By Ashlyn Beck | News Editor, Braden Murray | LTVN Executive Producer
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The lights are still out on Capitol Hill, but the streets of Washington were anything but silent Saturday as over 200,000 protesters gathered for No Kings Day.
Clad in colonial getup, blowup pig costumes and a sea of yellow, the peaceful protest in the Capitol’s backyard included a march down Pennsylvania Avenue, a musical guest and a range of notable figures — including Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Dierdre Schifeling, political and advocacy officer of the American Civil Liberties Union, took the stage and spoke to a sea of onlookers at the rally’s crux.
“The courage we are creating here today across the nation is contagious,” Schifeling said. “It’s powerful, and it’s exactly what they’re afraid of.”
The Washington protest was one of more than 2,500 rallies from coast to coast and the second iteration of the June 14 event, which became the third-largest single-day protest in American history, according to Britannica.
Signs ranged from vulgar language to cheeky wordplay to Bible verses, and the protesters carrying them were just as diverse. Men, women, children, elderly and young adults alike took to Pennsylvania Avenue, the Capitol standing watch, to protest the current administration. Their grievances included ICE deportations, defunding of research and media, healthcare availability and Palestine unrest, but one phrase dotted more signs than any other — “No throne. No owns. No kings.”
For Brien McNamara, D.C. native and Vietnam veteran, patriotism is at stake.
“I consider myself a patriot, and it’s my way of supporting the country, the way it should be,” McNamara said. “I support democracy, which I see slipping.”
McNamara, clad in a bright yellow raincoat, took to Pennsylvania Avenue to protest what he described as a lack of checks and balances in the federal government.
“They’re just following the dictates of the president, who is doing whatever he’s dreamed of,” McNamara said. “There is a division of labor. There are checks and balances that we have, and that’s all being ignored.”
“No Kings” is not a partisan issue, McNamara said. It’s an appeal to the current administration and its supporters to look around and take note of those who federal policies have hurt.
Chance Greene, a protester from Maryland, agreed. He said the issue with Trump’s administration is the lack of checks on power and Congress’s refusal to oppose it.
“If any other president would have done what he’s doing, they would have yelled, ‘Overreach, overreach, overreach,’” Greene said.
While Greene’s biggest complaint is with Congress, he also said he’s unhappy with the current deportation process. Greene doesn’t want open borders, but he wants a lawful process for deportations mirroring the lawful process for immigration. Taking people out of homes based on what they look like is unacceptable and a method of inciting fear, he said.
“What they want to do is they want to keep people in fear,” Greene said. “They want people to lay down and do nothing, and to do nothing is the worst part.”
Packed into a crowd waiting for the main event stood Laura Miles and her daughter, Caroline. The pair crossed the Potomac from Alexandria, Va., to attend the Washington protest. Laura and Caroline Miles said their primary motive for attending the protest was to show the federal government how many people are unhappy with its recent actions. For Laura, the constitution is on the line.
“We need to save the constitution is the bottom line,” Laura said.
In lieu of the now-19-day shutdown, Laura said “the true public servants” are those who were furloughed and fired and those who choose to work without pay.
Caroline agreed, adding that she participated in the protest on behalf of others. By contrast, she said that those who voted for Trump thought of themselves, and it will be a rude awakening when the negative aspects of his presidency start to affect them.
“The people who voted for him — they’re not going to feel it until they do,” Caroline said. “That day is going to suck for them.”
Though Trump’s presidency is only a quarter of the way through, the mother-daughter duo held out hope for change. According to the two, the mobilization of millions of protesters and 2,600 protests across the country is impossible to ignore. The catch, Laura said, is that it must be done with kindness.
“Kindness matters, and there’s not one bit of that in the current administration,” Laura said.
