Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

In “‘No Kings’ protests give badly needed spark of optimism to Democrats” (The Hill, June 18, 2025), readers are either left or led to believe that the “Democrats have been looking for a jolt of energy since their devastating November loss of the White House to President Trump…” “Millions marched… raising their voices and signs against President Trump and his administration’s policies, particularly on immigration.” The “No Kings” coalition plans more marches and rallies on October 18, 2025. And exactly like the June protests, absolutely nothing will change. Trump will continue his wars, both proxy and covert, with the weapons manufacturers laughing all the way to the bank just as the compliant military remains mostly silent.

Prices will continue to climb, millions may lose what they do have in medical care, the environment will continue to burn up, job statistics will be hidden from plain sight, and immigrants and their supporters will have the shit kicked out of them. And those who think that the mass murder, yes genocide, in Gaza and repression in the West Bank will lead to a just peace, well, don’t hold your breaths since Israel may again be at their endless wars in the Middle East bankrolled by the US and weapons manufacturers.

The jury is out on whether or not the ceasefire in Gaza will lead to anything that materially benefits the Palestinian people after two years of genocide. An educated guess is that an occupation may be draconian and may free Israel to attack Iran at a time of Israel’s choice. Israel is a rogue nation and does the bidding of projecting US military power in the Middle East. It remains to be seen if the world order will change after the Israeli genocide in Gaza and a diminished role of the US as the world’s only superpower.

The Democrats are the other side of the coin of duopoly and have been on a slide away from an equitable society since the end of the New Deal. Some may say that Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society continued the thrust of the New Deal, but Johnson lost that battle in Southeast Asia.

These lyrics are from the rock group Buffalo Springfield: “A thousand people in the street… Singing songs and a-carryng signs… Mostly say hooray for our side” “There’s a man with a gun over there… A-telling me I got to beware…” (“For What It’s Worth,” 1966). The past is more evident in the present than ever on the streets with guns, both carried officially and unofficially.

Nothing will change on or after October 18th, but the “Refuse Fascism” nonviolent protest planned for November 5, 2025 in Washington, DC, which strategists hope will begin the fall of Trump’s fascism offers some hope for change. Here is the call of the Refuse Fascism protest: “Surround the White House. Surround the Capitol. Surround the illegitimate fascist-packed Supreme Court. Come back again and again.” Those are noble words and plans that deserve wide support, but a host of issues and dangers may be involved in the just cause of fighting fascism, that Refuse Fascism rightly holds is “upon us.”

The question for November 5, 2025, is to what extremes the US government will go to quell protest? The military presence in DC and elsewhere may be a harbinger of what’s to come. So far in the second Trump administration, groups on the far right seem to be somewhat content with Trump’s draconian actions in terms of protest, immigrants, and the creation of a far-right martyr in Charlie Kirk. Kirk’s murder is another example of how violent many here are. Some will even murder young children in schools, and the best the radical Second Amendment mavens can do is offer “thoughts and prayers.”

Will the Trump administration seek to make martyrs out of those going to DC to protest fascism? The Trump administration has attempted to label Kirk’s alleged murderer, Tyler Robinson, a leftist. The governor of Utah “paraphrased Robinson’s mother as having said that “over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left – becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented” (CNN, September 20, 2025).

So, the conclusion is that Robinson became concerned about some issues, which seem to be on the liberal side. When Thomas Jacob Sanford set fire to a Mormon church in Michigan, his far-right history was quickly forgotten by those of the same ilk. Trump seems ready to cross the tripwire and create all-out chaos with police and military repression on the streets of the Capitol city. And what’s to restrain him with a compliant Supreme Court, Congress, and the US military? During the height of the anti-war movement, Richard Nixon was not nearly as out-of-control as Trump is today. To what degree is there growing resentment among some ordinary people at fascism in the US? Trump’s professed love of ordinary people is not reflected in inflation, a weak job market, and a system that favors the very rich over those trying to make ends meet. Trump seems to never have met a war he doesn’t like.

Trump, Stephen Miller, and J.D. Vance have made the White House a platform against a perceived radical left, often railing against the so-called boogeyman of Antifa, at best an amorphous group that can’t begin to compare to the far right and its destructive firepower and propaganda.

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