WASHINGTON — For days, Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has been weirdly fear-mongering concerning the nationwide “No Kings” protests set for Saturday.
The rallies, that are being organized by a coalition of pro-democracy teams starting from the ACLU to the League of Conservation Voters to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are anticipated to attract thousands and thousands of individuals throughout all 50 states to peacefully protest President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism and his militarization of cities.
That doesn’t sound something like what Johnson has been describing in his every day press conferences on Capitol Hill. In his telling, there may be no groundswell of public opposition to Trump. And the one individuals upset sufficient to affix a protest are individuals who don’t simply hate the president, they hate America and its founding beliefs.
“I encourage you to watch, we call it the ‘hate America’ rally, that’ll happen Saturday,” Johnson instructed reporters Wednesday. “I bet you see pro-Hamas supporters. I bet you see antifa types. I bet you see the Marxists in full display, the people who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic.”
Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise (R-La.) has equally mentioned “No Kings” protesters need to “specific their hatred towards this nation,” whereas Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the Home majority whip, took issues a step additional, insanely claiming the teams behind the protests need “to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party.”
It’s as nonsensical as it’s inflammatory to accuse peaceable protesters of hating their nation. So why are Johnson and different GOP leaders so hellbent on drumming up worry concerning the “No Kings” protests? Are they afraid of Bernie Sanders?
“I don’t think it’s that complicated,” Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, the progressive grassroots group that’s serving to manage the rallies, instructed HuffPost on Wednesday. “The one thing an unpopular authoritarian regime is scared of is mass, organized, peaceful people-power. That is it.”
Anybody who participated within the final spherical of “No Kings” protests in June, which thousands and thousands of individuals attended, is aware of they had been “displays of joyous people-power,” Levin mentioned, describing rally-goers dancing and laughing and waving enjoyable indicators. Again then, right-wingers mockingly famous how lots of the protesters had been earnest boomers, or Individuals of their 60s and 70s.
Now they’re terrorists?
“I have to laugh at how ridiculous this is,” he added, referring to Johnson’s assaults. “And, you know, appreciate the speaker for giving the ‘No Kings’ rallies free publicity.”
Lisa Lake through Getty Pictures
Nonetheless, even Levin acknowledges there’s one thing darker at play with Johnson’s messaging. His repeated, intentional mischaracterizations of what the protests are about and who might be attending them (trace: Boomers will in all probability be there in droves!) is creating this concept that individuals, actual Individuals, ought to be offended concerning the rallies occurring in any respect, and that there’s one thing ominous within the works, when neither of these issues is true.
And the speaker’s efforts to demonize peaceable protests come because the Trump administration is vowing crackdowns on left-wing organizations it dubiously claims are in some way liable for funding terrorism, within the wake of a lone gunman assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk final month. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in separate interviews aired this week, vowed his staff would examine supposed “networks of terrorist organizations” and described “No Kings” rally-goers as “the farthest left, the hardest core, the most unhinged in the Democratic Party.”
Stanislav Vysotsky, an skilled on anti-fascism activism and a professor of criminology and legal justice on the College of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, mentioned the way in which Johnson and different Republicans are casting the “No Kings” rallies as one thing threatening is a trademark of what authoritarians do.
“Yes, this is classic authoritarianism,” Vysotsky instructed HuffPost. “It’s an intentional framing of the opposition as violent and dangerous in order to dehumanize them, which then justifies a violent crackdown. Authoritarians routinely paint their opposition as a menacing existential threat to peace and safety for just that reason.”
He mentioned the precise language Johnson is utilizing to assault the “No Kings” rallies is especially attention-grabbing, as he “manages to hit all of the recent boogeymen of the right: antifa, Hamas (code for opposition to the genocide of Palestinians) and the tried-and-true Marxists.”
Finally, Vysotsky mentioned, “he’s playing to the base that is rabid for violent retribution against their enemies.”
Karrie Koesel, a political science professor on the College of Notre Dame and an skilled on authoritarianism, concurred that Johnson’s intentional disinformation about nationwide peaceable protests is disturbing.
“Applying pejorative labels is a common strategy to demobilize and dehumanize political opposition,” mentioned Koesel. “This cultivates an us-versus-them narrative and identifies political and peaceful dissent as an existential threat.”
She added, “Dark times for democracy.”
Sanders has publicly shunned Johnson on social media for mischaracterizing the “No Kings” protests, and on Wednesday, he did so on to HuffPost.
“Hate America? Really?” the Vermont senator mentioned. “Yeah, because people defending the Constitution, that’s a ‘hate America’ rally. … I think it’s a ‘love America’ rally. I think it’s defending what these people are doing, coming out and defending our Constitution, our way of life and American freedom.”
“It really is a disgrace,” Sanders added, “that you have a speaker who is trying to disparage the right to protest and right of Americans to speak out against an authoritarian administration.”
Johnson’s “hate America” speaking level emerged final week, as Republicans struggled for a profitable message amid the federal government shutdown.
For weeks, Democrats have refused to conform to reopen the federal government with out additionally extending well being care subsidies set to run out for thousands and thousands of Individuals later this yr. For weeks, GOP leaders have mentioned no to a deal. Amid the standstill, Republicans have accused Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of holding the road to appease progressive teams mad at him for supporting a authorities funding invoice in March and suggesting he needs the shutdown to proceed at the very least till after the “No Kings” protests.
The GOP’s speaking factors haven’t been working, although, as polling continues to indicate voters blame Trump and his get together for the shutdown mess. So final week, on day 10 of the shutdown, Johnson and his prime deputies rolled out their “hate America” label for the “No Kings” rallies.
Some Republicans don’t appear snug with the “hate” epithet. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) on Wednesday declined to weigh in on his get together leaders’ new label and as an alternative accused Democrats of ceding energy to Trump by sending the federal government right into a shutdown.
“If they’re for the legislative branch asserting more of its power and the executive branch having less of it, the best thing they could do is not hold a stupid rally but instead engage in a deliberative appropriations process,” LaLota instructed HuffPost.
Home Democratic chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), in the meantime, mentioned the GOP’s efforts to smear “No Kings” rallies present how the get together is “falling apart.”
“The effort to mischaracterize the rallies that are going to take place all across the country is part of the continued right-wing disinformation machine that is failing to persuade the American people as to what this shutdown is all about,” Jeffries instructed HuffPost.
He wouldn’t say whether or not he plans to attend a “No Kings” protest, however Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Jeffries’ prime deputies within the Home, mentioned they’d.
“I’ll be at a rally,” Aguilar instructed HuffPost. “I’ll be holding an American flag as well.”
Levin, the Indivisible chief, recalled that he and different organizers closed out their flagship “No Kings” occasion in Philadelphia in June by main 100,000 individuals in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance whereas waving American flags.
“It’s funny how much Johnson is scared of this imagery,” he mentioned.
Senior reporter Igor Bobic contributed to this report.
