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Who knew there were that many aging hippies still around for one last protest to recover their lost youth and the halcyon days when they turned out against Tricky Dick Nixon and the war in Viet Nam. Fortunately, none of them had a senior moment and went off-script and stripped down to burn their bras and agitate for free love, instead of free health care for illegal aliens.
Barbara Backer, an 88-year-old resident of Rochester, New York’s Valley Manor was an exemplar of the typical No Kings rally participant. "I've seen quite a bit with the Nixon problems, Vietnam. I was very active in that, the McCarthyism era," she said. "But I have not seen it to this extent, and I have not seen the hatred that is being spewed forth."
Editor’s Note: Ms. Backer would have been 16 or 17 years-old during Senator Joe McCarthy’s hearings on the Communist penetration of the United States government. Senator McCarthy was later proven to be right by intelligence revelations made after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Joining chants like "This is what democracy looks like," and "Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go." Janet Welch said it was the first time she had demonstrated since going to Washington, D.C., in the early 1970s to protest the Vietnam War. She said she believes those protests had an impact, Denise Young of Rochester NPR’s WXXI news reported.
But did the No Kings rallies and protests really have an impact? We doubt that they did.
The point of rallies and protests is to create publicity for the organizers’ issues, draw new adherents to the cause, and in their violent phase, create “the propaganda of the deed” to incite further violence and eventually topple the target government.
Saturday’s flaccid events had none of that energy in large measure because the only identifiable “issue” being protested was Donald Trump.
Mostly peaceful, except in centers of ANTIFA-led violence, such as Portland, Oregon, where federal agents used tear gas to push protesters back from the Portland ICE building. Portland police estimated that “hundreds” of people gathered at the ICE building. Portland police later said three people were detained and were subsequently booked into jail on criminal charges. Those charges included fourth-degree assault, second-degree bias crime, and harassment.
And the online comments seemed to bear out the assessment that the rallies did not bring any new adherents to the cause: “The only people who think Trump is a king are idiot leftists. What’s hilarious is these morons are protesting against a false narrative they themselves invented lmao. And these idiot lefties fell for it. Democrats really do have their voters indoctrinated. Props on that,” posted one observer.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the No Kings rallies was how they revealed the extent to which the establishment media was in the tank for the anti-Trump movement.
USA Today and its sister publications were all-in on the events, posting detailed instructions from the organizers on the times, locations and routes of the planned protests.
However, all the free publicity didn’t seem to broaden the demographic of the No Kings protests, as the comments on New Jersey’s Reddit said, “Great turnout today in Collingswood (NJ). I guess I'm a little let down by the small attendance of younger folks. I'm 31 and felt like the youngest person there other than kids with families. It feels worrying… any thoughts on this? Did others see the same today?”
“I'm 35, and the crowd at the protest in Waldwick (NJ) mainly consisted of old white boomers. Some younger people were present, but it wasn't much.”
Another posted, “I went to NYC and it also leaned heavily older white women.”
At the end of the day, what did the No Kings rallies accomplish, if their goal was to “dethrone” President Trump?
Not much, but as Senator Ted Cruz said, “Boomers gotta boom.”
George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as Director of Policy and Communication for former Congressman Adam Putnam (FL-12) then Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for retired Rep. Mac Thornberry formerly a member of the House Intelligence Committee and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
- No Kings Protests
- Charlie Kirk assassination
- Cameron Arnold
- Zachary Evetts
- Benjamin Song
- John Brown Gun Club
- Trump Executive Order
- Ice-Free Zones
- Domestic terrorism
- Ermiya Fanaeian
- Armed Queers
- Chicago violence
- illegal immigration
- federal law enforcement
- sanctuary cities
- Operation Midway blitz
- declaration of insurrection
- City of Chicago
- ICE in Chicago
- ICE protests
- Chicago police call for help
- ICE agents assaulted
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