Why No Kings Matters: With Indivisible’s Ezra Levin

Summary

The PoliticsGirl Podcast — “Why No Kings Matters: With Indivisible’s Ezra Levin”

Host: Leigh McGowan (PoliticsGirl)
Guest: Ezra Levin (Co-founder & Executive Director, Indivisible)
Date: March 24, 2026
Main Theme:
A passionate discussion on the fight to preserve and rebuild American democracy—why collective, organized action is critical in resisting authoritarianism, how the No Kings rallies serve as catalytic events, and why building community and engagement is the antidote to cynicism and defeatism.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the importance of the “No Kings” rallies as both a symbolic and practical response to the growing threat of authoritarianism in America, specifically under the Trump administration. Leigh McGowan and Ezra Levin break down how nonviolent, mass mobilization can counter feelings of powerlessness, cynicism, and the normalization of anti-democratic governance. The episode is a rallying cry to listeners: democracy won’t defend itself—ordinary people must organize, support one another, and take visible, communal action.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Now Matters: The Fight Against Authoritarianism

• Feeling Overwhelmed Is by Design
  “What do authoritarians do? … They want you to feel like it’s hopeless. … Our enemy right now is cynicism and nihilism and fatalism.”
  —Ezra Levin (02:22)

• The Power of Public, Nonviolent Action
  Authoritarian regimes fear well-organized, massive movements:
  “What they say you should do to fight authoritarianism is to talk about it and organize against it in public. … One of the tactics we use … are massive one-day protests where people who were never part of this before get to be part of this.”
  —Ezra Levin (02:53)

• Rallies as Strategy, Not Symbolism
  No Kings is more than just a feel-good event—it’s a strategic play for democracy and to send a message that Trump is not inevitable, but beatable.

2. Escalating with Purpose: Beyond One-Day Protests

• Mass Demonstrations as a Tactic, Not the Goal
  A single protest is only the beginning. Sustained engagement through escalating tactics is necessary:
  “A tactic should not be your entirety of your goal … throughout the history of people all around the world … One of them is mass organized protests like this. And then we have to escalate.”
  —Ezra Levin (05:05)

• Systematic Pushback and Building Infrastructure
  After No Kings, local groups and individuals must continue to organize and build networks for future democratic pushes, including more direct action and potentially economic shutdowns.

3. Countering the Narrative: Why Numbers & Visibility Scare Authoritarians

• The Administration Fears Mass Mobilization
  “These guys are not terrified of us being mad, but they are terrified of our numbers.”
  —Leigh McGowan (07:59)

• How the Regime Responds
  Since earlier rallies, the administration has shifted from attacking protests head-on to deliberately ignoring them in state communications, trying to suffocate their visibility:
  “They gave us so much attention that it helped boost the No Kings [protests]. … Now, they have all talked … we cannot talk about this because then more people will come.”
  —Ezra Levin (12:31 onward)

• Rallies Signal to the World
  Visible action reassures both Americans and observers worldwide that authoritarianism isn’t unopposed.

4. Community & Joy As Resistance

• Protest as a Joyful Act
  Rallies provide more than confrontation—they create joyful, empowering, communal spaces that defy the isolation authoritarians rely on:
  “It’s a joyful display of people power. … There is dancing and laughing and singing, and people bring their dogs and their pets and it’s a good time.”
  —Ezra Levin (15:36)

• Inclusion Is Key to Movement Growth
  Protests aren’t just for “activists”—they should be open and welcoming to everyone, even first-timers.

