Jonathan P. Baird

I saw that there will be new No Kings demonstrations across the country on Saturday, October 18. Concord will again be a site, this time for No Kings 2. The anti-Trump Concord rallies held this year in April, June, and on Labor Day in September have surpassed all my expectations. I have lived in New Hampshire for over 40 years and these were some of the best-attended demonstrations I have witnessed.

What was great about the demonstrations besides the turnout was the positive energy unleashed and the creativity of the many signs. The signs were personal, funny, politically savvy and artistic. The demonstrations were very encouraging because they showed how many New Hampshire people are utterly opposed to any slide into fascism. People in large numbers don’t want to lose our democracy.

I have to say that in observing the demonstrations I have a sense of deja vu. The movement against the Trump regime is reminiscent of the movement against the Richard Nixon presidency. In both situations, the nation faced an out-of-control President attempting to hoard power and use the power of the State to repress opponents. Like now, the leadership of the Democratic Party was weak and feckless. Progressive Democrats and independent radicals had little influence in Congress. We took it to the streets. Between 1968-1973, there were innumerable demonstrations against the Nixon regime and the Vietnam War.

Just as happened with Nixon, I would argue that a mass movement could hasten the end of the Trump regime. The movement against Nixon was central to creating the circumstances for his resignation from the presidency.

The street demonstrations in the 1960’s began before the Nixon presidency. Both the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement showed the power of non-violent protest. The great civil rights March on Washington in 1963 was followed by the first anti-Vietnam War March on Washington in April 1965. Then there was the October 1967 March on the Pentagon, the Washington Moratorium of 1969 (the largest demonstration in U.S. history at that time), the demonstrations around the shootings at Kent State and Jackson State in 1970 and the May Day protests in May 1971.

The demonstrations had started small and they built dramatically. By the time of the Nixon presidency, the Movement had gained tremendous force. Organizing can build identity and self-confidence in the movement. In my college in Connecticut, we shut down the campus in the aftermath of Kent State and spent weeks organizing. Similar things happened on many campuses.

There were always people who questioned the value of protest. That sentiment has a familiar ring. Since the Vietnam era, the view that demonstrations don’t accomplish anything has been common. That viewpoint typically dismisses protests as, at best, feel-good exercises that don’t change anything. They run the risk of degenerating into violence with the possibility of alienating broader swaths of the public.

Sometimes those opposed to protest will highlight the importance of electoral politics as the means to defeat Trump and MAGA. And there is little doubt the 2026 and 2028 elections are very important as a way to push back.

The Trump behemoth has proven to be formidable. They control all three branches of government. They have been flooding the zone trying to create the impression of strength and invincibility. They have moved quickly and they aim to make opposition feel hopeless and overwhelmed.

While the effect of protest has been hotly debated, there is more evidence available now that shows how crucial the Movement was in weakening Nixon and the same dynamic can play out with Trump. Although he publicly dismissed protesters, Nixon felt threatened by the scope of dissent and protest. Even today, people don’t realize the power the Movement had then.

Nixon’s plan to end the Vietnam War was actually a plan for massive escalation. He floated the idea of using nuclear weapons to pressure concessions from the North Vietnamese. He also discussed mining North Vietnamese harbors. He had a “madman theory” designed to show the North Vietnamese, the NLF and the Russians that he was unpredictable and capable of massive destruction if they did not agree to his peace terms. Bluff was a big part of Nixon’s game plan.

The fact that the American people in massive numbers wanted withdrawal from the war was a critical deterrent to Nixon’s plan of escalation. It led to Nixon’s policy of Vietnamization, replacing and removing U.S. soldiers from the battlefield. It acted as a stop to the use of any nuclear weapon. Nixon and Henry Kissinger worried about domestic political blowback. It also led to an end to the military draft in 1973.

Nixon was constantly scheming and calculating but there can be little doubt that the size of his opposition inhibited him. Both Daniel Ellsberg and Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, have written that the Movement restrained decision makers from worse excesses. It is also possible that Nixon’s preoccupation with protesters (like Ellsberg) fed his paranoia and led him to authorize crimes that resulted in his downfall.

To its credit, the bulk of the Nixon opposition stayed unified as evidenced by the repeated massive anti-war demonstrations. There were dopey infantile extremists like the Weathermen but they were a tiny fringe.The example of masses of people organizing together speaks directly to our time. The American people are in the process of building an enormous opposition to MAGA fascism to preserve democracy. Resistance will build more resistance as we broaden our coalition.

The Trump regime can be brought down just as happened to Nixon’s regime. Trump and MAGA have massively over-reached and they are awakening a sleeping giant. The Jimmy Kimmel return is a perfect example of how to fight back. Fascism is not inevitable and no one knows what will happen next. Our protests need to keep building and expanding.