The Problem with "No Kings"
No king is an island, entire of himself
Well, I planned to go to my local rally (Vineyard Haven, 11 a.m. at Five Corners), but the rain defeated me. Not the rain itself, but the traffic: there was no place to park. When it rains on Martha’s Vineyard, everyone heads into one of the three down-island towns to do the grocery shopping and other errands they don’t want to waste good beach days on. I’m hoping the dearth of parking places had more to do with the rally than with Vineyarders wanting to go shopping.
Nevertheless, the “No Kings” theme hasn’t stopped bugging me since I first heard it and started seeing all those images of D. J. Trump with a crown on his head. I do see the appeal. “NO KINGS” is short and catchy. It lends itself to visuals. It fits on even a small sign.
At the same time, it’s got problems, and the more you know about U.S. history and politics, the more problematic it gets. Start with the obvious: “No Kings” points us all the way back to 1776, and when it gets there it puts the focus on King George III and leaves Parliament in the shadows.
Kings, queens, and royals in general do tend to love their pageantry, but celebrating one’s birthday with a military parade in the nation’s capital is more characteristic of non-royal dictators, especially those with military backing.
Does “Private Bone Spurs” have military backing? I’d say that this question keeps me up at night, but that would be a lie because my subconscious is so afraid of the answer, it’s keeping the question out of my dreams.
I do take reassurance from the writings of Lucian K. Truscott IV, a West Point graduate from a military family — see particularly his June 7 column, “The Empty Shell of Trump’s and Hegseth’s Military Machismo” — but then I remember that as president Trump is the commander in chief.
Civilian control of the military seemed a good idea, a no-brainer even, until Trump became the civilian in charge. Seeing the marines and the National Guard deployed to Los Angeles, the latter not by order of California governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, does not inspire confidence.
Neither does this administration’s treatment of the military. Barely a month into Trump II, Trump fired the Joint Chiefs chairman, who is Black; the Navy's top officer, who is female; the Air Force vice chief of staff; and the judge advocates general of three service branches.1
Trump’s face is often paired with that of Elon Musk, the notorious billionaire who weaseled his way into NASA and whose more recent legacy, DOGE,2 is still around, though he apparently isn’t, at least not to the same extent.3 Russell Vought, the new head of DOGE, is probably savvier than Musk, but he doesn’t have nearly the reach.
"Oligarchs" are definitely worth paying attention to. My recollection was that the word became popular when Putin rose to power in Russia, and Merriam-Webster’s either confirms my memory or is feeding from the same trough I am: definition #1 is “government by a few,” but here’s definition #2: “a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.” The connection to both Putin and Trump is pretty clear.
At the same time, focusing on oligarchs and oligarchy obscures a crucial point: economic power. Economic power involves not just oligarchs, but also über-wealthy individuals and big corporations. It has the potential to co-opt and hamstring the three constitutional branches of government, and since the tax cuts and union busting of the Reagan administration, and especially since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010, it's been doing exactly that.
Even more to the point, these economic interests have been behind anti-democracy, anti-labor, and anti-civil-rights movements for more than a century. Hell, they were behind the Civil War and everything that led up to it. And with slogans like NO KINGS, it seems that we’re still not getting it.
P.S. Sorry, John Donne, for that subhead. I couldn’t help myself.
NOTES
Details, context, and more info about Pentagon cuts at military.com for February 21, 2025.
DOGE stands, hilariously, for Department of Government Efficiency. Too many USians don’t realize that “doge” means leader and is related to “duke.” The doges of Venice and Genoa were the supreme authorities in their respective jurisdictions. Notes Wikipedia: “The Doge of Venice acted as both the head of state and head of the Venetian oligarchy.” I suspect Trump didn’t know this. He probably still doesn’t.
We still don’t know how much damage Musk’s 20-something cronies did in their rampage through government computers and databases.
I fully agree with you because tRumputin&his cult are much worse than any king(s), especially if referring to modern parliamentary and democratic kingdoms that are everything in positive sense opposed to the terrorist putin's of russia slave agent krasnov donald j. tRump&his cult of death!!
Therefore, of course that more effective and appropriate slogan would've been NO to tyrants of the world, foreign or domestic!!
In 2021, Musk announced a SpaceX rideshare mission to the moon completely funded by Dogecoin, thus becoming the first space mission funded by a cryptocurrency. The board of the Dogecoin Foundation includes Jared Birchall (representing Elon Musk). I believe it was Musk's involvement with Dogecoin that inspired his adoption of DOGE for the Department of Government Efficiency (or so I read at the time).