5. The Gravity of the Moment: Democracy in Decline

• America’s Democratic Decline
  Greenberg presents sobering statistics showing the U.S. is no longer a top-ranked democracy, highlighting just how urgent the struggle is:
  “We’ve dropped from 20th in the world to 51st in the world in one year. … We are literally falling off a cliff.”
  —Leah Greenberg (17:14)

• Historical Parallels for Inspiration
  Citing the legacy of the civil rights movement and highlighting that ordinary people under far worse circumstances achieved seismic change:
  “This democracy was built on courage. … People who raised their hand and decided to fight back when the future was uncertain.”
  —Ezra Levin (19:28)

6. Reframing Who We Oppose

• The Enemy Is Not Just Trump—It's Cynicism & Disunity
  Fixation on Trump as an individual is misplaced; the real battle is for a vision of inclusive democracy and community.

• Organizing as the Ultimate Threat to Authoritarianism
  “If we were powerless, he wouldn’t be organizing against us. He doesn’t want you to show up this Saturday. So here’s an idea—show up.”
  —Ezra Levin (26:53)

7. Call to Action: Recruitment and Long-Term Engagement

• Personal Outreach Is Critical
  “My challenge to y’all is, find three people in your life—friends, colleagues, neighbors who did not attend No Kings 2 or No Kings 1. … Invite them to come with you. Bring them to No Kings 3.”
  —Ezra Levin (13:18)

• Building for Next Steps (May Day & Beyond)
  No Kings 3 is a launching pad for deeper, more disruptive collective action, such as the upcoming May Day action.

• Authenticity & Local Organization Matter Most
  Don’t rely on media to rally people—real, face-to-face engagement in local communities is essential.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “[Authoritarians] want you to feel like it’s hopeless. … Our enemy is cynicism and nihilism.”
  —Ezra Levin (02:22)
• “If we back off, then they go forward. If we don’t back off, it’s going to be a lot harder for them.”
  —Leigh McGowan (04:09)
• “No Kings is an opportunity to build those communities. … You get to give them this gift of being part of history, being part of their community.”
  —Ezra Levin (00:00 & 30:42)
• “A one-day protest on a weekend allows us to show both each other and the world that we are dissatisfied en masse.”
  —Leigh McGowan (07:26)
• “It is a tactic. A tactic should not be the entirety of your goal.”
  —Ezra Levin (05:07)
• “Trump is a lame duck, unpopular president who is on the way out. He is deathly afraid of massive peaceful organizing.”
  —Ezra Levin (26:12)
• “We need to clarify our intentions and work towards focusing our anger in exactly the right direction. We can’t continue to infight. We can’t be distracted. We can’t be demoralized.”
  —Leah Greenberg (27:24)
• “Don’t send us any money. Don’t sign any petitions. Focus your attention on recruiting people to No Kings and getting your events on the map. Nothing is more important to this democracy right now than that. So organize, organize, organize.”
  —Ezra Levin (34:34)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00 — The “gift” of inviting others to protest and building community
• 02:22 — Authoritarian tactics: inducing hopelessness & how to resist
• 05:05 — Protests as a tactic, not the whole strategy; history of escalation
• 07:26 — The practical challenges of mass protests in America, importance of scale
• 13:18 — Republicans' strategic silence & the need for active recruitment
• 15:36 — Joy in protest and community-building aspect
• 17:14 — America’s democratic decline and international rankings
• 19:28 — Civil rights history parallels; ordinary people creating change
• 26:12 — Organizing as an existential threat to authoritarian regimes
• 28:24 — Mobilizing beyond rallies: upcoming May Day actions
• 30:42 — Framing engagement as a “gift” and a privilege, inspiring continual action
• 32:00 — Marches as a way to cut through disinformation & media gaslighting
• 34:34 — The most important action: recruit for No Kings, build the movement

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Flow & Tone

The episode balances urgency (“we are literally falling off a cliff”) with optimism and agency (“We get to be a part of this history”). Leigh’s and Ezra’s conversation is candid, passionate, and solution-oriented, repeatedly returning to actionable steps: show up, organize, and bring people with you. There is significant effort to make listeners feel welcomed, necessary, and empowered regardless of prior activism experience.

