Outside of typical remarks from Donald Trump, JD Vance and Mike Johnson and a Fox News report, party stayed mum

Republican voices were mostly silent as No Kings rallies and marches against Trump administration policies unfurled on Saturday, many in the spirit of a street party that countered the “hate America” depiction advanced by senior members of the party.

Instead of provocation, there were marching bands, huge banners with “we the people” references to the US constitution, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance.

It was the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and came against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services but is testing the core balance of power, as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that protest organizers warn are a slide toward authoritarianism.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      22 minutes ago

      Protesting is peaceful, but honestly, it’s a show of potential capacity for violence. I went to the protest, but I went with eye protection, respirator, and ear protection. I wouldn’t put it past trump to order the military to deploy LRADs against protestors. Also brought medical supplies, multi-tool and a sign.

      Also, for comparison, the largest right-wing protest I could find in the US was a mere ~650,000 people. We just put over 10x that amount on the streets in a single day.

    • Aeao@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      You don’t understand how dictatorship works. Something as small as a busted escalator can bring down regime. You can’t afford to look foolish.

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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        6 hours ago

        Trump has looked foolish for literally the entire time and nothing has changed. Maybe you don’t understand how dictatorship works.

      • Soup@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Yea, he really got SLAMMED by the escalator fiasco. Or literally anything else in the last [his entire life].

        What rock you livin’ under?

    • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Fascism on a national scale requires the consent or fear of the people in order to maintain power. They have to look strong. Anything that disturbs their voting bloc or contradicts the official narrative, especially on a broad stage, is going to cause them exponential problems because it looks like weakness. That’s part of why fascism is inherently weak. Being able to ignore dissent is a luxury afforded only to the truly strong.

      The fact that they aren’t saying anything in this case means that they’ve calculated that the erosion of their base is preferable to letting the news cycle keep running with this.

          • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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            50 minutes ago

            It’s not true. Nobody outside of leftist groups or media care about this. It’s not out of trying to maintain fear or concern about erosion.

            There’s nothing that comes from these protests anymore. We’re in a digital world. These analog solutions don’t work anymore. You need digital solutions. You need a network and digital presence to spread anything you do like this. But we all removed ourselves from any digital spaces so there’s no need for the right to prevent anything. They know this even 24hrs ago. We’re all back to work. A lot of people didn’t even realize this was going on.

    • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      The Woman’s March, BLM, Occupy Wallstreet, and the first No Kings were all successfully ignored. Millions of Americans marching is clearly not enough for us to be heard.

      • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        7 million people is roughly 2% of the population. It’s 10% of the people in this country that couldn’t be bothered to vote. There’s also no threat or demands to accompany this protest. Like what are the people in power supposed to think. An easily ignorable voting block is slightly agitated enough to spend a few hours holding a sign? Are they going to stop working or consuming? Are they going to gather votes and banish the two parties that have failed us? No lmao they’re just gonna get together once every couple of months, there’s absolutely no pressure to a public gathering.