‘No Kings’ protests are a win for conservatism | Opinion
The most striking thing about Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies across North Carolina wasn’t the size, but the symbols. From Bryson City to Charlotte to Raleigh, American flags dominated the scene, alongside hand-lettered quotes from Washington and Madison and the occasional dog-eared Constitution.
To everyone who showed up in that spirit, I say: Welcome to the conservative movement. Not to a party, but to the ideas the founders instilled — the rule of law, family, faith, and community.
It has become fashionable in some quarters to say the political left hates America. Some voices plainly speak that way, but I’ve never painted with that broad a brush.
Still, it’s undeniable that for a time national Democrats drifted away from forthright love of country and, in doing so, ceded the mantle of patriotism to Republicans. Since The 1619 Project debuted, a faction has treated America’s founding as something to be deconstructed rather than inherited and renewed.
If the No Kings protests mark a reset from that, if normal people are retaking the left and reclaiming the flag, the country is better for it. That is not a partisan win so much as a civic one.
The imperial presidency isn’t new
Of course, if it’s just window-dressing on pure partisan politics, we’ll soon be right back where we started.
The more cynical view is that “No Kings” protests were simply interest groups united against President Donald Trump. Evidence for it is there in the ugly displays around the country.
In some big cities, you saw a smattering of actual communists; a few violent chants aimed at immigration officers. That is reprehensible. But focusing on that dodges the more important conversation. The overwhelming tenor in North Carolina was sober and patriotic, and I’ll engage it that way.
The imperial presidency didn’t appear overnight, and it wasn’t invented by any one man. It grew in fits and starts across the twentieth century. Franklin Roosevelt’s alphabet era normalized governance by edict. Truman and his successors stretched war powers.
In our time, presidents of both parties have governed by “pen and phone” when Congress balks, only to watch successors wipe it away with another signature. If you care about durable law, that’s a hollow way to govern.
We know the risks of concentrated power here in North Carolina because we lived them. During COVID-19, Gov. Roy Cooper wielded emergency powers for 888 days. What struck me then, and still does, is how many who now warn of “authoritarianism” said nothing while the state was governed by rolling decrees.
Some of them were even enthusiastic enforcers, shaming neighbors and churches as if dissent itself were lawless. If No Kings means anything, it must apply when your friends hold the pen, not only when your opponents do.
The real test
The real measure comes next. If No Kings becomes shorthand for “no Trump,” we will have learned nothing, and the next convenient emergency will wash it all away.
But if it matures into a renewed respect for process and restraint — in the White House and the Governor’s Mansion, in agencies and courts, in city halls and school boards — then something important will have shifted.
If the No Kings crowd is serious about putting the Constitution back in the driver’s seat, that’s an overdue course correction.
We’re a republic of laws, sturdy enough for our disagreements and humble enough for course correction. Rediscovering those limits is not a loss for conservatism. It is its purpose.
Contributing columnist Andrew Dunn is the publisher of the Longleaf Politics newsletter, which offers thoughtful analysis of North Carolina politics and policy from a conservative perspective. He can be reached at andrew@longleafpol.com.
This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 5:25 AM.