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Takeaway Action Steps

• Attend the No Kings rally (March 28th)
• Personally recruit at least three friends, neighbors, or colleagues
• Continue engagement: join local Indivisible groups and participate in upcoming actions such as the MayDay Strong coalition on May 1
• Focus on building community—this is both joyful and strategic
• Refuse cynicism—recognize the deliberate attempts to demoralize and divide

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Closing Statement

The episode closes on the message that days like No Kings—where Americans come together visibly and loudly—are both a strategic counter to authoritarianism and a celebration of the democracy we aim to (re)build. The call is clear: democracy needs you. “Step away from cynicism and join us for a day of hope.”

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Transcript

[Ezra Levin]

I think when you're reaching out to friends and you're saying, hey, I know you've not been to one of these before, would you like to come with me? You're not asking them for a favor, you're not being a drag. You get to give them this gift. You get to give them this gift of being part of history, being part of their community. People need to be together in this moment. I truly believe that at a foundational level, put aside politics, put aside who's in the White House in this moment, we need to link arms together at a community level and figure out our shit together. We're not going to do that just online. We're not going to do that just by doom scrolling. We're going to do that by gathering together. And so no Kings is an opportunity to build those communities. And I hope people take advantage of this. I hope people give that gift of an invitation and not everybody's going to accept your gift. That's cool. Keep on giving.

[Lee McGowan]

Hello and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host, Lee McGowan. Let's get into it.

[Leah Greenberg]

Well, this weekend will be the third

[Lee McGowan]

no Kings rally and today we're going to talk about why it's so very important that you join in. I am joined today by the organizer of the event, Ezra Levin, the co founder and executive director of Indivisible. Ezra started Indivisible with his wife, Leah Greenberg, with a vision of a real democracy, of, by and for the people. It was founded in response to Trump's first election, knowing that he was a symptom of a Sikh democracy and not the cause. Since then, it has become an incredible grassroots movement of thousands of local groups across the country with the mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild democracy and defeat the Trump agenda. So without further ado, please welcome my

[Leah Greenberg]

guest, one of GQ's 50 most powerful people in Trump's Washington, number two on the political list of top thinkers, doers

[Lee McGowan]

and visionaries, and the co founder and executive director of Indivisible, Ezra Levin.

[Leah Greenberg]

Welcome back. Ezra Haley.

[Ezra Levin]

Great to see you.

[Leah Greenberg]

Thank you for coming. The last time you were here, you reminded us that politics is too important to be left to the politicians, that politics is something we do, that it is up to us to take back our power. Because clearly this group is just gonna take and take and take from us if we don't stop them. So what is your argument to people as to why they need to come out and join this weekend? Because I think that people are feeling justifiably Overwhelmed and discouraged. And they might be asking themselves, like, what is the point?

[Ezra Levin]

Here's what I think we all need to understand about the moment we're in. If, like me, you believe this guy is an authoritarian trying to consolidate power, you need to know that. What do authoritarians do? What is one of the hallmark of authoritarians? They make you feel like shit every single day. They want you to feel like it's hopeless. They want you to feel like they are invincible and inevitable and unstoppable. And so we have to fight against that. Our enemy right now, it's not Donald Trump, it is not Republicans, it's not the handful of Democrats who aren't willing to fight back. Our enemy is cynicism and nihilism and fatalism. The sense nothing that we do matters, so we ought to just go home and what will be will be. I don't accept that. And in fact, if you listen to the experts in authoritarianism around the world, what they say you should do to fight authoritarianism is to talk about it and organize against it in public. Because the one thing that all authoritarians fear is nonviolent, organized, massive people power. And one of the tactics we use to aggregate that power and send a message to the whole country that in fact democracy will reassert itself are massive one day protests where people who are never part of this before get to be part of this. So that's the purpose of something like no Kings. We get to send a giant message to the world that, nuh, this guy is an unpopular Lang duck who is on his way out. Democracy is reasserting itself and the visible demonstration of that is us. And the other thing is we get to meet a lot of new friends and start organizing with them in communities around the country. So this is not just a way to feel good, that we're in the right place in history. This is a strategic play for democracy that I hope everybody, everybody will participate in.

