No Kings

I’ve been struggling this past week to figure out what to write.

The immigration raids in Los Angeles. The protests that followed. The President sending in the National Guard — and then the Marines — to suppress what were, in large part, peaceful demonstrations. The political assassinations in Minnesota. The growing wave of “No Kings” rallies across the country.

It’s a lot.

Each of these events is heavy on its own, but together they form a storm of chaos and fear. And in trying to process it all, I keep returning to one underlying theme: there’s so much focus on what we’re against — but not enough on what we’re for.

This, more than anything, is the legacy of the conservative/MAGA movement and the opposition to it. Not policy or vision. Not even ideology, really. Just relentless opposition. It’s a politics of negation — built on grievance, resentment, and fear of change. What we get is a steady drumbeat of “Not That,” “Not Them,” and “Never This.”

But let’s be honest: they’re not the only ones guilty of this.

Across the political spectrum, our messages have started to mirror one another in tone — even if not in content. Our political climate has become a series of competing “anti” messages. “Not fascism,” “Not socialism,” “Not the establishment,” “Not the radicals,” “Not the elites.” Everyone is fighting against something. But who’s offering a real vision of what comes next?

Where is the leadership that shows us a future to move toward — not just more things to fear?

It’s not that people don’t care. It’s that everything around us — the algorithms, the cable news cycles, the clickbait headlines — is designed to amplify conflict, not resolution. To reward outrage, not understanding. To push virality, not vision.

In this environment, it’s easier to rally energy against something than to build momentum toward something. And that’s a problem — because if all we do is resist, we stay locked in place. Or worse, we spin in circles. We become like a fish flopping on the deck, reacting to every splash but moving nowhere.

At some point, we have to stop asking what we’re fighting against and start asking what we’re fighting for.

We need to find each other. Build bridges. Not in some vague, idealistic sense, but in a real, hard, uncomfortable way. We need to talk about where we’re going — together — because there is no going back. That’s a myth. The only path is forward.

And that path needs to be shaped by us — the people who still believe in democracy, dignity, and shared responsibility. People who believe we are all better off when we’re all better off. People who believe that “No Kings” doesn’t just mean resisting authoritarian power — it means rejecting the idea that any one person, party, or movement has all the answers.

“No Kings” means we govern ourselves. Together.

And that means it’s on us to define the future we want to live in — and then fight like hell to build it.