The real reason Republicans are so afraid

WASHINGTON – For days, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has been strangely fear-mongering about the nationwide “No Kings” protests scheduled for Saturday.

The demonstrations, organized by a coalition of pro-democracy groups The demonstrations, from the ACLU to the League of Conservation Voters to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are expected to draw millions of people in all 50 states to peacefully protest President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism and his militarization of cities.

That’s nothing like what Johnson has been describing in his daily news conferences on Capitol Hill. By his account, there can be no groundswell of public opposition to Trump. And the only people upset enough to join a protest are people who not only hate the president, but hate America and its founding ideals.

“I invite you to watch, we call it the ‘hate America’ rally, and it will take place on Saturday,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday. “I bet you see Hamas supporters. I bet you see antifa guys. I bet you see the Marxists on full display, the people who don’t want to stand up and defend the fundamental truths of this republic.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has similarly said that “No Kings” protesters want “express your hatred towards this country,” while Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), House Majority Leader, went a step further, wildly claiming that the groups behind the protests want to “score political points with the terrorist wing of their party.”

It is as absurd as it is inflammatory to accuse peaceful protesters of hating their country. So why are Johnson and other Republican leaders so hell-bent on fearmongering about the “No Kings” protests? Are you afraid of Bernie Sanders?

“I don’t think it’s that complicated,” Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, the progressive grassroots group that’s helping organize the protests, told News themezone on Wednesday. “The only thing an unpopular authoritarian regime fears is massive, organized, peaceful popular power. That’s all.”

Anyone who participated in the latest round of “No Kings” protests in June, who Millions of people attended and he knows they were “demonstrations of joyful people power,” Levin said, describing rallygoers dancing, laughing and waving funny signs. At the time, right-wing He noted mockingly how many of the protesters were serious boomers, or Americans in their 60s and 70s.

Are they terrorists now?

“I have to laugh at how ridiculous this is,” he added, referring to Johnson’s attacks. “And, you know, I thank the speaker for giving free publicity to the ‘No Kings’ protests.”

Lisa Lake via Getty Images

Still, even Levin acknowledges that there is something darker at play with Johnson’s messages. Their repeated and intentional mischaracterizations of what the protests are about and who will attend them (hint: Boomers will probably be there in droves!) is creating this idea that people, real Americans, should be angry about the protests that are going on, and that there is something sinister going on, when neither of those things are true.

And the speaker’s efforts to demonize peaceful protests come as the Trump administration vows to crack down on left-wing organizations it dubiously claims are somehow responsible for financing terrorism, following the lone gunman’s killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in separate interviews broadcast this week, promised that his team investigate alleged “networks of terrorist organizations” and described attendees at the “No Kings” rally as “the extreme left, the hardest core, the most unhinged of the Democratic Party.”

Stanislav Vysotsky, an expert on anti-fascist activism and professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, said the way Johnson and other Republicans are presenting the “No Kings” protests as threatening is a hallmark of what authoritarians do.

“Yes, this is classic authoritarianism,” Vysotsky told News themezone. “It is an intentional formulation of the opposition as violent and dangerous in order to dehumanize it, which then justifies violent repression. Authoritarians routinely paint their opposition as an existential threat to peace and security for precisely that reason.”

He said the specific language Johnson is using to attack the “No Kings” protests is particularly interesting, as he “manages to hit all the recent bogeymen on the right: Antifa, Hamas (code for opposition to the genocide of Palestinians) and the tried and true Marxists.”

Ultimately, Vysotsky said, “he is playing to the base that is furious about violent retaliation against his enemies.”

Karrie Koesel, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame and an expert on authoritarianism, agreed that Johnson’s intentional misinformation about peaceful protests nationwide is disturbing.

“Applying pejorative labels is a common strategy to demobilize and dehumanize political opposition,” Koesel said. “This cultivates an us-versus-them narrative and identifies political and peaceful dissent as an existential threat.”

And he added: “Dark times for democracy.”

Sanders has in public refused Johnson on social media for mischaracterizing the “No Kings” protests, and on Wednesday he did so directly to News themezone.

“I hate America? Really?” said the Vermont senator. “Yes, because people defending the Constitution is a manifestation of ‘hate America’… I think it’s a manifestation of ‘love America’. I think it’s defending what these people are doing, going out and defending our Constitution, our way of life and American freedom.”

“It’s really a shame,” Sanders added, “that there is a speaker who is trying to belittle the right to protest and the right of Americans to speak out against an authoritarian administration.”

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Johnson’s talking point about “hating America” ​​emerged last week, as Republicans struggled to find a winning message amid the government shutdown.

For weeks, Democrats have refused to agree to reopen the government without also extending health care subsidies that are set to expire for millions of Americans at the end of this year. For weeks, Republican leaders have said no to a deal. Amid the stalemate, Republicans have accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of holding the line to appease progressive groups angry with him for supporting a government funding bill in March and suggesting he wants the shutdown to continue at least until after the “No Kings” protests.

The GOP talking points haven’t worked, however, as polls continue to show voters blaming Trump and his party for the shutdown disaster. So last week, on day 10 of the shutdown, Johnson and his top deputies launched his “hate America” label for the “No Kings” demonstrations.

Some Republicans don’t seem comfortable with the epithet “hate.” On Wednesday, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) declined to weigh in on his party leaders’ new label and instead accused Democrats of ceding power to Trump by causing a government shutdown.

“If they are in favor of the legislative branch asserting more power and the executive branch having less, the best thing they could do is not have a stupid rally but rather engage in a deliberative appropriations process,” LaLota told News themezone.

Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said the GOP’s efforts to smear the “No Kings” protests show how the party is “falling apart.”

“The effort to mischaracterize the protests taking place across the country is part of the right-wing’s ongoing misinformation machine that is failing to persuade the American people what this shutdown is all about,” Jeffries told News themezone.

He did not say whether he plans to attend a “No Kings” protest, but Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Jeffries’ top deputies in the House, said they would.

“I’ll be at a rally,” Aguilar told News themezone. “I’ll also be holding an American flag.”

Levin, the leader of Indivisible, recalled that he and other organizers closed their signature “No Kings” event in Philadelphia in June by leading 100,000 people in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while waving American flags.

“It’s funny how much Johnson is scared by these images,” he said.

Senior journalist Igor Bobic contributed to this report.