how we can see clearly which ones are owned by the fascists and which ones actually represent the people.
Read the article. It is about what to do AFTER the protest.
The No Kings demonstrations cultivate a sense of solidarity. They embolden people. They show that there is a base of opposition to this sickening president and his sordid agenda. But at the end of the day, the right has to be thrown out of power. In states like Louisiana and Florida, that means working to end right-wing rule in the state government. In blue state cities, that means electing city officials who are going to effectively resist Trump’s meddling rather than rolling over or staying silent. Around the country, it means people with progressive values need to start running for office themselves. But wherever you are, it means taking the next step beyond carrying signs, and strategizing to take back power and enact more just and humane policies.
- I need to read it, yes. I was doing a blanket comment because lately people been….. not happy about “real results”. Great quote you pulled out.
Why?

We don't need conservatives to shit on our efforts.

We can do it ourselves.

I mean, you didn't even read the article.

It's a nice start. But something I've been taught is always to ask "what's next"?

https://generalstrikeus.com/
Interesting, I am shopping at meijers, and the WiFi blocked that site.
Riding on the wave of this momentous mandate, we can expect our great democratic leader, Chuck Schumer to write a VERY stern letter to Trump.
Cory Booker might stand and talk for a long time too.
This is the height of political protest this year.

Strikes should be the next step IMO.

We need a 30 day general strike. The government can take days off. So can we. No one but emergency service we all need to stop being cogs in wealthy people's lives.
Also very focused boycotts. They need to be just a few companies at a time to keep people focused.
Look what happened when Jimmy Kimmel got suspended, and how quickly that shit turned around.

"These are worthwhile events, and leftists shouldn’t shun them. But stopping Trump requires building power. If protests aren’t coupled with organizing, the right will win."

Ummmmm like 99% of lemmy users did. I said “it’s not enough” and they scream at me and say “WhAT aRe yOu dOiNg?!?!”
But now it’s in the news so I am guessing the lemmyngs will fall in line per usual.
- It's not in "the news;" Current Affairs is leftwing media that liberals like to dismiss as commie tankie Russian propaganda.
- I'd just ask them what's next

It's true. And we should be very careful about how we approach activism rolling forward, and especially communication in that regards. Feint East, Strike West is the old saying.

We need 100 people to follow around every senator and congressman constantly. From sun up to sun down. Constanly remind them to f do their jobs and who they really work for.

Yeah no kings day. Requiem should only be begining and more should be done. I'd be happy to attend another protest