Jeffrey Blehar of National Review Online analyzes the latest anti-Trump rallies.
Yes, “Brood Boomer” reassembled downtown for a reprise of last October’s similarly senior-heavy affair, a “No Kings” protest against — well, what? Deportations of illegals? The potential quagmire of an Iran war? Our cynically mercantilist adventure in Venezuela? That tacky White House ballroom? They were opposed to all of these things, and more — they were opposed to the simple existence of the Trump administration, in all its unanswerable egregiousness.
And why not? Were I a Democrat right now, I’d be pretty miffed about the course of national politics. (I’m a Republican, and I’m not exactly thrilled myself.) It’s America, and everyone has a right to gripe. But all of the observations I made about the demography of the “No Kings” rally-goers back last year applied in redoubled measure to this year’s attending class: These people were overwhelmingly old, white, deeply elite progressives, and vastly fewer in number this second time around. …
… I haven’t seen so many senior citizens in embarrassingly tight-fitting union T-shirts worn overtop long sleeves since I attended the DNC in 2024. I had difficulty spotting anyone my age or younger — and I’m 45.
This is suggestive of something, but I don’t think it has very much to do with the current state of electoral politics. Despite the fading lack of enthusiasm and focus at these anti-Trump rallies, I still expect the Republicans to be walloped upside the head in November. But there is something curiously generational about public protest now — it is intensely “Boomer-coded” and is now done with grim duty, to the commands of political organizers, rather than as a spontaneous expression of discontent.
And I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing. The younger generation has many more discontents than their parents do right now, and it’s not as if they lack the appetite for political change themselves. I fear that, in their disillusionment and impatience with the gestural politics of boomers, they prefer more destructive methods.
