What I Saw at the "Hate America' Rally Yesterday

by Rod Williams Oct 19, 2025- I attended the No Kings protest yesterday, and it was like a giant festival. There was a street party vibe to the gathering. I don't know how many people attended. My guess is about 5,000, but who knows? The event took place on the big hill down from the Capitol building, but spilled over to the park on the north side of Rosa Parks Boulevard and in both directions down the avenue. I got to a good vantage point at the top of the hill and tried to make a calculated estimate of the crowd size, but my view would not take in all of the crowd, and people were still arriving about an hour into the event. Traffic was snarled and people had to walk from many blocks away. The crowd could have been 10,000.

Donald Trump and sycophants like Mike Johnson had tried to besmirch these No Kings rallies as a gathering of ANTIFA, and Humas supporters, and illegal aliens, and other radicals and misfits. They also warned that they might turn violent. I guess the purpose of this was to damp down attendance and to create a narrative for those who live in the right-wing media bubble of Fox News, conservative talk radio, and right-wing podcasts..  

A "hate America rally" is not what I saw. I walked through the crowd, purposely observing. I did not see a single Mexican flag, nor a single Palestinian flag, nor an ANTIFA flag. If there were any ANTIFA there, they were out of uniform. I saw one hand-printed sign with the message "Free Palestine." I saw a sign saying America was a racist nation. I saw some stupid signs such as one saying something like, "no illegals on stolen land. abolish borders." I saw no indications that this was a crowd that hated America and actually, only a few signs or t-shirts that advocated liberal positions.  By liberal, I mean policy positions typically controversial and are Democratic Party positions. I saw a few signs with a pro-choice advocacy and a few with a message condemning wealth inequality and a pro-trans sign. I saw lots of "small L" liberal signs and t-shirts, such as opposition to censorship, signs advocating the rule of law, and signs and shirts denouncing Trump's authoritarianism.

I saw lots of American flags, from tiny flags to big flags. This was not a crowd ashamed to show their patriotism. I even saw some people displaying the Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flag. I was heartened to see that. The Gadsden flag has become identified as a flag for right-wingers. It's message is more fitting to the resistance to Trump's authoritarianism. I still have a Gadsden Flag T-shirt from the tea party days. I may pull it back out and wear it to the next resistance rally. 

I saw veterans with signs proclaiming their oath to the Constitution. I saw families with babies in baby strollers and people who brought their dogs. I saw people in funny blow-up costumes and lots of humorous signs. One of the funniest images was a guy dressed like Elvis, with a mic, the sideburns and all, with a message saying there is only one king. I took pictures, but either my camera phone malfunctioned or I accidentally erased the pics, so I don't have the picture to show you.

While I did not expect violence in Nashville, I thought it was a possibility. I thought some Proud Boy types might show up and counter-protest, and some ANTIFA types might engage them. Or maybe otherwise peaceful people may have begun pelting them with water bottles or whatever. Otherwise good people can sometimes get ugly in large crowds.  Luckily, there were no counterprotestors. I did not even see any pro-Trump motorist driving along Rosa Parks Boulevard. 

I had a good conversation with a young lady carrying a sign with the message, "Constitutional Conservative Against Trump." I knew she was my kind of person and I engaged her in conversation. I am a poor judge of age, but she could have been in her 30's but looked to be in her early 20's. She was a movement conservative type who knew the conservative pundits and personalities and had, from what I gathered, been a conservative activist prior to Trump. She, like me, opposed Trump because he had betrayed conservative principles. We shared our dismay about how conservatives had betrayed everything they once professed to believe, like free trade, limited government, separation of powers, and states' rights. We may have only talked a few minutes but shared a lot. I think it encouraged each of us to know we were not the only conservatives remaining true to our values. 

There was a stage with a sound system, but it was very inadequate to cover the crowd. In addition to a poor sound system, I have some hearing loss that cannot be corrected by the hearing aids I wear, so I did not hear but snippets of what the speakers had to say. I don't think it matters. I actually think the rally would have been just as good without speakers and I don't think many people were listening to the speakers. I did hear one Black chick sing a powerful soulful blues number. I was told Emmy Lou Harris sang a song, but I couldn't swear to it. I did not hear her. 

There were no chants originating from the stage. There were some applause lines, but I did not hear them. There were some call and responses from segments of the crowd but not from the main stage. There was one chant that goes, "What does democracy look like?" "This is what democracy looks like."  And there was another that goes, "No Peace!" "No Justice."

I really can't get into the call-responce thing. I think it is a lefty thing, and I just can't relate. Also, however, I think I am just not wired for group hysteria. I don't like live sporting events. I am not much of a sports fan but have been to football games, and hockey, and stock car racing. I never could get into jumping to my feet and screaming for my team. I love live music. However, I like it in intimate settings. I can enjoy a show at the Ryman if I have good seats, but I have no desire to see the biggest star there is play a football arena. I would rather watch a sporting event or a concert on TV than be in a big crowd. Even during the tee party days when I attended rallies or the couple of times I went to CPAC, I would applaud at the end of a speech, but I am very slow to work into a frenzy. So maybe I dislike the call/response thing not because I perceive it to be a lefty thing, but maybe I am just resistant to mass psychosis and herd mentality. Anyway, I could have done without the call and response but that's just me.

I did observe that the crowd tended to be older than I would have expected. We have come to expect, I think, that young people are more likely to partake in protest than older people. While there were people of all ages at the protest, there were probably more people in their fifties and sixties than in their teens and twenties. I am an old man, in my seventies, but there were quite a few of us real oldies at the event. While I am pleased that we old people turned out, I am disappointed that there was not a greater number of young people. Also, I think Black people were underrepresented. I have no data to support any of this but it is my impression.

I think these protests are important. I don't think any one protest will change the course of history, but as Trump's authoritarianism grows, there may come a time when we need a general strike to shut down the country. These protests can prepare us for that day. Mass peaceful protests can bring down governments and change history. The Berlin Wall was not toppled by tanks but by a mass of ordinary people. 

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