How to Fake a Revolution
A very detailed instruction manual.
Last Saturday, millions of Americans participated in some 3,500 “No Kings” protests across the nation. In every state, marchers denounced the administration and its policies. In Minneapolis, Bruce Springsteen sang; in other cities, protesters had to be content with fiery speeches from various Democratic politicians. Though most demonstrators were peaceful, there were periodic outbreaks of violence. In many places, the Communist hammer and sickle, a 20th century symbol of leftist protest, flew alongside the Palestinian flag, today’s fashionable emblem of radical rebellion.
The scale of No Kings was admittedly impressive. The messaging was clear: Donald Trump embodies authoritarian overreach, and—with apparent spontaneity—ordinary Americans are rising to resist him.
Sarah Parker, an organizer for the Minneapolis event, described the movement to Fox News. “This is organic. This is a people-powered movement,” she said. “We have different local hosts, (all) volunteers who have stepped up.” Unlike traditional organizations, No Kings claims to operate without formal structure, without financial reporting requirements, and without easily identifiable leadership. Just a bunch of concerned citizens, standing up for democracy—or so we’re led to believe.
Grass Doesn’t Grow from the Top Down
Political operatives have a term for what undergirds the No Kings phenomenon: astroturfing. The word combines “AstroTurf” (synthetic grass, first used in the Houston Astrodome) with “grassroots” to describe organizing that appears organic but is instead carefully manufactured activism. While real grass grows from the soil up, Astroturf gets rolled out from above and fastened to the dirt below.
Genuine grassroots movements grow from local communities responding to local problems, such as parents mobilizing to take back a radical school board, or small business owners coordinating to oppose new regulations. Grassroots organizations develop organically, as volunteers figure out what works through trial and error. In time, and if they have sufficient popular support, these organizations learn to turn the levers of what I call the Political Vise.
Astroturfing is the exact opposite. Astroturfing coordinates from the top down while maintaining the appearance of bottom-up energy.
Professional organizers create the infrastructure first. They develop messaging, design materials, establish communication channels, and recruit local coordinators. They then present what results as a spontaneous popular uprising. The participants may be sincere, and on occasion, their grievances may be real. They are often unaware that they are being cynically and meticulously manipulated.
The ‘Leaderless’ Movement Receives Its Marching Orders
The No Kings movement is textbook astroturfing.
No Kings provides event organizers with a lengthy and detailed toolkit. The document instructs volunteers on how to recruit speakers, delegate roles, register their events, and use No Kings branded media materials. It lays out best practices for logistics and explains how to avoid permitting and insurance requirements. The toolkit includes a “host hotline” with a Maryland area code for organizers who need support.
A map on the No Kings website shows organizational activity in virtually every city in the United States. The materials are professionally designed, the messaging is coordinated, and the branding is consistent from coast to coast. This level of organization doesn’t just require major funding; it requires leaders with the authority to make sweeping decisions about messaging and strategy for the entire country. What looks shambolic requires ruthless discipline.
At the Minneapolis rally, emcee Lizz Winstead—a lifelong activist and founder of the militant Abortion Access Front—said the proverbial “quiet part” out loud. Worth quoting in full, Winstead’s syntax may have been garbled but her message was crystal clear:
I want people to know that if you want to act like Minnesota, or you think Minnesota is a model, what can I do? Well, you can check your ego about what you want to do and listen to the leadership, and when they tell you what they need done, you do that. And you pay enough attention to the amazing organizers who have been on the ground, who actually have the information, who have already done the work, instead of starting your own [group]... you need to be the pack mule.
Listen to the organizers. Do what they tell you. Be the pack mule.
Those are not the words of a leaderless movement. Those are commands from a vanguard to its foot soldiers. The No Kings movement disguises itself as a spontaneous popular uprising, but behind that façade sits the same infrastructure that characterizes every progressive mass mobilization: central coordination, professional materials, directed messaging, and explicit instructions to listen to leadership.
Winstead’s moment of very public candor revealed the machinery. National leadership provides direction, while local organizers execute the plan. Ordinary, well-meaning citizens? They’re the loyal pack mules. The result is 3,500 coordinated events with consistent messaging, professional production values, and to the casual observer, a believable veneer of grassroots authenticity.
Liberation Through Obedience
Astroturfing claims to empower ordinary Americans while directing them toward predetermined goals. It promises liberation through collective action while demanding submission to leadership. It pays lip service to grassroots organizing while imposing centralized coordination.
Saturday’s protests demonstrated the success of the fiction, as some eight million Americans earnestly participated in what they believed was organic resistance. Many of those no doubt genuinely oppose Donald Trump, or hold honest grievances about immigration enforcement, the Iran conflict, or affordability. But their protest was neither leaderless nor decentralized. It was not organic. It was a dramatic production staged by seasoned activists who assembled the infrastructure, directed the messaging, and instructed participants to be obedient work horses for the leadership.
In light of this, the name “No Kings” is both ironic and absurd. A leaderless movement would not need detailed toolkits or Maryland hotlines. Organic resistance would not require instructions to listen to leadership. Genuine grassroots organizing would not demand that volunteers be enthusiastic pack mules for a nameless elite who have “already done the work.”
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Winstead’s remarks is her evident exasperation with people who dream of starting their own activist groups. Check your ego, she demanded. Listen to instructions. Do what you’re told.
No kings, they say. Just ongoing pressure from above, and millions trained to submit to it.