Commentary by Jerry Lanson
My cousin — I’ll call him Charlie — is one smart guy. He graduated from Harvard, started and runs a business that uses big data to help health providers and centers with medical care, plays a mean piano. He’s certainly no Trumpie. But I think he — and his mother and aunt — have lost their way when it comes to confronting the reality of contemporary politics.
They consider protesting a waste of time and believe the next election likely will start to solve what ails this country. They seem, despite mounting, daily evidence, to be oblivious to what I see as a clear and present danger to that very election and to our democracy itself.
We all had a spirited conversation at a recent weekend birthday party for Charlie’s younger daughter. I was urging them all to participate March 28 in the third No Kings protests, which will likely be held in a few thousand locations spread over all 50 states. Unfortunately, I don’t think I made a lot of headway.
Let me try again with you (I’ll forward the column to them, too).
These are dangerous times. Full stop. Period. In my view, they are they are the worst in my 76 years, which spans the fight for Civil Rights, efforts to end the Vietnam War, and Watergate.
A friend in Arizona wrote to me yesterday in horror to tell me that “30 to 50 ICE agents,” armed with assault rifles, had surrounded a car blocks from her house in broad daylight to arrest someone. This on the same day that ICE and police in South Burlington, Vermont, engaged in a full-day standoff before arresting three adults and two children in a house there. And it came two days after a federal judge ordered the release of a 14-year-old girl he said was detained under “questionable circumstances” in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and quickly deported out of state.
Minneapolis is not over. It continues nationally.
These times also are the worst in my lifetime because the unending and mounting violations of law and due process are actively sanctioned and encouraged by the president of the United States, the yes men and women around him, and nearly all in his governing party.
The No Kings rallies will take place as massive, armed conflict spreads violently across the globe; as Donald Trump’s government moves aggressively to buy land to build gargantuan detention centers to incarcerate immigrants; as his oligarch buddies siphon billions from our Treasury; as decades worth of advances in Civil Rights are eviscerated; and as hard-working Americans struggle mightily to eat, buy gas, and pay their rent, utilities and medical bills.
It is time for us all to speak out. Standing up to autocracy and for our Constitution can be hard and exhausting work. It can be frustrating if we succumb to the sense there’s nothing we can do. It can be intimidating. And it can be easy to leave to others.
Yet serious scholarly research suggests each of us does matter. Scholars such as Harvard University’s Erica Chenoweth have found that only once 3.5% of a country’s population sustains non-violent resistance over time is a tipping point reached where the odds of toppling an undemocratic regime is more likely to succeed than not. In the United States, a start in that direction would mean drawing nearly 12 million people to city halls, town parks, village greens, intersections and other gathering points on March 28. Collectively, we can and must raise our voices to demand adherence to the rule of law; insist on accountability for those killing our fellow citizens, condemn those grifting taxpayer dollars, fight for affordable rents, medical care and utilities.
Granted. Turning out 12 million is daunting. It would be millions more than have participated in prior massive No Kings protests. But it is doable. To get there, more of you who object to what’s happening in this country but haven’t turned out need to do so wherever you choose on March 28. It’s simple math.
For inspiration, remember Dr. Seuss’ well-known children’s book, Horton Hears a Who. It tells the story of a lovable elephant named Horton, who is as kind as he is large. He becomes obsessed by a speck of dirt on a dandelion because he hears the collective voices of a microscopic village living on it – Whoville. The trouble is none of the other jungle creatures believes him. They set out both to destroy the speck of dirt and punish Horton.
At long last, after enormous trials and tribulations, the mayor of Whoville and Horton, working together, get every last resident of the microscopic village to yell, scream and bang drums. The mean jungle animals, who have tied up Horton and are prepared to destroy Whoville, hear them and relent. Whoville is spared. Horton, too.
Let’s consider every hamlet and village across the United States to be Whoville on March 28. To protect our neighbors, ourselves and our Constitution, we need to raise our collective voices, reaffirm the founding principles and practices of American democracy, ensure fair elections.
If the citizenry standing together could save Whoville, I’ll bet they can save our country, too.
Originally published in Lanson’s Substack From the Grassroots.
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MONDAY 3/16/26