- cross-posted to:
- usa@midwest.social
- cross-posted to:
- usa@midwest.social
leaders with the most prominent Trump-resistance group organizing “No Kings” answered that complaint Saturday when Indivisible’s Ezra Levin took to the stage in Minneapolis and announced that a nationwide general strike is planned for May 1, modeled after a successful local action that shut down much of that region in January


My huge takeaway from No Kings protests is - Republicans and Trump aren’t really shaking in their boots. So what, you go out with your friends for a weekend spending all that time going ‘rabble, rabble, rabble’. You know, good for you, I guess.
My question is, will these same people and more, be there by time of both the mid-term and general elections? That’s the real question. If you guys can get out and protest, certainly, you can get out and vote too.
It’s not a real secret that the No Kings protests is directly rebelling at Trump. We’ve seen similar protests before when George W Bush was in office, so this is nothing new to me.
You know what I keep daydreaming about? I keep daydreaming of an America, where if Americans want things done, they’d hold all elected officials to their word. If millions of americans didn’t like what who they voted for did, they’d massively flood e-mails, letters, phone-calls and maybe occasional visits to directly tell that elected official ‘hey, you’re fucking up the country I’m working hard to help sustain and pay taxes into, because of your crooked bullshit’. If it is done enough times, maybe just maybe, that elected official will have a wake up call and decide to honor their position to be of the service of the people, not who is handing them loads of money.
But, you know, that’s too much effort for everyone who’s gonna partake in this protest. In fact, I find it funny that people even worry about whether they gotta work on the day of the protest.
My friend, in a real revolution and in a country that actively fucks you in every way you can, why worry about work? You go to work, to help sustain and uphold a country that’s actively fucking you over and that little job of yours isn’t cutting it for your expenses. But, you keep on worrying and find yourself back in line after the protest.
I doubt I’ll even see your asses in the voting center anyways.
So you think protests do nothing, but those things would?
Those only happen under more extreme circumstances. If people are actually worrying about their next meal, you can get a revolution from below. If there are huge numbers of military veterans, who are suddenly dismissed or unemployed after a war you get a chance as well. If the regime disintegrates internally because of ineptitude and failures, you have a chance it won’t fight back. If people are well organized in ways that can be leveraged, you have a chance as well.
A super individualist society divided into a million identities, lots of them primarily associated with buying stuff, have a hard time to coalesce, unite, and focus.
The American economy and political system still works far too well to be ripe for a „real revolution“.
No Kings has a bit of a lack of focus.
Protests are important because they show a large number of people are willing to stand up. We wouldn’t’ve gotten the protests if there weren’t enough people online encouraging them. And we won’t see further progress until more organization happens and something more dire happens.
But it’s all a part of the process. It’s all necessary.