Thursday, October 1, 2026
America settled the question of kings a long, long time ago. In fact, 2026 will mark our “America 250” celebration, the anniversary of our nation’s founding, when our forefathers collectively decided to replace the rule of one man with the will of the people.
This form of government is all most of us have ever known, and perhaps today it’s taken for granted. In reality, the birth of this nation was a transformative moment in history. It was not only a physical revolution, in terms of a war, but a revolution of ideas, too.
The rest of the world believed in the divine right of kings, and considered it impossible for everyday people to govern themselves. So our founding fathers spent years debating and carefully crafting a delicately balanced system that established individual rights, states’ rights and the limited role of a centralized, federal government as well. It was a tremendous balancing act, and a monumental achievement that changed mankind for the better, inspiring democracies around the world to this day.
So forgive me if I’m more than a little skeptical of the crowds gathered under the “No Kings” banner, who are so vehemently protesting kings that simply don’t exist — in many instances conflating civic engagement with partisan attack.
Let’s set the record straight. We have a democratically and duly elected president who won the popular vote as well as the Electoral College, and carried every swing state. The peaceful transfer of power, no matter who wins, is the cornerstone of our democracy. The No Kings protests ignore that by challenging the legitimacy of the person in office, regardless of the election results.
It is this false narrative that is so corrosive — not just protesting policy, but the person. And while people are certainly within their rights to protest policies they dislike, it’s not acceptable to cloak that dissatisfaction in a lie.
So what are the No Kings protesters really upset about? Not a nonexistent king, but rather democracy itself. They are dissatisfied with the results of the 2024 presidential election and unhappy with any actions taken by the current administration. By portraying a freely elected government as oppressive, organizers are trying to stir fear and suspicion — not with specific policy differences, but through a vague, emotional narrative.
This isn’t real civic participation; it’s political theater. Protesting imaginary kings chips away at the trust we need in the very systems that protect our rights. And it’s a distraction from the real issues, like affordability, energy policy and public safety, that impact us New Yorkers and our families. Rather than fostering open discussion and debate, it’s far easier and politically expedient for these protest organizers to cast the opposition as authoritarian and hateful — in which case, anything the administration offers is immediately dismissed.
Make no mistake: The No Kings rallies did not spontaneously appear in our neighborhoods. They were “astroturfed” — carefully orchestrated to appear as grassroots efforts. While well-meaning people did indeed show up, deep-pocketed special interests professionally managed the message behind the protests.
It was especially disappointing to see the League of Women Voters, an organization with a longstanding tradition of nonpartisanship, partner with such a clearly partisan effort. Their mission statement is “Empowering voters. Defending democracy,” yet in this case, they did neither. By lending their name and reputation to an event that was more about name-calling than dialogue, more about finger-pointing than civic engagement, the league made a conscious choice to step away from impartiality.
But that’s indicative of a larger problem. Increasingly, our schools of higher learning have replaced civic education with ideology. Classrooms that once taught how government works now blur that line with partisan activism that paints any opposition as hateful and authoritarian. That isn’t civic education; that’s political bullying. Rather than helping students participate in democracy and the free exchange of ideas, they teach them to throw rocks. And that’s a shame.
There are no kings here. There are only voters, laws and the reality that leadership changes not by inheritance, but by ballots. Those are ideas worth defending.
Jack Martins represents the 7th State Senate District.
