The United States, France, Haiti, Russia, Nepal, and many other countries have had revolutions that have changed the course of history. Many revolutionary groups have employed similar methods, including the American Sons of Liberty parading through Boston, the French marching on the Palace of Versailles, and the uprisings in Petrograd, Russia. What came after the protests wasn’t an immediate surrender from the current government; it was an escalation of events that eventually brought about the change revolutionaries wanted to see. Protests have their place in society and can be a good motivator for change, but the truth is that it’s only the first step towards substantial reform.

The No Kings protests are organized primarily by the 50501 movement, which stands for fifty protests, fifty states, one movement. The goal is that if this movement succeeds, then people in all fifty states will see their lives improve. According to their website the goals of the movement are to “uphold the constitution and to end executive overreach.” Other organizations also participate in the organization such as Indivisible, MoveOn, and The American Civil Liberties Union. There have been three protests since President Donald Trump took office last January, with some gathering up to eight million attendees. With these numbers, it’s evident that the people of America are outraged by this administration’s policies and actions. But what have these protests actually accomplished in terms of government action? Absolutely nothing. Trump attempted to turn these grave protests into a moment of levity while speaking to reporters on Palm Sunday and said that, “They call me a king now. Do you believe it? No kings. I’m such a king, I can’t get a ballroom approved… If I was a king I’d be doing a lot more.” A Senior White House Official also commented on the protests, “We don’t even think about the protests at all.” Trump and White House officials brush the protests off to the side, telling reporters that it isn’t even something that deserves their attention for a second. Similar to the French monarchy, the people in power have no concern for the citizens’ protests and consider them as nothing more than a feeble gathering of power-lacking commoners. 

People at these protests claim to be as serious as the revolutionaries in 1776, some holding up signs such as, “No Kings since 1776.” Many other protesters didn’t get the memo and turned their protest signs into a joking matter. Some include, “Please Please Please don’t take away my rights,” referencing the popular Sabrina Carpenter song “Please Please Please.” Other signs included lines like “Even Punch rejects Trump,” referencing the recently viral monkey Punch. One person even dressed in an inflatable frog costume with a sign that reads, “Make tadpoles not war.” While not directly the organizers fault, for a movement who wants to make real change, many protesters don’t seem to be taking it as seriously as the situation demands. Protesters took it a step further during the most recent No Kings protest: when in Portland, they broke down the gates of an ICE facility. Protesters were then promptly removed from the area and arrested. The problem is people don’t take any real action; they act passively and half-heartedly and decide it’s enough to get their message across. When participating in the protests, everyone has signs saying that this is the time for change, but no one wants to take the next step to make the change that everybody claims to want to see.

In an article from The New York Times by Jeremy Peters, a co-founder of the organization Indivisible said that “Organizers say the idea is to attract as many opponents of the administration as possible.” The problem with the protests is not outreach; they’ve clearly reached a large number of people. The problem is that they haven’t reached the right people— the people in power. Trump and Republicans clearly do not care about these protests. With the Republican trifecta of power in the government, it’s their attention that needs to be grabbed until November. The problem with these protests is that the people who need to see it don’t care in the slightest. The events of January 6 are still being talked about today, while No Kings protests get a mere nod in the news on the day they happen. However, the solution to their problem obviously isn’t to storm the Capitol; it’s to grab lawmakers’ attention in a way that gets them talking, which forces a solution. The real change comes from the first person who’s willing to take that next step.