To understand the rules that Democrats play by, it is important to realize that they are not meant to bind liberals—only their enemies. Rather than standards, they specialize in double standards. This is especially true of rules surrounding race.
If a gathering of conservatives looks “too white” and/or “too old” in pictures, the Democratic rule is that, ipso facto, it is a group of “white supremacists” seeking to reinstate Jim Crow and slavery.
If a gathering of liberals looks the same way, however, these can only be venerable defenders of Our Democracy gathered in the name of all that is good, people of pallor and silver-hair imparting their wisdom.
Or at least, that’s the story you’ll be hearing about the “No Kings” rallies if you still turn to mainstream media outlets for grins and giggles. Because this writer lived in Minnesota for over two decades, he was naturally drawn to a live feed at the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Saturday. Amusingly, several headlines and posts breathlessly detailed how “thousands” of Minnesotans had rallied across the state. At some point in the afternoon, the paper breathlessly declared that the crowd “swell[ed] to several thousand.”
Thousands?
Neither precise nor impressive for a blue state. Nor were the pictures attached to the articles much help in discerning how many thousands might have been gathering. What they did show is that this gathering is no United Colors of Benetton commercial. It’s the same old gathering of elite white liberals and leftists as always.
Footage taken by those wandering into Times Square in New York, where posters for the rally show sponsors such as the Democratic Socialists of America, Communist Party USA, and Freedom Socialists of America, demonstrate the same. (Chuck Ross notes that Wespac Foundation, one of the partners of the No Kings organization, “handles donations for the Palestinian Youth Movement, which coordinates and works closely with the terrorist group Samidoun.”)
It’s hard to find any reports that differ on the turnout. Though the organizers claim that there were 2,600 protests scheduled for the Saturday event with “millions” attending, it’s a safe bet that the actual turnout was far lower and far less diverse than one might expect from the supposed “big tent” party. X user Rachel Renee Reeves posted: “I am here to report that my very blue historic town in Northern Virginia just concluded its ‘NO KINGS’ rally and as I drove through Main Street, there wasn’t one protester younger than 50.”
Atlanta, a city famous for its black culture, did get a notable turnout, but panning through the crowd, one might guess that the only non-white liberal in attendance was the famous election denier Stacey Abrams speaking on stage.
To be fair, there is evidence of more diversity than that nationwide. Journalist Andy Ngo posted a picture on X of “Muslim Trantifa gunman Eric Austin, aka ‘Sumayyah Dawud’” at the Phoenix rally. Austin is a person of interest in a murder case from last year.
So inclusive! And exciting!
The reality is that, in a country of close to 350 million people, drawing millions isn’t that hard to do. If the No Kings movement was all that popular, we would be hearing about tens of millions. And our pictures of the crowds wouldn’t look like an audience at a Peter, Paul, and Mary tribute act.
But, apart from a few mathematically challenged social media users, we will not be reading about “tens of millions” of people. Nor will we see any crowds that Democrats would otherwise describe as “looking like America.” The reason is that the theme is ridiculous. Donald Trump is neither king nor tyrant. But he is the President and has been effective at short-circuiting the power of our unelected bureaucrats and holding those members of our ruling class to account. And that is what these liberals and leftists don’t like.
They actually have no objection to kings in America. When they prattle about Our Democracy, what they mean is Our Aristocracy—the vast unelected bureaucrats who fill the many, many agencies that are part of the Executive Branch but usually act as if they were an independent law-making power.
That’s why, if the crowds were serious about having no kings, they would really be supporting the Trump administration in its efforts to claw back power from these bureaucrats.
If they were serious, they would be very excited about the REINS Act, which stands for Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, sponsored by Utah’s Senator Mike Lee. In a series of posts on X made during the No Kings events, the Republican noted that “federal agencies churn out roughly 100,000 pages of binding regulations—effectively laws—every year,” including 3,000 regulations in 2024 alone. Yet these people are unelected. As Lee notes, “like kings.”
While under the current Congressional Review Act, Congress can nullify some regulations after implementation, Lee’s bill would require that “any major regulation (with an economic impact of $100M+) must get a vote in Congress before it takes effect.”
Versions of the REINS Act have been proposed in every single Congress since 2009. Some have passed the House; none have passed the Senate. The good news is that seven states have passed state-level versions of the REINS Act, while twelve more have either passed an equivalent or have versions of the act introduced in their state legislatures. Most are, as you might guess, red states.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the aging hippies descending on town squares this week had simply taken the win (we have no king in the White House!) and directed their attention to the unelected aristocrats making law for Americans without accountability?
They still can. And they should.
David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. A past Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, he is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. Follow him on X (Twitter) @davidpdeavel.
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