No Kings in America - the lapel pin
My son texted me to ask me why I’ve been wearing this pin on my shirts for the last few weeks.
I’m no expert on politics and history. But I am a dad, and it’s a dad’s responsibility to answer any question with way more information than their kid wanted. So this is what I wrote:
As for the “No Kings In America” button, it’s a long story. For thousands of years civilizations have come along that tried to be some kind of democracy (or Republic, which is still a kind of democracy). Nearly 3,000 years ago, Socrates, perhaps the wisest philosopher ever, described why democracies fail: usually some elected person with some power, during a (real or fabricated) crisis when actions must be taken quickly, takes that opportunity to usurp more power and wealth (which leads to more power and wealth) by making great promises to the people (that they can’t actually deliver) and soon the country isn’t a democracy anymore but some sort of rule by a single tyrant, be it a King or and Emperor or a Dictator or something like that.
America, 250 years ago, set itself up as a democracy, to free itself from a King, and patterned our democracy kind of like the Roman one, but trying to fix it even better by having three main powers of government that provide checks and balances on each other. The legislative branch (congress and senate) which make the laws, the executive branch (president) who is supposed to see that those laws are followed (i.e. executed), and the judicial branch (supreme court) who make sure those laws and the enacting of them does not violate the rights of the constitution. Each branch is there to make sure the other branches don’t get too much power.
But, from history, we know that democracies are tough to maintain. None of them have lasted a super long time (the USA has lasted longer than maybe all of them before). That’s why you often hear that the USA is an experiment in democracy. Because no one has got it perfect yet.
Over time the executive branch (i.e. president) has been getting more and more power. This started slowly almost two hundred years ago, gained more power during the depression a hundred years ago, and since about 2010 the presidents have really been getting more and more power. Obama grabbed a little more because there was a financial crisis going on and congress couldn’t get themselves to act on anything that might make the president look good. Trump (first term) accelerated this by being an ignoramus and not even knowing any history or anything about the constitution. Even Biden’s term shows how Presidents are treated more and more like kings, in the way he was actually declining in his last years but people around him hid it like they always do for monarchs who are past their sell-by date.
But this second Trump term goes way way way beyond anything before in grabbing power. The executive orders, closing agencies that the law says he’s to run, not spending the money he’s supposed to, spending money he’s not, ignoring laws and the constitutional rights of people and institutions, it goes on and on. Congress is designed to stop these things, because most of the above duties actually belong to congress, but the way they are now the majority just hide their heads in the sand and say, “whatever Trump does is all right by me”. In blatantly selling favors (pardons, government contracts, treaties, law enforcement) for his personal monetary and political gain (gifts, licensing, memecoins, “deals”). No president has ever treated the office so corruptly—but it’s a common right of Kings.
In short, we freed ourselves from a King 250 years ago but have been inching back toward having a king ever since, and suddenly this year we have jerked wildly into what is way too close to saying “the king is in charge, and no one can stop him”. I’m unhappy about this. I designed the pin and wear it on my shirts to show my unhappiness.
I started this about a month ago. Since then, there’s been a “No Kings” movement growing. I like to think that it’s because of me, but of course a lot of people were already thinking the same things. There will be events across the country (see
http://nokings.org
for an event near you) next week on June 14th. June 14th happens to be Trump’s birthday, and he has ordered a military parade on that day in Washington D.C. (costing $35 million, likely much more). Do we in the USA ever spend big bucks on on military parades? Yes, occasionally, to celebrate the ends of wars. Do we have military parades on the president’s birthday? No, never before. Do any democracies do military parades on their leader’s birthday? No, but dictatorial nations do it all the time (e.g. North Korea, Soviet Union, China, Iraq, Nazi Germany).
So, I think the future of America’s democracy experiment is in big danger. I think we’re dangerously close to being a monarchy, like we fought to free ourselves from 250 years ago. Socrates said that was destined to happen. I hope Socrates was wrong.
So, as the pin says, “No Kings in America”.1
To order your own copy of this pin (with magnetic fastener) see this link on zazzle. You can get 1 pin for $6.41, 500 pins for $3.77 each, or pick some number in between. I don’t get any of that money.