No Kings, Just Pawns | The American Spectator

Last weekend, America was subjected to its third “No Kings” protests. While there was no king, there were many rallies. There were even more pawns.

Extensively hyped by the establishment media, they then gave them extensive coverage. They continue to do so. However, if you are an average American, you likely only saw evidence of them from the establishment media. (RELATED: Why the ‘No Kings’ Protests Are Actually America’s Biggest Therapy Session)

Establishment media reported protest organizers’ estimate that 8 million participated in 3,100 events across America. Needless to say, protest organizers have every reason to inflate their numbers (in St. Paul, Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety estimated a crowd of 100,000; organizers claimed 200,000), and the establishment media are certainly not going to question these figures: As in, how many actually showed up, versus people who were merely gawkers (and there was much to gawk at), or those involuntarily caught up in the chaos these protests caused?

Even taking the organizers’ figures at face value, though, that only averages out to 2,581 per protest. In comparison, 23 million attended 1,312 NHL games last season — America’s smallest major men’s professional sports league. Even assuming organizers’ “wish-timate” of 8 million is correct, that amounts to 2.4 percent of the U.S. population and less than 11 percent of the total who voted for Harris in 2024.

The protests that drew the biggest crowds were in New York City (“tens of thousands”), L.A. (“coordinators said they expected more than 100,000 people at the dozens of local events, which also were being planned for Beverly Hills, Burbank, Venice Beach, Newport Beach, West Covina, West Hollywood and Thousand Oaks”), and Philadelphia (“about 40,000”). In other words, the usual suspect cities — and cities where Trump lost overwhelmingly in 2024: Trump won only 17 percent of New York City’s vote, and overall, exit polling found Trump lost 38 percent to 60 percent in urban areas.

And we know that these rallies were heavily funded by the Left. According to Fox Digital News, 500 groups with $3 billion in annual revenues helped foot their bill. “Socialist, communist, and Marxist activist groups” were part of Saturday’s mélange of malcontents and “openly discussed using the demonstrations to spread what they describe as revolutionary organizing.”

So, last Saturday’s “No Kings” protests would seem to boil down to: A relatively small percentage of the population (U.S., Harris supporters, you name it) showing up in rallies heavily covered by a left-leaning establishment media and funded by outside socialist organizations in cities that Trump lost heavily in 2024.

This is not to say there was no news coming from last Saturday’s primal screams. There was. Only it was not the news organizers wanted you to know, the establishment media wanted you to see, or the Left dares to admit publicly.

Saturday’s real news is that while there were indeed “no kings,” there were a plethora of pawns: millions to be exact.

Those protesting last Saturday undoubtedly had many of the same shills who protested Israel defending itself immediately after Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Many are undoubtedly the same people who incite violence against ICE agents, doxing them, and calling for the abolition of ICE. And many undoubtedly are the same as those who called for defunding the police not long ago, too.

Undoubtedly, these are the same people who protested after the death of the terrorist kingpin, Ayatollah Khamenei, and are rallying in support of the Iranian regime. The same ones who protested the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. The same people who visit ICE detention centers. The same who traveled to Cuba to lend support to that decrepit regime and forestall its overdue collapse — expressing their solidarity by staying at the socialist Alcatraz’s swankiest hotels as the people who are forced to endure socialism’s failure go without necessities and protest the oppressive regime.

Undoubtedly among them are those who, like Mamdani’s wife, denied Hamas’s atrocities and ignored that Hamas’s attacks were against civilians. The same ones who called for a ceasefire in Gaza but never said a word about returning Israel’s civilian hostages. The same people who now have said nothing as Hamas has not only refused to lay down its arms — as it agreed to — but turned its terrorism against Palestinians who dared to resist it.

These are the same people who did not hold rallies for the 30,000 Iranian protestors killed by Iran’s terrorist regime. Who did not protest when Iran recently publicly hanged three more of its people. Who say not a word and hold nary a rally when Iran’s theocracy has violated the rights of women and every group that these “No Kings” protestors claim to support.

These are the same “sympathizers” who have not said a word as their socialist brethren have impoverished Cuba, taken away its people’s rights, forcibly kept them from escaping, and jailed those who dare to protest the failed policies of Castro and his successors. The same people who have been equally silent about the gulag that is the entire country of North Korea. Who are equally silent about the atrocities (President Biden called treatment of the Uyghurs “genocide”) and bellicosity of China’s communist party (remember when Tibet was last a concern?  Remember when Hong Kong was promised “two systems”?  Does anyone at “No Kings” care about Taiwan’s independence?)

These are the same people who have no words of protest for Russia’s four-year war of aggression against Ukraine. The same people who have no concern over those like Sheridan Gorman who have been killed by illegal immigrants in the U.S. in the sanctuary cities they support.

The pieces that were moving hither and yon over the chessboard of last Saturday’s protests were not kings but pawns. These are today’s versions of Walter Duranty, who covered for yesteryear’s butcher Joseph Stalin, seeing what they want to see and ignoring reality. The same people Lenin purportedly called “useful idiots”: pawns that the Left is happy to see sacrifice themselves for their own ends. After all, America’s Left underwrote it all with a check. Checkmate, indeed.

READ MORE from J.T. Young:

Unconcerned, Unconscionable, but Sadly Not Unexpected

If You Tax It, They Will Come?

Don Lemon: T-Shirt Hero

J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left, from RealClear Publishing. Follow him on Substack.

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