What 'No Kings' protesters get (but pundits don't)

Apr 3, 2026

Coast-to-coast No Kings demonstrations and who turned out to protest. Firsthand reporting from a Memorial Bridge march and early survey data on protesters' motives. The role of decentralized, leaderless action in knitting local communities into a national movement. How protests feed broader civic engagement, mutual aid efforts, and plans to convert marches into sustained organizing.

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ANECDOTE

Host Observes Bigger Memorial Bridge Turnout

Andrea Pitzer attended the Memorial Bridge No Kings protest and noted much larger visible attendance than in October.
She described crossing from Virginia into DC and sensing increased energy and size at that site.

INSIGHT

Nationwide Scale And Local Reach Of No Kings

No Kings mobilized an unprecedented nationwide demonstration with over 8 million attendees across 3,300+ US towns and cities.
Andrea Pitzer observed huge local turnouts from Memorial Bridge in DC to tiny towns like Thomas, West Virginia, showing coast-to-coast breadth.

INSIGHT

What Motivated Protesters

Dana Fisher's survey found immigration (76%), opposition to Trump (75%), and anti-war sentiment (73%) were top motivators for attendance.
Remarkably 98% supported organizations doing civil disobedience and 69% would join future actions if opportunities arose.

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The movement behind the biggest single-day protest in US history understands that the assignment is to save democracy.

Subscribe to Andrea Pitzer's Degenerate Art newsletter to support Next Comes What and get Andrea's posts first: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post that inspired this episode: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/does-no-kings-matter WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/yz-1BW4D3cA TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews This week's episode looks at No Kings protests, asking what role they can or can't play in freeing the country from Trump and his collaborators. Andrea Pitzer recounts last Saturday's events around the country, including her morning spent crossing the Memorial Bridge in DC with protesters. A look at research conducted over the weekend by Dana Fisher, a professor at American University, reveals who the protesters are, why they showed up, and what they're planning to do. Andrea suggests that this series of coast-to-coast demonstrations are creating a nationwide fabric knitting communities together at the ground level, bringing the rest of the country into conversation and action, mirroring successful local resistance in places like Chicago, LA, and Minneapolis. Looking at the current regime as a challenge larger than any one person or party, she points to the vast convulsion against the president and his policies as the beginning of a national reconstruction—one based on rejecting the current litany of exclusion and hatred. In closing, Andrea points to national groups like States at the Core (https://www.stacup.org/) and Indivisible and the ways they're maintaining momentum—from plans for May Day to training on how to organize on the ground where you live. She considers the community actions with long traditions that are gaining strength around the country, and new tactics that people are inventing to transform the world. Watch The Breakdown with Erica Chenoweth and Steve Levitsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0MmLBxxziA See Dana Fischer's 'No Kings' data: https://danarfisher.com/2026/03/29/anti-war-sentiment-surges-at-no-kings-3/