Are protests, marches, "No Kings Day", making any progress?

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2025/10/are-protests-marches-no-kings-days.html

I must admit, I've had my doubts about the effectiveness of this direction the opposition to Trump has taken. For the most part, at least at the beginning, the GOP, and more specifically the MAGA wing of it, serenely ignored the protests and marches, as did Trump and most of his administration. Personally, I thought that it was too passive, that it was getting people out, but not really directing the energy anywhere, while the Democratic party leadership in Congress seemed to be kind of separated from it, disengaged, cowering behind the excuse of "well, we don't have a majority."

We didn't do what we could have when we had a majority.

So, the primary value of these protests so far seems to be the creation of an increased awareness of exactly how bad things are, and to move people, especially those who sat out the last election, to the ballot box. If the trends of the more accurate polling data continue in the same direction, the Democrats will have a House majority after 2026, and it is also likely that they will have at least one more seat in the Senate than the Republicans can overcome with the Vice-President's presence. That would, at least, put a stop to the MAGA agenda.

Will enough Republicans get the message to make a difference now? That's doubtful. But they are paying attention.

Republicans, especially the MAGA core of the party, have gone from ignoring the protests, as much as they can since the size of some of them have been at record proportions and they are hard to ignore, to name calling and labelling. Inventing "Antifa" presence, because it sounds unAmerican, claiming the huge number of protesters are paid, or are Hamas allies, or terrorists is a change from simply ignoring them early on, are signs that the GOP is not only well aware of the size and scope of the protests, but they are intensely frightened of the potential outcome of them.

A couple of the GOP's less intellectual fascists have already broken cover and run.

Then, there's the approaching midterm elections themselves. Of course the Republicans are scared spitless that they are going to lose at least the House, which would be the end of anything Trumper or MAGA. There are signs they believe they are going to lose the Senate as well. So they are exploring all possibilities and taking every step to try and stack the deck in their favor, including the open possibility of simply figuring out how to get the Supreme Court to help them disqualify enough votes to favor their candidates.

Their little scheme, starting in Texas, seems to have stalled out. There's no guarantee that redrawing districts in a state where Democratic voters are over the 45% threshold now, and may actually be in the majority, given Trump's shenanigans since January, will net more than a couple of the five seats they are hoping for, if that much. The last time they tried this, they barely flipped one seat. Other states poised to join them, Missouri, Indiana, Florida, haven't even reached the point of introducing the legislation yet.

Of course, the blue states who say they will counter this move if the GOP tries it in Texas can flip about an equal number of seats, according to the data from the 2024 election. So there's that. But the fact they are doing this is evidence these rallies indicate to GOP political leadership that they are going to lose. And that's one reason they are successful and should continue.

[MyOwnPeace]

1. Sadly, I think these 'protests'.............

are like signing PETITIONS - they make us feel good about being ‘active’ - but I don’t think they change a single mind of anyone with the power to address the issue stated in either the rally or the petition.
HATE to be ‘negative Nelly’ - but go ahead, prove me wrong…………

[slightlv]

2. I had one car that swerved closer to the edge of the street, close to where I was standing on the walk.

See this... I'm 70 years old, I'm holding a sign that's nearly as tall as I am (4/9&quot . I weight 94 pounds soaking wet. My hair is silver grey, and I'm leaning heavily on my cane to stay upright. I knelt down briefly to take the pressure off my back when this car swerved in a little closer. Two men... one driving, grey-haired himself with who was probably his son, around 40 yo, in the car with him. The "kid" started to say something snarky or worse to me. Before he could get a word out, I just hollered... I'm an Air Force Veteran who never DREAMED of having to fight a dictatorship in THIS country! I'm old... I'm tired... and I"m sore... and I've been through all this before back in the 70's. WHY do I have to fight for my rights as a woman AGAIN, some 50 years later? And why do I have to be the one to protect the least among us?! Where are your strong shoulders and back?!

The guy really wanted to say something snarky and once again opened his mouth, only to hit over the head by his "father"... who told him to have some respect.

We may not change many minds... I'm not really sure. But we ARE having an impact. At least the 40 yo who'd never seen military service had someone who was talking at him as hard as he could talk as they drove away from me. I'd loved to have been a little fly on that convertible's windshield!

[lees1975]

3. My expectations probably don't match what is more realistic when thinking about the outcome.

The message may be just a bit too subtle. Its a demonstration of what's to come when there's an election. These people will all turn out.

So, they are figuring out how to subvert the vote totals. I sure hope there are people on our side smart enough to see this and doing something about it other than just complaining about the fact that it is happening.

We had indictments, evidence and we actually had a congressional majority with a President that could have ended this somewhere between 2021 and 2023. But that would have looked political and it would have violated the genteel, polite compromise way that Democratic leadership is still using to win poitical points. Yes, packing the court and using that power to overturn, make new rulings, and get Trump's trials expitided would have looked political, but a whole lot less political than his attempted dictatorship does.

And that's why we need new leaders, people. They're the ones out there protesting.

[betsuni]

4. "We didn't do what we could have when we had a majority." What do you mean exactly?

Policy? Something else?

[lees1975]

6. Between 2021 and 2023, when we had a majority in both houses and the White House

We should have packed the court and shut down both their immunity ruling and Citizens United. It was brought up and it was the old guard who ditched the idea because they wanted to keep their precious senate filibuster.

I'll take the loss of the fililbuster any day against a court empowered to expidite Trump's indictments and get him behind bars. They could have done that, overturned Citizens United and got the billionaires out of the election business and saved Roe. But for two traditionalists who bow to the GOP, it would have been done.

[betsuni]

7. Then Bernie Sanders was the old guard because he was against packing the courts:

"We add two more judges. The next guy comes in -- maybe a Republican -- somebody comes in, you have two more ... you have 87 members of the Supreme Court. And I think that delegitimizes the Court."

A 50-50 Senate is not a large majority, the radical right-wing opposition party refuses bipartisanship or governing, and unlike the Republican Party the Democratic Party is a big tent party.

Saying things that blame Democrats for things outside of their control doesn't make them true. Doesn't matter what one's feelings are.

[lees1975]

8. Wonder when he said that?

Because the Progressive Caucus in the Senate, of which he is one of the leaders, was ahead of the movement proposing packing the court in 2021.

And if we'd done it then, there'd be no Trump now. Yeah, as he said, there would be some political inconveniences to deal with centered on packing the court and getting rid of the filibuster, but those were minor considerations, given the end result. I'd have taken no Trump ever again over any GOP shenanigans they could have figured out how to get around.

[Aristus]

5. What are we supposed to do? Machine-gun a schoolyard full of children?

That's how right-wingers express their grievances. No need to join them.

I'll stick with peaceful protesting, no matter how ineffectual it may seem.