The Wild Reed: No Kings 3.0

Yesterday I participated in the nationwide “No Kings” protest in St. Paul, Minnesota – not at the big march and rally at the Capitol but at one of the hundreds of smaller events that took place throughout the metro area and the state.

This was the third “No Kings” protest organized by the Democratic Party-aligned Indivisible coalition. This alignment is important to acknowledge as it effectively defangs this protest movement, as many have noted.

Take, for example, the following from John Ross and Nathan J. Robinson’s October 2025 article, “'No Kings’ Protests Are Just Not Enough”:

Some activists and commentators on the left have characterized No Kings as a kind of cringey carnival of liberalism, and they aren’t totally wrong. Chris Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union, asked, “No Kings Day is big ass parades; when are we going to withhold our labor for, I don’t know, maybe genocide?” Butch Ware, Jill Stein’s former running mate and current Green Party candidate in California’s gubernatorial race, observed that “mass mobilization without any specific demand and without any organization is actually detrimental because it wastes potential energy that could be directed into effectively organizing against systems.” Max Blumenthal, editor-in-chief of the Grayzone, points out that No Kings messaging “does not include opposition to U.S.-Israeli wars” despite officially referencing Ukraine.

It’s understandable why people feel cynical. Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi have personally endorsed No Kings, with Pelosi posting a video of herself ripping up a paper crown, echoing her theatrical tear-up of Trump’s State of the Union speech in 2020. Cory Booker and Adam Schiff showed us what democracy looks like. Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, unironically posted a photo of himself holding a sign that reads “If Kamala had won we’d be at brunch!” Undoubtedly, many of the attendees would indeed be at brunch if Kamala had won.

More recently, journalist and activist Lauren Steiner observed the following.

There are no announced steps to be taken after this march and not even any demands, except that we don’t have kings. But it doesn’t matter whether we have an autocrat or not, if we still have an oligarchical, monopolized system. We need to get rid of the whole system. The only way to get rid of the whole system is to shut down the economy via a general strike.

If these organizers were calling for a general strike, instructing people how to organize one and raising money for a strike fund, that would be useful. If everybody only gave $10, they could raise $90 million just today and then more online and at other actions. But they’re not doing that.

Even though I agree with everything said above, I still chose to attend yesterday's “No Kings” protest, but with a sign and message that, hopefully, made people think about beyond the liberal talking points that are, in the words of Fights Back! founder Chase Linko-Looper, “bold enough to touch the systems that crown kings in the first place.”

Above: My friend Christine displaying the reverse side of my sign. Christine is the mother of Butch Ware, Green Party candidate for California Governor. For more about my sign, one that I created for the first “No Kings” protest in June 2025, click here.

Following are more images of the “No Kings” protest I attended yesterday at Fairview and Randolph Aves in St. Paul, MN. They are accompanied by the insightful words of Chase Linko-Looper.

The “No Kings” framing carries real weight. It digs into something ancient and angry, something abolitionists and grassroots fighters have always understood. But right now, too many liberal organizers are wearing that language like a costume. Bold enough for a sign. Not bold enough to touch the systems that crown kings in the first place.

Here’s the truth: if you’re actually serious about confronting authoritarianism, stop treating a rally like a photo op. A march that doesn’t disrupt anything, and doesn’t interrupt business as usual or squeeze the flow of money and power, that’s not strategy. That’s performance. It builds community. It feels good. But on its own it won’t stop a damn thing.

And let’s be direct: these protests are being turned into a recruitment pipeline for the Democratic Party. They co-opt radical, anti‑monarchist language, then strip it of anything militant. The goal shifts to funneling people into electoral work instead of building independent power. That’s not harnessing the moment. That’s defanging it.

I’m not here to tear anyone down. I want bodies in the streets. But I’ll say it honestly: mobilization without disruption is a hobby. If we’re not willing to halt the flow of capital, to make it more expensive for the powerful to ignore us than to listen, then we’re organizing for comfort, not for change. The “No Kings” energy is real. I’d love to see it not end up as another fundraising list. But I already know how this goes.

– Chase Linko-Looper
via social media
March 2, 2026