In Hans Christian Andersen’s folktale “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” his cowardly outerage was too afraid to admit they couldn’t see his magical suit, which is rendered invisible on a wearer who is unfit for their position. It took the naivity of a child to finally acknowledge the emperor’s nakedness:
“But the Emperor has nothing on at all!”
Months into the second Trump administration, we’ve seen the 47th president fail to deliver on his campaign promises, whine for a Nobel Peace Prize despite threatening war, kidnap and deport legal citizens, tank the economy, defend and uphold the Republican Party as one of pedophiles and Nazis, create another government shutdown despite having control of all branches of the government — and those are just the ones that came to the top of my head.
Suffice to say, this is a generational — nay, a centurial run for the worst administration of all time. And it’s because of all of those reasons — and more — that the recent No Kings protest was the third largest movement in all of American history, with an estimated 7 million Americans attending across the country.
Americans who stand for concepts like “checks and balances,” “democracy” or even the “U.S. Constitution” are frustrated with this administration’s overreach of governmental power.
Americans who stand for “justice” and “rule of law” are frustrated with a pedophile doing everything he can to stop the Epstein files from being released.
Americans who believe in a “growing economy” are frustrated with being treated like puppets who line the wallets of Wall Street and Big Tech.
Seven million Americans across the country understood what the right to peaceful protest means in a way that rioters on Jan. 6, 2021 still don’t understand — as the right wing demonstrates why they’re the party of violence and murder, exemplified as ICE agents assault peaceful protestors and cower behind face masks like the Gestapo.
This protest was once again a major success, ticking Trump off so much that his response was to … post an AI video of himself … defecating?
The punch line of this story? Naturally, it’s to ask what any of this may have to do with us.
The current form of the Republican Party is a laughing stock.
While Americans suffer from high costs and low wages, the Republican President is giving $20 billion of taxpayer money to Argentina and withholding $400 million from Taiwan. As unemployment rates rise, the Republican-controlled Congress shut itself down to make health care more expensive for Americans and prevent the Epstein files from being released.
Americans’ rights are being abused through kidnappings and illegal deportations, while the Republican-favored Supreme Court upholds the administration’s illegal actions and tears apart any understanding of precedent or the Constitution.
All of this was predicted — not just by Democrats and liberals like myself, but by Republicans’ very own Project 2025 concocted ahead of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Even still, Trump was voted into power, and Congress got Republican control in both the House and Senate.
Of course, it’s too late for the results of the 2024 election to change — but how we mobilize moving into the midterm is more important than ever. And the No Kings protest is almost a quintessential example of how to do so.
Watching prominent liberal figures — like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and TV educator and climate activist Bill Nye the Science Guy — call out the atrocities of Trump and the Republican Party felt pretty inspiring knowing there are still some patriots in the country who want to move America forward.
The Democratic Party blocking the Republican budget proposal that would increase health insurance costs is a good move.
Gov. Gavin Newsom saving lives, as Vice President JD Vance almost kills Californians for a military parade, is a good move.
Mobilizing behind people like Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva while House Speaker Mike Johnson blocks her from being sworn in, disenfranchising Grijalva’s voters, is a good move.
So while we continue to see the Democratic Party making good moves in standing against a party of authoritarianism, our goal as Americans should be to rally behind them.
This makes the presence of hecklers at former Vice President Kamala Harris’s book tour all the more embarrassing. At a time when American democracy is at the brink of collapse, screeching at Harris — someone with no legislative power — while she’s on a book tour for a genocide being perpetuated by the current president, is just plain silly.
Blaming Democrats for what the Republicans are doing now, or comparing the two with any sense of “both sides”-ism, is the exact same as blaming a domestic violence victim for staying in the relationship.
The emperor has no clothes, and the kingdom is naked. Those on the right say the emperor looks splendid, while those on the far left don’t even care about the kingdom. It’s up to everyone else to call out and stand up against this embarrassing administration.