Nearly 7 million people participated in more than 2,700 “No Kings” rallies across the country on Saturday, Oct. 18, according to estimates.
With its afternoon rally, Marblehead contributed modestly to that total — we counted about 800 people — but still an impressive showing for a small seaside community. Some, no doubt, had also spent part of their afternoon on Boston Common, where about 125,000 gathered to hear remarks from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, among others.
Skeptics of the rallies — and even some supporters — might ask: What was the point? What did this exercise accomplish?
The best answer to those questions is: We’ll see.
When you think about it, none of the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment promises immediate gratification.
The press supplies information to the public; it’s the public that decides what to do with that information.
A “petition” to the government is the first step in a process — often an arduous one that offers no guarantee of success.
The freedom to practice — or not practice — religion has intensely personal benefits, some of which may be realized in the present. But for adherents of many faiths, the ultimate payoff only comes when we leave this earthly plane.
So it is, too, with the freedom of assembly. Countless boycotts, sit-ins, Freedom Rides, marches and walks culminated with 250,000 people descending on the nation’s capital for the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Even then, it took nearly a year before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, and another full year passed before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became law.
Only history will be able to render a final assessment of what the “No Kings” movement produces, and that history has only begun to be written.
Nonetheless, the leaders of the “No Kings” movement, who also organized an initial round of 2,100 demonstrations that drew an estimated 5 million people in June, can already lay claim to certain accomplishments.
First, imagine if those organizers had tried to throw these “parties,” but no one came. The administration might well interpret that as a tacit endorsement of actions many view as unconstitutional, whether that is redirecting or simply not spending money Congress has appropriated, authorizing military strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea with dubious legal authority, or conducting “expedited removals” without due process of undocumented immigrants, many of whom have been peaceful, productive members of American communities for years.
At a minimum, the millions who attended “No Kings” rallies sent a loud, clear message: “We don’t approve.” How members of Congress — including those up for reelection in 2026 — and individual voters internalize and adapt to that message will unfold in the days and weeks ahead.
However, the “No Kings” rallies achieved something else, too. In an age built to seduce us into becoming “keyboard warriors,” the rallies offered a reminder of the far healthier exercise of showing up with bodies, voices and signs, rather than just a snarky tweet or Facebook comment.
The online content that enrages us, often prompting a reflexive response — what the social media companies call “engagement” — is not just ephemeral; it may be destructive. Consuming the latest outrage fed to us by social media algorithms triggers a secretion of dopamine. As the dopamine starts to wear off, we seek out our next “hit,” starting us down the road to compulsive overconsumption.
If all the “No Kings” rallies managed to do was convince people to put down their phones for a few hours to stand shoulder to shoulder in common cause with their fellow humans, it could still be considered a success.
But the “No Kings” rallies did more than that. They also captured attention. Stories about the rallies were placed “above the fold” on Page 1 of Sunday’s daily newspapers and led TV newscasts. The Current’s Facebook post with a link to a gallery of photos from the Marblehead rally immediately began to rack up hundreds of “likes” and dozens of comments. To be able to dominate the conversation in this day and age is no small feat, MSNBC host Chris Hayes, author of the recent book “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource,” would likely tell you.
Of course, capturing attention ideally is a means to an end, not an end in its own right. As President Trump himself regularly demonstrates, there are many ways to use a microphone, not all of them socially beneficial. But at least for one day, attendees of the rallies managed to wrench the microphone from him and members of his administration, providing a blueprint for future efforts with a more focused message.
Whether the echoes of the chants at the “No Kings” rallies will foster any change is no more knowable today than it was in the days immediately after Dec. 16, 1773, when 30-year-old Dr. Elisha Story of Marblehead, a member of the Sons of Liberty, helped dump 342 chests of British East India Company tea into Boston Harbor to protest British taxation without representation.
As we now know, all Story and his fellow patriots managed to accomplish was to plant the seeds for the birth of a nation that has been a beacon of freedom and democracy for nearly 250 years.
The attendees of the “No Kings” rallies here and across the country are worthy heirs to Story’s legacy. We commend them for their quintessential display of American patriotism.
