The day was sunny, and the mood was just as sunny last Saturday (Oct. 18) as thousands thronged eight miles of El Camino Real from Palo Alto through Sunnyvale, celebrating democracy with a rallying cry of “No Kings” and a sea of American flags. Passing drivers honked and cheered in support of the demonstrators, flying their own signs and flags.
The local demonstrations were part of what is now being called the largest political demonstration in U.S. history, where Americans in every state and around the world loudly protested the massive abuses of power, unconstitutional overreach and monarchic conduct by Donald Trump’s presidential administration. As one protester put it: “There’s just too much to say to put it all on one sign.”
The demonstrations were uniformly peaceful, with no traffic disruption along the route. The only police (and traffic disruption) The Weekly reporters saw were two Sunnyvale police cars closing a lane next to a half dozen pro-Trump demonstrators in parked cars.
On a single block, people from the age of four months to 94 years were out together making their voices heard.
Betty, 94, was out with her friends Kathy and Tom. She was there, she said, “Because I’m an American, and I don’t want Trump to keep on with his dirty work.”
It was her first demonstration and her first political action beyond voting.
“Things were better before we didn’t have Trump in our events,” she added.
“I wanted to come out,” said Tom, “and just say that the Trump administration is not doing what they were voted in to do. It’s a planned takeover, and we need to stop it.”
On the other end of the age spectrum Louis, Brooke and their baby, Louie, were just a few steps further down the street.
“We’ve been hearing about the plans on social media and the like,” said Louis, “and we felt we needed to come out and get involved. We missed the first No Kings, and so we wanted to join in on the second.”
The couple have been involved in political movements before, but recent job changes and moves have taken most of their energy lately.
“We definitely vote in every election,” said Brooke, “and now we’re trying to get more involved.”
There was also plenty of the whimsy that’s now become a signature of anti-Trump demonstrations.
Ed wore his frog hat and a T-shirt saying “Frog-tifa.” He carried an American flag and a tongue-in-cheek sign, “I’m the enemy within.”
Why the frog?
“The folks in Portland have made this a great symbol,” he said. “I love it. This used to be a symbol for the far right. And you know what? I love taking things away from them. That’s why I brought my flag. It belongs to all of us, and it’s time we start recognizing that.”
In full costume was the Stay-Puft marshmallow man from Ghostbusters. Although in the original film, Stay-Puft is the embodiment of evil, in the 1980s TV series, Stay-Puft becomes part of the ghost-busting team.
Stay-Puft had a serious message aside from the obvious fun of the costume: a “strong belief
that our freedoms are being stepped all over,” and “dissatisfaction with all of the elected officials at this point.”
In front of a Tesla dealership, the Tesla Takedown group was setting up for its regular Saturday event, with music (and a QR code for the playlist), costumes, flags, Halloween candy and copies of the U.S. Constitution. The group came out early this Saturday to join the No Kings rally.
“There is just joy in the face of the resistance,” said one organizer, Ashley.
“It’s a community that’s empowering the people — not the people in power. Today, we’re focusing on fighting the oligarchs and the billionaires and the would-be kings,” she said. “At 3:30, I read the Declaration of Independence. It’s important to remind the community that we’ve already kind of dealt with these grievances before, and what did we do then? We protested. We used our rights.”
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