No Kings 2 Has No Downside, and Negligible Risk [View all]
Trump and his lackeys will bluster, and threaten, and smear everyone involved, but they are powerless in the face of massive non violent No Kings 2 nationwide protests. It is what they are least prepared to counter: a massive outpouring of non violent citizens converging in every corner of this vast nation; in small towns and major cities, rural and urban, red and blue, everywhere at once.
Trump can not manipulate the playing field when it encompasses the entire nation. He can not control the narrative when reality itself plays out mere miles away from where every American lives. Trump has his playbook of course but it wasn't written for an event like No Kings 2, and it can't be adapted to successfully respond to it.
Trump deploys federal agent provocateurs in targeted city blocks, be they in LA, Portland or Chicago, seeking to generate images of unrest with "rioters" "clashing" with "law enforcement officers." Then those premeditated, prefab images are spoon fed to his base through right wing broadcast and social media networks. Cities are said to be "burning down", though mothers stroll with their infants in baby carriages a mere block away. Most Americans live hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from where non violent activists are actually confronting ICE agents on the streets. There are relatively few eye witnesses to the truth as it really plays out.
Not so with No Kings 2. Though decidedly national in scope, 2500 distinct rallies will each be local in nature, near to where all Americans live and work. Each of the many millions of protesters who will be participating are personally known to another dozen or two friends, family members and acquaintances, who will be hearing directly from them about what actually went down. Regardless of whatever out of context footage FOX News or Newsmax tries to package for their viewers, virtually every local media outlet in the nation will be reporting live from their local scene themselves. And they will be reporting on massive peaceful protests in opposition to Trump's agenda.
Trump's proto-fascist forces do not have the capacity to simultaneously disrupt and/or intimidate millions of Americans gathering at one time in thousands of places throughout the entire nation. They know it and they won't even try They have no stomach for being outnumbered a hundred to one or more. That's why their strategy is to try to intimidate us in advance, to keep us from attending in the first place.
They are incapable of shaping the narrative on Saturday, even if they do manage to stage a few instances of supposed "conflict" and "civic unrest." They would stand out like a sore thumb against the backdrop of millions of peaceful protesters, obvious isolated instances of staged provocations. Will there be absolutely no risk to any protesters on Saturday? Of course not, there is always some risk. Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, could Civil Rights leaders promise their followers that actively opposing racism came at no risk to those who did so? But where would our nation be today had risk adverse supporters of justice and human rights huddled at home behind locked doors rather than taking the fight for equality to the streets?
Compared to what they faced, the risk to anyone who attends a No Kings 2 event this Saturday is virtually non existent. The risk to any Trump goon who tries to disrupt our peaceful protests, on the other hand, will be high. Not because of any physical danger they could face at the hands of protesters. Our strength is in non-violence and we know it. The threat to the Right comes from the danger of being exposed to the nation in broad daylight for who they really are should they attempt to show their true colors on that day.. Let them try. we've got this.
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