Dear No Kings Friends,
I was beginning to think the No Kings movement was done.
Since March, things have been pretty quiet.
With all that was going on, that was a bummer.
The three big No Kings rally days were some of the best public protests I’d seen in over sixty years of watching, reporting, organizing and being part of such events.
So now, says an email from Indivisible, maybe they’re back, at least on Oct. 17, for a round of Midterms Vote Early pep rallies.
Well, the Midterms need all the help they can get —
— No, wait! This isn’t one of the six dozen Midterm fund appeals you already deleted today.
It’s for something else. It’s about–
After the Midterms.
I see a unique strategic opportunity out there, unmentioned in the Indivisible letter, just waiting to be grabbed. (Or missed.)
And I also bring some good news about the Midterms.
Here it is:
My Friends, the Midterms will SOON BE OVER.
(Breathe deep. Exhale slowly.)
Believe it. You’ll be back at work on the campaign in a few. But the end is in sight..
How will they turn out? Like you, I have hopes & fears, and don’t know the future.
So this note is not more about the horse races. (In fact, if you’re not sick to death of political horse race chatter, you need HELP.)
And win, lose, or some scary/crazy draw, in early January there will almost certainly be a new Congress sworn in.
And we should be there to greet them. And prod them.
In No Kings style: a bunch of folks in D.C. Millions more in home towns and state capitols. Creative. Nonviolent. Funny/Serious. Pushy.
And all over the freekin map.
It’s not too soon to plan. It could be done. I even have a date for it: Saturday, January 30. (Because the last NFL playoffs don’t kick off til the 31st.)
Call it Pretti-Good & Others Memorial Day.
Come As You Are. Come where you are. Come Because We Know America Can Be Fixed.
Why that date? The answer is a brief story:
A huge D.C. rally like that happened on the same Saturday in 2007.
The 2006 Midterms had just flipped the new Congress from GOP to Democratic control; we expected big change.
The January 2007 multitude told the Dems, in short:
“DON’T SELL OUT! Deliver the big changes for peace & justice you were elected for!”
Well, that story, like much real politics, has a very mixed ending: We got some change; not nearly enough. The Hill Democrats were too often hobbled by PAC money and weak knees. Old story.
But the January 2007 rally was important anyway: it celebrated and renewed activist solidarity. It buoyed our hopes: All of which were needed that year. And have been this year. And will be needed in 2027.
We didn’t grasp it when we gathered, but there was some buzz: scarcely two weeks earlier, a longshot junior senator, Barack Obama, had formed a presidential exploratory committee. Two weeks after it
he made it official, launching the campaign that in January 2009 put him & Michelle Obama in the White House.
(And brought Aretha Franklin’s epochal voice and historic hat to the inaugural podium.)
We thought it was a shining moment of solidarity & momentum for America. And had forgotten all about the January 2007 rally.
Now it’s almost 20 years since then. Whether the 2026 Midterms flip Congress or not, we’ll need more solidarity & momentum afterward than ever. To face the accumulated crises. And gird for the next foreseeable major contest, the presidential race of 2028. (I can already hear some buzz.)
Surely the “No Kings” message will still be necessary — royal pretenders are already playing out their remake of Game of Thrones, for when the crown drops into the Reflecting Pool.
So January 2027 is the time to be ready to quick-shift from campaigning to pressing the new 120th Congress to face up to the many disasters we’ve been through. It’s the time when the new Congress is getting organized.
(Or not. Between, of course, taking a week off for MLK Day in mid-January. And likely another in February. Yea, verily, serving in Congress is a soul-crushing workaholic sausage-making treadmill; but there are perks.)
In 2006, I was on the committee that planned the 2007 rally. We settled on January 27, 2007 for similar reasons of timing. Though lost in our short collective memory, the event left its mark.
The date had been announced well in advance. Effective publicity and logistics (aka scores of clean porta-potties) were lined up.
So this is not nostalgia, but a call to Indivisible and the other allies: don’t miss this opening. Set the date, announce it soon, prepare, and promote it with the elan and skill shown in the first three gatherings.
To help out, here’s even a suggested tagline, which would fit compactly on posters, signs & phone screens:
(Note: the “IT” is inclusive & nonbinary); and
For the much-marginalized 4-letter-word-sensitive folks, another version would fit on a sign’s backside, viz.:
(Big tent, Baby!)
See you there??