Pro-Democracy Protests are Acts of Love
What Do You Love Enough To Risk For?
On October 18, 2025 people from towns and cities across the country will participate in joyous, peaceful acts of love. More than 2,500 No Kings rallies are being planned to protest the tyranny of hate and lawlessness that has taken hold of our government. We the people will come together in gatherings across the nation as a beloved community in a collective display of love for democracy, love for our neighbors, and love for our hard won freedoms.
Rallies and protests expressing political grievance is a right guaranteed in our Constitution. The First Amendment states that:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Did You Know:
The Republican party is worried about recent poll numbers and the large public displays of civic dissatisfaction. Instead of changing policies, they manufacture disparaging and dangerous lies about the protests. It is a familiar tactic of authoritarians. Anyone paying attention could see this coming; protests against authoritarians (kings) will be met by the king’s disapproval and he will send his loyal soldiers to try and suppress the people. The 1773 Boston Tea Party comes to mind.
The stage is set for the upcoming rallies to be the largest ever in history, surpassing the No Kings rallies in June. They will happen across the nation and in at least 20 other countries. The Hands Off and No Kings rallies of the spring and summer were overwhelmingly peaceful and joy-filled. There is no reason to believe October 18 will be any different.
This isn’t the first time that we have rejected kings. The Declaration of Independence was a declaration against the tyranny of another unjust and vengeful king, King George III. That seminal document listed 27 grievances against King George, and that list sounds remarkably similar to the grievances of today. Here are 10 just to give you a sense of how consistent our modern day protests are compared to 1776:
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice…
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices….
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept amoung us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
For cutting off our Trade with the world.
For imposing Taxes without our Consent.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury….
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.
He has excited domestic insurrections against us….
Why It Matters:
David Brooks, a ‘Lincoln conservative’ warns us that without a signifiant mass resistance movement against Trumpism, America may slip into autocracy for decades. He writes in the November 2025 The Atlantic:
Trumpism can also be seen as a multi-pronged effort to amputate the higher elements of the human spirit—learning, compassion, science, the pursuit of justice—and supplant those virtues with greed, retribution, ego, appetite. Trumpism is an attempt to make the world a playground for the rich and the ruthless, so it seeks to dissolve the sinews of moral and legal restraint that makes civilization decent.
If we are to reverse this authoritarian takeover, our pro-democracy rallies need to be the launching pad for a pro-democracy movement that builds a broad, multi-class, multi-racial civic power. We need to mobilize beyond the current base of support and reach out to those who are persuadable to join in this resistance.
Brooks went on to say that this emerging social/political movement must create social tension and include “actions to raise consciousness, including boycotts, walkouts, strikes, marches, street theatre, civil disobedience, and mass petitions.” This movement must be steeped in the disciplines of non-violence and civil disobedience, and there must be a compelling, prevailing vision of what we are fighting for, not just what we are fighting against.
What We Can Do:
We must not be intimidated by the lies and the threats against the pro-democracy protests. We must not be dissuaded from exercising our Constitutional right to gather in the public square nor delay building a mass movement. It is not only our Constitutional right but our moral and civic duty to be informed and engaged citizens of democracy, especially in this moment. That said, we must be clear eyed about the possible consequences of civic engagement in this time of brutality, lawlessness and impunity of the MAGA regime. This work is not just for ourselves, but for the generations to come after us. What do we love enough to risk for?
We must also insist that our civic and activist groups move beyond rallies and protests and work collectively to build a broad based, multi-racial, multi-class coalition and resistance movement. Use your personal connections and influence in your places of work, worship and volunteerism to insist that we pull together as citizens and work across organizations to create a sustained, integrated, coordinated resistance to the tyranny that is being reigned upon our people.
This Saturday, attend a No Kings Rally or organize a mini rally in your own neighborhood. Beyond attending rallies and protests, form and support local, diverse coalitions to build home-grown displays of creative resistance—this will help grow a broad based resistance. Use sidewalk chalk, yard signs, symbols of solidarity, posters, mimes, graffiti, street theatre, corner rallies and costumes not only to protest but to ridicule the absurdity of MAGAism—-neighborhood by neighborhood, zip code by zip code, small town by small town. Let’s throw a ‘better party’ than MAGA. It will clearly be more fun and wholesome.
Most of us didn’t expect to be spending our time resisting an authoritarian takeover of our country. In her poem, A Dream of Trees, Mary Oliver has a few prescient words for this moment:
“Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation. Where, as the times implore our true involvement, the blades of every crisis points the way. I would it were not so, but so it is. Who ever made music of a mild day?”
And so it is.
Lovingly fighting fascism,
The H4D Team
Democrats need to do more than just object to the obvious excesses of the Trump administration. They need to review the policies and positions of their own party that have alienated so many of the working class that once were their staunchest supporters. Biden’s open borders, allowing men to compete in women’s sports and enter their private spaces along with the surgical and chemical mutilation of children and their seeming inability to address homelessness and crime in our major cities are just three of the so called 80/20 issues that put Trump back in power in 2024. They bear some responsibility for creating the “king” they so rightly want out of power.