No Kings protesters on their hopes for the resistance movement against Trump: ‘If we lose momentum, we will lose the battle’ | Protests (United States)
Mary Phillips
A Native American originally from the Omaha tribe in Nebraska and the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico who now lives in Washington, D.C.
“I believe there are brilliant minds here today who know what bad legislation and bad policies can do to our entire country, and what the future looks like if we continue to decline, unable to stop what is happening and continuing. These are all people from different walks of life, with different skills and levels of mastery in their respective specialties.”
“I think so [leaders] People who are vocal are definitely making waves and doing what they’re supposed to do, but I think there are others who are still on the fence. [There are] The main issues we need to be 100% towards democracy, and it seems they are not. It’s like they’re sticking to the old rules. But we’ve all created a set of new rules right now, and they have to look at what those rules are to make their decisions in their back rooms. Then he talked on the ground about those things, about what we are fighting in the streets.
“So, I think ‘No Kings,’ is the culmination of what we’re very close to now, which is having a king. Once martial law is in place, we’ll be under that threat, and we don’t know what the end of it really looks like, other than changing the Constitution, which I think is easier than we ever thought. This movement might turn out to be more of a ‘No Kings’ thing. It might turn out to be about saving lives, period — saving our lives, saving Our freedom to be American citizens because now anyone could have told you that you are not a citizen anymore.”
Laura Buckwald
“People are waking up because right now it’s impacting people directly in their daily lives. It’s impacting our health insurance. It’s impacting our ability to live our lives as we choose to live them. The government is trying to tell us how to run our lives, and that’s not acceptable in the United States. As far as leadership, we’ve been disappointed in the leaders we should have had, especially in Congress, and we hope this gives them the courage to stand up Above. We’re proud of what they’re doing now, which is not opening the government until we cover proper health care. But they need to do more to do that, so I hope they do.
“Just yesterday, I received a notice from my health insurance company about my premiums going up — they’re almost doubling. They made it very clear that they will not cover any health care specifically for transitional purposes, so transgender Americans will not have coverage under the plan I have. This is completely unacceptable. I teach youth and have met transgender youth, and they told me that without this care health problems, this makes some of them want to commit suicide.
“I guess [what Republicans have done has] She was vile. They cut a lot of programs so they can give tax breaks to the rich, and make billionaires trillionaires…our taxes are not going down. We will see no benefit from it, we will get the same taxes, if not more, and we will have less interest that we paid for. This is an authoritarian regime in power now and it must resign. They cannot cope with the task. They are incompetent and they are mean. They are cruel to people in the United States and this is anti-American. “It is un-Christian and unacceptable.”
Mike Reed
A former Republican from Maryland who switched parties during the Bill Clinton administration. He said he did not vote for Trump in any elections
Reed was holding a sign for the Founding Fathers with the words “No Kings” on it.
“It’s actually my wife’s idea, but these were the original No Kings and they were the ones who first said ‘There are no kings in America.’ And then in the back we have the original Bill of Rights, which includes the part about freedom of speech and freedom of the press and freedom of religion and the right of the people peaceably to assemble. So, we and the people here are standing up for what America is supposed to be… We are the ones who represent what the real America is. These right-wingers and the White House and Congress – they They betray everything this country was supposed to be, and that’s why the people, the common people, must stand up.
“I think some Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom [in] California and J.B. Pritzker in Illinois are doing very well. They are standing. And I mean there’s limits to what they can do with the bloc, they’re completely out of power right now. But state government, Democratic state governors, some of them are standing up – not all of them, unfortunately, but some of them.
“I grew up in a Republican family. I was a Republican until about 20 years ago, when the party was about limited government, fiscal responsibility, and individual rights. They betrayed all of that. And the party that today calls itself Republicans — they’re not Republicans, they’re fascists, and they’re betraying my great-grandfather who served in the Union Army in the Civil War.”
Eric Stone, 35
He identifies as an independent and said most of his family are Republican Trump supporters
“My family is MAGA, and my family is Trump supporters. I grew up in a small town where they didn’t want a dictatorship. They didn’t want people who didn’t respect women. They didn’t want people who were racist and all that hateful stuff. And yet they support and cheer for this man like they want him to be the second coming of God. And now that I’m out here protesting this, it’s like… everyone in that circle drank coke.” “Eid.”
“It made people lose their jobs [around me because of the shutdown]. They are afraid they won’t be able to pay their bills. They’re stressed out…and they’re regular people working their jobs and working for this country to keep it going. And we will tell them that they should not be paid for this, why?
“I support what they stand for. Most of the time, you won’t agree with everyone on everything. However, I feel like the Democrats, they don’t have the stomach, for lack of better terms – they are too weak, because we always end up in that position. Democrats just want to talk for hours on end and go on TV and do these events, which is nice…it’s powerful. However, you can access this building there. We’re standing next to the Capitol building. Go and do something about it.
Shawn Skelly
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness in the Biden-Harris Administration (only the second transgender person ever to hold a Senate-confirmed position) and co-founder of Out in National Security. She was a speaker at the march
“The United States Army is made up of people from every background, from every part of the country, including immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community. [Trump officials have] You decided that you cannot allow transgender service members to serve. [These members have] He was in command of units flying aircraft. They are high-level engineers. They are small unit leaders. None of them exploded, failed, or were fired due to the fact that they were transgender. Each of our 2.1 million service members are American heroes in their own way. You can’t have people in that institution while trying to make trans people the enemy and the cause of oppression in that way.
“There shouldn’t be any lockdown, frankly, and it’s the United States’ fault that it continues for so long [Republican] The political party that has all the levers of power right now…and the Supreme Court is very willing to let them do pretty much what they want to do, pending appeal. This is democracy at work here. This is our Constitution and our civil rights in action. It’s about “we the people.” As Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, it is government of the people, by the people, and for the people. “This is America at its best.”