‘No Kings’: Getting riled up about being riled up

An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 protesters gathered on the Capitol lawn last Saturday in Lansing’s version of the “No Kings” rally. Organizers hoped it would be the largest gathering ever seen there.

It didn’t come close. In the last 25 years of Capitol rallies, I can come up with, off the top of my head, at least seven larger demonstrations. I can come up with several more that were much more newsworthy.

But that’s not the point.

The point is that the event happened. Again. And likely will take place over and over again. The significance of the “No Kings” rally is the breadth of the events, not necessarily the depth of this one.

The decentralized grassroots activists at 50501 organized dozens of rallies across the state, providing Michiganders agitated by President Donald Trump’s North Korea-like military parade on Flag Day (and his birthday and the Army’s 250th anniversary) with numerous gathering places.

This was 50501’s most recent effort.

The loose grassroots network has sponsored six rallies since the beginning of the year. The most recent one previously was the Women’s March on April 19.

The “Hands Off” rally of April 5 likely drew a bigger crowd in Lansing than “No Kings.” A few others took place earlier in the year.

Spawned off of Reddit in January and with no big-name political figure stirring the pot, 50501 is keeping people’s agitation with Trump and his administration at a constant boil.

That’s what makes “No Kings” and its predecessor and successor protests significant. Many more union organizers protested Gov. Rick Snyder on right to work, the emergency manager law and the repeal of prevailing wage. But those were based on when those pieces of policy were before the Legislature.

Once Snyder and Republicans passed their laws, the protests ended and everyone moved on.

Progressives aren’t moving on from Trump. They’ve taken the mentality that it’s not less vitriol we need. It’s more vitriol and more often.

For as long as Trump is in office, 50501 has taken the advertising approach that seeing more agitated people more often is good for the movement.

Jane and Bill may not have come to the Feb. 5 “No Kings On President’s Day,” but they heard about it from friends.

Perhaps Jane and Bill wanted to do “No Kings” but had other plans. But maybe the next time 50501 comes to town, Jane and Bill will be there with their homemade, clever Donald Trump sign.

It’s saturation, not with paid advertising, mailers, or text messages, but in political activity. It’s giving people more opportunities to yell at a building. It’s standing with people who agree with you (or are at least as pissed off as you are, but about a different issue).

Conservatives did this on a more limited scale in 2020 with their Operation Gridlock and Operation Haircut to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s movement-restricting executive orders.

That movement was issue-based, though. Once the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the governor could no longer issue endless executive orders, the rallies subsided.

The 50501 rallies are 100% attached to themes related to Donald Trump. Until he’s gone, there’s no reason to think they won’t continue — on and on and on.

If organizers wanted to create the largest rally the Capitol had ever seen, you could see the playbook.

It would have to be a special, one-day, Lansing-only deal. It would have to be another clever theme based at least loosely on something Trump is doing. They would want to bring in a big speaker or two. The more gubernatorial or U.S. senatorial candidates, the better.

The political temperature is hot enough that you could see it happen.

But, again, that doesn’t seem to be the point.

The 50501 protests are about the quantity of events, not the quality of any single event. It’s about being consistent. It’s keeping their issues at the forefront of their minds. It’s not about one big event that people will forget in a week or two.

“No Kings” wasn’t the biggest rally Lansing had ever seen. So, what?

It’s part of something that may turn out to be much bigger.

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the Capitol news service MIRS. You can email him at melinnky@gmail.com.)