[Leah Greenberg]

Absolutely. Like, I was talking to someone and they were like, what's the point? Like, I'm going to carry a sign. And it just feels like I'm sort of like in this senseless, meandering parade. And I was like, no, that's not it. Like, here's the thing, we're at a point in authoritarianism, at a point in fascism where it's a turning point. And we can either go one way or the other. They either escalate or we do. You know, if we back off, then they go forward. If we don't back off, it's going to be A lot harder for them to, to do what they want to do. And I, I was listening to someone talk about that and they were like, escalating does not mean violently. Escalating means socially, politically, economically, making it impossible for them to keep going with their lies, to keep moving their project along. The Trump administration should have no peace. ICE should have no peace. Republican Congress members should have no peace. Our escalation forces them to either escalate themselves, which makes them even less popular, or, or de escalate because they're like, wow, the people are really upset.

[Ezra Levin]

Here's what I would say. I think people should be dissatisfied with a one day protest. I think people should ask themselves, but what is this going to accomplish? I agree with that. It is a tactic. A tactic should not be your entirety of your goal. It should not be the entirety of your strategy. You need a plethora of tactics. One of them, throughout the history of people all around the world successfully pushing back against an authoritarian. One of them is mass organized protests like this. And then we have to escalate. You're talking about, were the people in the Twin Cities just showing up on a Saturday when ICE was coming to town and they go at home? No, but they were also showing up on a Saturday. They were also recruiting people in that way. And then they also organized neighbor to neighborhood, keeping their eyes on ICE and repelling the full force of this White House that was trying to stamp its foot down on that city. So I hope this no Kings is enormous. And then I hope the day after no Kings indivisible groups and 50, 51 groups and working families party groups and local immigrant organizing hubs or are flooded with new people who can then push forward to the next step in this escalation. Because we all know where this is headed, Lee, because Donald Trump is saying it himself. He is headed towards sabotaging and undermining the midterm election so he can cling to power. He is deploying ICE agents and possibly the National Guard to airports right now as a dress rehearsal for where he is going to deploy them in the lead up to the midterm. So ask yourself, do you think we're strong enough right now? Do you think we have enough people right now? Do you think our tactics are sophisticated enough right now? We, or do we have to keep on building? I think we've got to keep on building. And one way we build is with no Kings.

[Leah Greenberg]

And I love the idea that it's not a one day protest, is not it? It's just one tactic. Of many.

[Lee McGowan]

You know, if we look at how

[Leah Greenberg]

the Trump administration responded to the last no Kings protest, they tried to discredit it before it even happened. They were coordinating their messages. They were calling peaceful protesters terrorists. Before we'd even started, they were saying the no Kings rally was a hate America rally. Even after we saw, you know, them try to spin it because it had gone really well because so many people had come out and they were like, well, you know, the people that were there were all old. So like it was just a bunch of old, decrepit people. And then J.D. vance put out that AI video of Trump being crowned king, and then Trump himself put out a video in a King Trump plane dumping like shit all over American protesters. So I think the thing is, is you can't say it doesn't matter, but as you were saying, it also makes a difference to how we are viewed both inside our country when we look at each other and from outside of the country. Because I see a lot of people being like, why aren't American rising up? How come they're okay with this? What are they doing? And you think, here's the thing, people don't understand how incredibly large America is. You know what I mean? Like, if we were in France, we could all make it to Paris within three hours and we could all be there in the streets of Paris making our statement. America is arguably too big. We are huge. We are spread out. We are dependent on our jobs. We are dependent on our jobs for health care. So people are like, I can't lose my job, I can't leave, I can't take a day off work. You know, my kids are here and I don't have anyone take care of them. That's already biased by design. We're all desperately dependent on the system. But a one day protest on a weekend allows us to show both each other and the world that we are dissatisfied en masse. And I think that's really essential and why we need it to be huge, huge numbers. Because as you said, these guys are not terrified of, you know, us being mad, but they are terrified of our numbers. And if we show our numbers, that makes a huge difference.

