Mega-Protest Problems in an Era of Mega-Power

We live in the world of today: an era of mega-politics and monolithic governments, whose power only increases as the multitudes they govern swell.¹ To keep democracy in check, those multitudes must maintain methods to rouse mega-opposition when the corridors of mega-power go astray. But as power concentrated increases in potency, increasing multitudes grow more diffuse, losing unity of vision and voice. At that stage, power can — and willingly does — shut out the masses from participation in the exercise of power. That’s when — if not sooner — the integrity of a democracy begins to unravel.

Millions of us today share a sure and hard-won wisdom: The single national emergency facing our country since January 20, 2025, is President Donald J. Trump.² To save our democracy and the American way of life, he must be removed, but there are no elections to make our voices heard. We just had an election, which was a train wreck, which is, in fact, the emergency. Since Congress’s conflicts of interest have rendered them befogged and helpless to do anything about the matter, the population in the cross-hairs of Trump’s bazooka must impress upon those legislators their grave assessment that Trump is unfit for office and their demand that the lawmakers act with urgency to remove him.

But we are too many. Our efforts to perforate the American power structure are foiled by the limiting factors of infrastructure and logistics. 

A great opportunity for Americans to gather and voice their objections to Trump’s pernicious attacks, faux policies, and serial violations is coming up. June 14 will be Trump’s 79th birthday. He would like to hold a military birthday parade for himself.³ He wants 6,600 military personnel to march from Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia, to National Mall in Washington D.C., to the beat of 7 bands, 50 helicopters, and 150 vehicles. How many tanks Trump wrangles into that procession will be a key measure of his power, because no one, but no one, wants tanks in there but him because tanks will chew up the curbs and ruin the pavements as they lurch their cumbersome way along civilian streets. 

For the duration of the parade, it is rumored that Donald will spurn even a front row seat to allow his girth to be hoisted aloft to hover above it all in his beloved purring Marine One — a Trump equivalent of a Macy’s Parade’s most belligerent balloon — from which the president will glory down on the heady display like so much wrath. Besides taking a second row seat to no one, Trump’s aerial review will make the event ever so much more costly — a reflection of his worth — and add gaudy proof of his might. He’d like a cavalcade of 79 cannons shooting off 79 cannon balls maybe twice, but for some reason has not submitted that request. Maybe he can’t decide what all those cannons would be shooting at. Maybe even he knows you can’t just shoot cannon balls up into the sky. Not 79 of them. Definitely not twice.

Doesn’t holding a birthday party costing taxpayers a hundred million dollars⁴ defeat his pious efforts to minimize the grossly wasteful government spending that has been spoiling a depraved American public for decades? Trump’s blithe reassurance to that: “It’ll do the country good. Pick up their spirits. Help them forget those terrible Biden days that I made go away.” Yes, after getting themselves all happy watching Trump’s birthday parade, those drab spectators are to return to their lightless hovels; make do without the social, medical, and cultural programs that once elevated their standard of living; and give thanks to Trump on their patched knees in the dark.⁵

Fifty contingents in the hundreds of thousands, each representing a U.S. state, would unfurl their standards in a vast sea of colors.

Today there are over 258 million thinking adults living in the United States, most of them thinking it would be great to show up for Trump’s party with helpful birthday signs reading, “Get Lost Now, Donald!” and “Take Out the Trash, Donald. That means you!” and “You’re Fired, Donald!” Longer banners carried aloft by groups of hundreds would have space to provide more detailed instructions. Fifty contingents in the hundreds of thousands, each representing a U.S. state, would unfurl their standards in a vast sea of colors. “California says: DJT out!” “Missouri says: DJT out!” “Pennsylvania says: DJT out!” would flap and shine among like standards from the other 47 states.⁶ Never before would such an army have been assembled. In the words of General Robert E. Lee watching a sparkling column of his army winding its way through the countryside to deploy for battle: “It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.”⁷ No need for such dire concern from our quarter. While we are not fond of battle, our cause, though adamant and wholly necessary, is bloodless. In this way, our power far transcends that of the legendary General Lee or any military officer. 

But we have the diffuseness problem: while power can concentrate awesomely, the individuals of a multitudinous population cannot. When it comes to a real squeeze, their bodies bump together and they get cranky. So, while it is highly conceivable that 200 million of us — a magnificent majority — want Trump removed from office, converging on D.C. on June 14 to say so is not feasible. Infrastructure and logistics would fail. Traffic would be paralyzed. Stampedes, crushes — those bodies bumping together, dire thirst, punishing heat, oxygen-deficient air, extreme physical and psychological discomfort, inadequate medical support would all render the scene worse than imaginable. Space simply for Porto-Potties would be insufficient. We would be stifled by our own strength. 

However, there is another problem. If we don’t turn up in the tens of millions, but merely in the hundreds of thousands, Donald will pooh-pooh our presence, saying: “My crowds are bigger than this.” Smelling an emergency, the irascible Trump would then call out the military to disperse the dangerous insurgents, perhaps have them pepper-sprayed in the legs. Or elsewhere. Some would fall. Trump would impose a state of emergency. All hell would break loose. We would be blamed.

More trains roll in with ever more passengers who alight to refresh the perpetual march of protest that those departing had joined just ninety minutes before.

The key to massive protests is not to congregate, but flow. Form a river, not a sea. Roll protesters in to D.C. by rail. On alighting, they fall in behind a broad ribbon of like-minded citizens assembled just minutes before, having alighted from trains already departed to make way for more trains bringing more protesters, who alight and join the river of protest already in motion. With standards hoisted, protesters march in orderly fashion along the designated urban swath to the White House, past the White House, and back to the trains standing ready to convey them home. And all the while more trains roll in with ever more passengers who alight to supply new feet and bodies, standards and signs, to refresh the perpetual march of protest that those departing had joined just ninety minutes before. 

The first trains arrive the morning of June 10, the last depart the evening of June 14. Throughout those five days, the trains supply a carefully measured flow of millions of protesters who participate in a continuous current of silent dissent flowing from dawn to dusk directly past the nose of the insomniac who cannot see, hear, feel, or think. But one thing has penetrated the brain of that obdurate man. His birthday jaunt in Marine One has been spoiled, called off as ill-advised due to the unforeseen, dreadfully orderly commotion. Damn and drat democracy! As millions stream past his galled face, his trigger finger itches. But the protestors are in constant, purposeful motion merely walking past him — no vagrancy charges possible here — and then back safe in a train on their anonymous way home, their valiance flashed for the instant it took to contribute to an unparalleled display of No! 

While the tactical brilliance of whisking millions of protesters in and out of D.C. so neatly would go unremarked by the befuddled Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, that coordination would be picked up by those of somewhat greater perspicacity. They would know. We watched China beat back brave Hong Kong, a super-high bar that we just cleared. 

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1. Multitudes from which that mega-power draws immense revenues. ↩︎
2. Trump has declared eight national emergencies so far this year, and in not one of them did he mention himself.  ↩︎
3. What a misfortune that June 14 falls on a Saturday, one of the two days of each weekend when Trump has his single opportunity to golf away his blues after five day of chaos. But, steeling himself, Trump has sworn not to fly to Mar-a-Lago until after his parade, declaring himself ready to sacrifice a full half of his weekend golf outing. ↩︎
4. If Trump can restrain himself. ↩︎
5. There’s nothing like being super-rich among super-poor. For some reason, they love you! ↩︎
6. Canada could show up but would have to register as an adjacent country, no sneaking in as State 51. ↩︎
7. At the battle of Fredericksburg, December 1862. ↩︎