On my way to downtown DC to march in the No Kings rally, I was unsure of what I would find.

* * * * *

We all knew what to expect as the year began. It had been laid out for us very clearly in the document called a Mandate for Leadership, otherwise known as Project 2025.

But we could not have expected or anticipated the speed, intensity, and velocity with which it would be implemented beginning January 20, 2025.

Like many, I was taken aback and had to take a moment to find my footing. I am grateful for those who were able to mount an immediate legal defense to the earliest moves, which, by some reports was a surprise to the White House. The side of democracy keeps winning in court, and the side of authoritarianism keeps losing — at least at every level below the Supreme Court.

I have also watched the growing organized movements of people who are standing up for democracy and for the rule of law.

This has heartened  me – but mostly in an intellectual way. I firmly believe we are in a period of autocratic consolidation. That Donald Trump is gathering his power and his forces so as to be able to rule indefinitely. The military, the justice system, and the internal security services are all behaving as those entities do in dictatorships. Military officers purged, private citizens indicted, people snatched from their beds.

This is truth, and we must not look away nor pretend that by getting along better, or by keeping our heads down, we might sidestep our descent into empire. The autocracy may not touch me at this moment — but it will. It will touch all of us, if allowed to solidify.

It was with these thoughts in my mind that I headed downtown on October 18, 2025 to participate in the No Kings demonstrations. I felt it an important duty to show he who would rule, as well as my friends and fellow Americans, that here we would have no kings.

The June rallies brought 5 million people to the streets, in all 50 states, at 2,100 events. Today an even greater turnout was expected, with 2,500 events organized. But still I was despondent as I traveled.

* * * * *

On the last leg of my journey, I was pleased to see the train car full of people, holding signs. But the cars are small and I had no sense of how many would be present.

I left the metro station and rounded a corner — and saw the massive crowd, all holding signs, music playing.

I broke down in tears. A wave of some kind of relief washed over me.  I felt a little bit of hope. This was an undeniable crowd, an undeniable movement, an undeniable statement: That we would have no kings in America.

That we could perhaps become ungovernable.

“Become Ungovernable”

I do believe this is what it will take: to become ungovernable.

To become ungovernable is not to descend into anarchy. It is not to abandon law. It is not violent. It is: refusal to bow to the regime. It is: the first step in regaining self-rule, which is democracy.

As the rally unfolded and the speeches began, weirdly (or maybe appropriately) under the glowering dear-leader face of Trump hanging on a banner on the Department of Labor building, this phrase kept coming to mind. It repeated like a mantra, a counterpoint to the banner I could not stop looking at, even with thousands of signs and costumes around me.

We can become ungovernable. We must take that to heart. We all will need to play a part, throwing sand in the gears at every opportunity.

Today, many of us, millions, played this important role on the way to ungovernability: to show collectively that we would not be ruled by a despot.

(Early reports suggest that at least 7 million Americans shared in this collective act of protest.)