No Kings March = Theater of Absurd

By Larry Overlan

“This practice is as old as our democracy. Avoiding the facts — fearful of the truth — a malicious opposition charged that George Washington planned to make himself king; that Thomas Jefferson planned to set up a guillotine under a French Revolutionary form of government; that Andrew Jackson soaked the rich of the Eastern seaboard and planned to surrender American democracy to the dictatorship of a frontier mob. They called Abraham Lincoln a Roman Emperor; Theodore Roosevelt a Destroyer; Woodrow Wilson a self-constituted Messiah.”  –President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sept. 29, 1936, Syracuse, NY

The great irony of the above quote is that in 1940 the Democratic President, FDR, ran for an unprecedented third term and in 1944, incredibly enough, for a fourth term. No president has been elected more than twice before or after FDR. Indeed, FDR was first elected in 1932 and died in office — he was elected for life!

And yet today’s barking protesters think they are so clever and profound using this silly and absurd theme to protest President Donald Trump. The Democratic Party fully supported FDR’s repudiation of the first president of the United States and hero of the Revolutionary War, George Washington, who decided not to run for a third term and thus set the precedent for “No Kings.”

Later, when FDR couldn’t get his way with the Supreme Court, he tried to pass a court-packing plan. This would have increased the number of Supreme Court justices from nine to 15. Guess who would have nominated all the new justices? FDR. With 76 Democrats in the U.S. Senate in 1937, it would have been a walk in the park for FDR to stack the court. Fortunately, reason prevailed and this kingly attempt was squashed.

Similarly, many of today’s Democrats, such as senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both of Massachusetts, support this despotic expansion of the Supreme Court. Like FDR, they don’t like the recent decisions. When D’s lose, they say, “Change the rules!”

FDR went on to issue a massive amount of Executive Orders (3,728). Among the “kingliest” were the internment and relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans (EO 9066) and an order forcing American citizens to sell their gold to the government (EO 6102). FDR also initiated, through then Attorney General Nicholas Biddle, a mass trial of 32 dissidents. The trial became known as the Great Sedition Trial of 1944. Widely condemned by Harvard professors and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), it came to an end when the judge died and was declared a mistrial.

Wow! The No Kings protesters of today, since virtually all of them are Democrats, should revisit history and realize that their great hero, FDR, was the closest the U.S. has ever been to having a king.

Fortunately, the Republican Party took control of both houses of Congress in 1947 (led by Speaker Joe Martin of North Attleboro) and quickly passed the 22nd Amendment limiting the president to two terms.

Which party is pro-king?

But this absurd mantra continues as reported by C-Span on August 28, 2025: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he believes President Trump is serious about running for a third term, something that’s prohibited by the 22nd Amendment. “I don’t think Donald Trump wants another election,” he said at a summit hosted by Politico in Sacramento. “This guy doesn’t believe in free, fair elections … You think he’s joking about 2028?” Newsom asked the audience. “Who spends $200 million on a ballroom at their home and then leaves the house?”

And Newsome’s the leading Democrat for 2028?

Newsome has received 28 “Trump 2028” hats to feed his and the No Kings hallucinations. Anyone can buy one for $50 at the TRUMP store. Future No Kings protesters, to make their beliefs clearer, should “Don” a TRUMP 2028 hat … I may even join you!

Larry Overlan is an adjunct professor of economics and government at several Boston area colleges, a longtime resident of Canton, and the current chair of the Canton Republican Town Committee. The views expressed in his column are solely his own.

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