Will 'No Kings' protests have any influence? | Planet America

Key Concepts

• No Kings Rallies
• Protest Event Scale
• Protest Activity Trends
• Threshold for Government Attention

No Kings Rallies: Scale and Participation

The "No Kings" rallies, held on a recent Saturday, saw millions of Americans participating across more than 2,000 towns and cities. The overwhelming majority of participants were Democrats, with very few, if any, Republicans present. Organizers claimed an attendance of approximately 7 million people. Independent assessments provided a median estimate of around 5.2 million attendees, with an upper bound of 8.2 million. Regardless of the exact figure, the event is considered the largest single-day protest event since 1970, exceeding the scale of the 2017 Women's March. The rallies were described as peaceful, with no arrests reported in New York or Washington D.C.

Protest Activity Trends

The year has been marked by significant protest activity, though not always receiving extensive media coverage. So far this year, the number of protest events has been nearly four times higher than in 2017, which was Donald Trump's first year in office.

Threshold for Government Attention

Political scientists suggest that for peaceful protests to become nearly impossible for the government to ignore, approximately 3.5% of the population needs to mobilize. In the United States, this translates to roughly 12 million people. The recent "No Kings" rallies, while substantial, had not yet reached this critical mass.