NeverTrumper conservatives Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark talk about what they saw at the rallies they attended on Saturday. Watch the full half-hour podcast episode here.
Selected edited excerpts:
Kristol: …[L]ots of people had pictures of the Constitution and the Declaration. There was that giant Constitution I guess they paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. and lots of quotations from Thomas Paine and Jefferson and Madison. I think that helped very much convey the true spirit, which was: We are the patriotic Americans here. … [W]e are the ones in the American mainstream and Trump is not. And I think “No Kings” is pretty good at conveying that.
Longwell: I think that what they are doing is building an ongoing infrastructure. Like the people who are asking, What’s the point of this? What did you guys accomplish? Well, they are starting a mass mobilization effort.
And each time they are building a bigger group of people who are willing to be mass mobilized in the face of what Donald Trump is doing. That is an enormously impactful thing to do, and has a real opportunity going forward to be meaningful. …
And I do think that if each iteration of No Kings can think about how you widen that aperture even further to bring in people whose concerns might not be how the Supreme Court is or how Donald Trump is impacting the Constitution, but the fact that he’s not lowering prices, that he’s not lowering the debt, that he is working with the dictators across the world.
I just think that these have been such good first steps. They emphasize peace. They get people out. They give people something to do, which is the number one thing we get asked. It’s just sort of like, what can I do? And I think people are desperate to do something. And it feels like going out there and being with people is something.
And one of the things it does is it signals to people: You might not be in charge forever. And the things that you’re doing right now, you don’t know that there won’t be a reckoning. You think that there won’t be a reckoning, but you want people to be unsure that the side they’ve chosen is going to be in charge forever.
Kristol: That’s such an interesting point. And I do think that points the way forward from this. This is more like civil rights and Vietnam in the sense that those were part of an ongoing movement that ended up in big victories and real changes in power in America. And that would also be true of some of the social movements of the last 50 years, obviously. And I have the feeling that could be the case here. …
There’s a real chance this won’t just be a footnote to history. The forward-looking implications of this will be interesting for all of us to do over the next few days and weeks and months.
Sarah: Look forward, guys. It will make you feel better.