I went to the No Kings Protest yesterday. It seemed like something I should do. I mean, it should be obvious that we do not want a king, or a king-wanna-be, here in the United States of America.
Now, there are folks on the right saying, “We don’t have a king! Trump won a national election where everyone who wanted to could vote, and it was actually the left who skipped the democratic process and chose a candidate without a primary.”
And, you know what? Those are fair points.
Donald Trump did win an election; he was not crowned a king.
Harris was chosen, not elected through a primary.
And yes, I didn’t agree with how the Democratic candidate was picked either.
I wish Biden had lived up to his statement that he’d be a one-term transitional president. I wish we’d had a real, vigorous primary season where the best candidate came out ready to win. But that’s not what happened. I’ll give you all that.
However and here’s where I draw the line, I still do not want a king.
Even though Trump was elected through the democratic process, what he’s done since taking office feels more and more like a man who thinks he’s above that process.
He’s bypassing Congress on major issues (and honestly, Congress seems way too happy to hand over their own power and that frustrates the crap out of me. Gee whiz folks, have principles and backbones!). He’s deciding how to spend or not spend money that Congress already appropriated, which is not his job to do.
He’s applying tariffs seemingly at random, again not his constitutional power. He’s talked about deploying the military to American cities and he’s already used the National Guard in some. ICE is “disappearing” people in ways that violate civil and human rights. His DOJ is firing folks that don’t do the President’s bidding and replacing them with ones that will. And in the southern Caribbean, boats are being blown out of the water, sometimes without clear due process.
(Happening now is a case where survivors from one of these so-called “narcoterrorist” boats were detained, then quietly released. If they were so dangerous, why repatriate them? Or did we just… mess up? That’s a post for another time.)
Trump has said that because he’s President, he can basically do whatever he wants.
That is not true.
We have a Constitution. We have three co-equal branches of government. We have checks and balances for a reason.
So yes, I protested. Not because I hate Trump, or love Harris, or because I think shouting in the streets fixes everything. I protested because I believe the American system only works when all three branches are functioning and when the President remembers that he is not a king.
I’d love to just disagree with his policies and debate them. I’d love for Congress to take those ideas, argue them, and either pass or defeat them through real democratic process. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
On January 20th, we swore in a President.
We did not crown a king.
Anyway, that’s where my feet and my sign (well…my sister’s sign) were yesterday. I met some people, my wife talked to many more, saw a lot of American flags, saw a frog costume and a unicorn, saw more than a few dogs and many drivers give us both the peace sign and half a peace sign…and my faith in democracy is…cautiously optimistic.
Create an environment that allows success to happen – even (or especially) if that means reminding our leaders they work for us, not over us.
MattMunnell.com 