I want to start out by thanking my First Draft colleagues for their great posts about the No Kings rallies. Adrastos and JamieO led off with a great sense of what it was like to be there. I was unable to attend my local protest in Jefferson County, WV (per doctor’s orders, but I’ll be at the next one), but I was pleased to see that it drew 2400 people, a larger crowd than the one gathered at the state capitol in Charleston. So I was irritated when one of the Social Media Leftists sneered at the various gatherings, claiming that the demonstrations had made no changes in blue cities and thus were worthless.

Parenthetical covered the overall benefits of this particular protest in his Tuesday post:  the protests brought out people who have never been to a protest, told people they are not alone, connected people to local grassroots organizations, seeded the ground for larger future protests, and will encourage more good people to run for office.

But most importantly, the protests brought people together in red areas, and the June No Kings rallies have already produced tangible results:

• Yes, but: In Utah’s small cities and towns, participants and organizers say rallies like Saturday’s have boosted participation on the left, from petition drives and volunteer recruiting, to building a sense of community and morale.

By the numbers: After sharing contact information at June’s No Kings rally, Carbon County Democrats’ monthly meetings suddenly grew from a lonely eight to 10 diehards, to 20-30 regular members, party chair Allan Sumnall told Axios.

• • “Now we’re starting to be able to raise a little money, to start doing a few more things,” Sumnall said, pointing to a bearded protester holding a sign. “He showed up to that [June rally], and he became our IT guy. He’s helping us do all the web design.”

And this key detail about Saturday’s activities:

The bottom line: The older protest crowd in Price was broadly united in support of rights and guarantees they remember living without, like credit cards for women and schools that serve kids with disabilities.

Which brings me to one of my larger points:  MAGA media outlets scrambled for days to find a good way to denigrate the protests. Finally on Saturday afternoon, they settled on “everyone was old and white” as their most cutting criticism.

Here’s the problem:  old white people are Republican voters. Yet there they were en masse all over the country, waving American flags and carrying signs critical of President Grievance and the GOP. This chorus became increasingly frenetic on Sunday, indicating that the sight of millions of Republican voters at nationwide protests had rattled the GOP. Indeed, the administration’s own response, a disgusting scatological AI video, belied its previous stated unconcern about the protests.

And then on Monday, after the stupid video didn’t own the libs and cow them into submission, we were treated to the sight of the East Wing of the White House being actively torn down. I admit I started yelling “WTF” when I saw it. President Grievance had sworn up and down that the gaudy ballroom wouldn’t even touch the East Wing (although technically he was telling the truth I guess).

Then on Tuesday we learned that Treasury Department employees were told not to post photos of what was going on next door, that the National Capital Planning Commission had not been contacted to start the approval process, and later that day the photos of the entire destruction off the East Wing surfaced:

Not only was it utterly shocking, it was a grave mistake on part of the administration. It’s probably the fatal flaw of this presidency. The White House is the People’s House. It is a cornerstone of the American civil religion. The visual showed that it was essentially attacked, just as the Capitol had been on 1/6.

I read a lot of stuff from people who attended the No Kings protests. Many people professed feeling proud of the country’s ideals (even as they are honored in the breach) and then immediately apologized for posting “cringe”.  I am sure that the visceral anger I felt when I saw the East Wing photos would be labeled cringe for caring about a symbol of an wildly imperfect country.

But here’s the thing:  the people intent on calling stuff cringe miss the point. First—we’re adults. Cringe comes with the territory. But more importantly, the people who are now intent on telling you that you’re wrong to be heartened by Saturday’s turnout, that the sight of people who have been part of the comfortable class in US society out protesting is a signal of a sea change that is here, that it’s rage-inducing to see a sloppy dementia-addled rapist lash out against criticism by destroying part of an American icon are motivated by one thing:  cynicism. And cynicism leads to nihilism. And nihilism is all MAGA has left to sell.

So maybe, now that we’ve seen the power of the people gathered together to stand up for the values we all believe in, people could stop disparaging decency, truth, and justice as cringe. Cynicism is the leading reason we are in such trouble. Cynicism kills bonds and alliances. Cynicism tramples hope. And we’re going to need hope over the next year.

The only thing that is going to destroy the nihilism of MAGA is cringe:  silly costumes, old white people waving signs, lots of American flags at protests, an unwavering belief that better things are possible, people chasing ICE agents out of their neighborhoods, people surrounding churches so people of color can attend Sunday services, etc.

And if you think that’s cringe, remember that Saturday’s cringe drove the president into literally destroying the White House in a desperate–and failed–attempt to own the libs.

I’ll leave you with this: