Column: The ‘No Kings’ march in L.A. echoes across the U.S.

On Saturday, October 18, it is estimated that between seven and nine million Americans, both citizens and residents, took to the streets to protest the failed, virulent and tyrannical rule of what many have coined a fascist and authoritarian administration. An administration that has blatantly and vigorously been stripping the nation’s most basic and inalienable constitutional rights of its citizens. 

The insidious and brazen violation of Americans’ First and Fourth Amendment Rights has escalated to new and unprecedented highs, primarily targeting Latinos and immigrants of brown skin or indigenous Latin American heritage.  As the current administration and the mongering beasts continue to fuel its unchecked power – thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court and the corrupt and inhumane Republican party –it continues to terrorize, denigrate and violate every possible existing human right of innocent children and hard-working Latino families, documented or undocumented. 

The nation’s tolerance level seems to have reached a tipping point.

The ruling party and its supreme leader are acutely aware of their dismal popularity and the fact that the wheels are inevitably coming loose from their crazy circus wagon. Spinning narratives and pinning poor White folks against immigrants can only go so far. As their MAGA base and farmers across the Midwest continue feeling the cruel effects of a harsh, declining economy, labor shortages, crops and harvests going to waste and evaporating healthcare coverage, it was only a matter of time before the nation’s populace realized that it was time to rise and call out the real enemy from within: the Hater in Chief, president #47.

This unfortunate period in history, we are living in, is not a race war, as the Republican Party and this administration would lead you to believe. This has been their MO and their playbook since day one: feeding mainstream and Hispanic media with the notion that the biggest problem facing the country is illegal immigration and laser-focusing all of our nation’s problems on one ethnic group, yes, a very familiar tale from a very horrific period we all know from 20th-century Europe.  

But as Americans feel the president’s tyranny and cruelty sharply stabbing their economic and healthcare security like a venomous scorpion, they have come to realize that this was never about race but about class, and that the MAGA base had more in common with the working immigrant class than they will ever have with the 1% billionaire elites that pull the strings of the political swamp their supreme leader promised to drain.

So, as the elite commander-in-chief sends $40 billion to Argentina, spends $1 billion on a Qatari jet, $250 million on a vanity ballroom, $150 million on golf, $520 million on National Guard deployments, and $172 million for Kristin Noem’s jets, there are zero dollars to lower healthcare bills for millions of Americans. And to add insult to injury, the speaker of the House has the audacity of calling the “No Kings March” a “Hate America March,” while the president himself, in proper form, disgracefully, posted an AI video of himself piloting a bomber jet, dumping excrement all over America, the perfect metaphor for his presidency!

The No King Marches held across the U.S. on October 18th were not just a referendum on the president, his administration and his reign of terror; they were America’s unmistakable and unwavering roar for justice, resistance and a reminder to those in power that we the people are the ones in charge. As our founders declared: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal!” With that comes the inalienable right to dissent, to speak truth to power and to hold our leaders accountable when they overstep.

The government serves the people, not the other way around. We pay their salaries and we put them in office; therefore, they are accountable to us. The U.S. president is the CEO, but we are the Board Members, and he reports to us, the people. We can fire him and make a statement this November by voting out all those government officials who have failed us. 

We the people hold the power. And because we love this country, we will continue to protest and call out this administration for what it is: a despicable, authoritarian, wannabe fascist regime. So, let’s be crystal clear: There will never be a king or a dictator here, not in the United States and not in our lifetime.