A small part of the No Kings protest in Clearwater, Florida. Photo by Marty Kassowitz
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Democracy has a lot of problems. Always has. But getting more members of Congress to reconnect to their oath and duty to the Constitution needs to be America's highest priority.
If there was ever an example of the Deep South, Clearwater, Florida would be a great hybrid example. It is an eclectic combination of a small city with a population of people ranging from obvious liberals to in-your-face-lifted-pickups-with-massive-flags Trumpers.
But today on No-Kings Day, the in-face-factor went entirely to the large population of people who think Democracy is a good thing and needs to be protected from Trump.
My wife and I went to the protest gathering nearest our house. There were more not far away, to the south in Largo and St. Petersburg, to the north, also in Clearwater, east in Tampa and more.
Last time around, in June, there were 81 No Kings protest gatherings in deep red Florida. There will probably be more by the time this all gets tallied.
And besides more, these seem bigger. The video I show below was shot in one relatively long block on the main drag in and out of Clearwater, connecting it to Tampa to the east. Driving the length of it was closer to a mile. That’s a lot of people.
I was down in Largo last June and that grouping was also huge. Friends that went there again reported that it was much larger this time around.
Thanks to Speaker Johnson for calling out all these folks as enemies of America because that apparently doubled the number of people RSVPing to show up. But counting is a bit of an issue because some people, like my wife and I, just show up with no advance notice. I’ll bet there’s a lot more in that category.
The biggest take away from our experience today is the obvious unbridled enthusiasm for protecting Democracy from the criminals currently occupying the seat of government. Not only is Wannabe King Donnie a felon, but he’s actively releasing other felons (Jan 6 insurrectionists, embezzlers, drug dealers, con artists and now George Santos) on society. Guess he does not want to feel alone. Oh, yeah, and he’s committing outright murder on the high seas.
Democracy has a lot of problems. Always has. But getting more members of Congress to reconnect to their oath and duty to the Constitution needs to be America’s highest priority. Only then will we overcome and remove the infestation.
Marty Kassowitz
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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