[Lee McGowan]

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[Leah Greenberg]

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[Lee McGowan]

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[Leah Greenberg]

If we show our numbers, that makes a huge difference.

[Ezra Levin]

It makes a huge difference. And also we can see that it has made a huge difference. Thirteen months ago, Trump was riding high. He had the Republican Party in his grip. He had Congress on lock. He was passing legislation with the support of Democrats to strengthen ice. The predictions were that this guy was in and in for who knows how long. And he suffered defeat after defeat after defeat. Not because elites in media or in the Democratic Party or in business or in law firms or in universities stood up to him en masse. It's because normal, everyday people organize for hands off and no kings and the John Lewis Day of Action and no kings too. And all of that laddered up to the best election outcomes that we've seen last November, from the Deep south to California to New York City, which is we were beating him, beating him, beating him because he is weakened. But Lee, I want to pick up on something you said because I think the Republicans are learning and this is common with, with the opposition. You're always innovating and responding to what the opponent is doing. And the Republicans learned from their screw up last time because last time for no kings too. They spent the two weeks leading up to it talking about exactly as you said. We were going to be violent and this was going to be terrible. It's going to go off the rails. And they gave us so much attention that it helped boost the no Kings. I challenge you, Lee. Find one elected Republican Congress right now. Find somebody in the administration who has said the word no kings anytime in the last month. I think you will not find it because they have all talked to each other and said we cannot talk about this because then more people will come that that is smart on their behalf. I want to give them credit, that is smart, that they're doing that. But then we have to innovate our tactics. So my challenge to everybody watching here. I know everybody watching here is going to go to the no Codes protest. I love that. I appreciate that. That is great. It's not enough. Now we have to recruit for no King. So I. My challenge to y' all is find three people in your life. Friends, colleagues, neighbors who did not attend no Kings 2 or no Kings 1. Reach out to them, have a conversation. If they're aligned, that stuff is screwed up right now. Invite them to come with you. Bring them to no Kings 3 on March 20th. That's how we build this to be enormous. It's up to us to do it.

[Leah Greenberg]

Yeah. No, I agree with that. And I think if you're going to be talking to your friends, because, like you said, like, someone like me, I'm going. I'm going to be speaking at an event myself because I think it's so important. But you have to talk to your friends. Like, if you are unhappy with masked men in our street brutalizing us, if you are unhappy with children being zip tied and taken to concentration camps where we can't find them anymore somewhere in Texas, if you are unhappy losing your health care or your education or having our farmers lose their farms, you have to oppose the government. Right? You have to oppose who's in charge of all of this. If you're unhappy with us spending over a billion dollars a day for some unjustified war, whatever your cause of the day is, what is that is making you feel uncomfortable? Ice in the airports. You need to come out and have that be known. Because our country needs a government that is functioning. We do not have a government that's functioning right now. And we have a government that it thinks that they can just keep escalating, like I used the word before, their tactics, and we will just roll over for it. Right?

[Lee McGowan]

Like we're just going to roll over

[Leah Greenberg]

as you strip us of our benefits and our protections and our humanities, that we're just going to let the Epstein file thing go. That we're going to let, you know, the civilized world move on without us. And we have to say no, actually, we expect the government to take care of our people. We expect not to be chased down by our own Gestapo in our streets. So we're getting into the streets on no Kings to ruin the narrative, as you said, that they are inevitable, that they are supported, that they are encouraged to continue. That's why we're coming out. And the more of us that do, the more inspired other people will be

[Ezra Levin]

to join it's an interesting situation because we are both fighting for democracy. We are fighting in the 250th year anniversary of the founding of this country to, to push back against an authoritarian. And Trump is doing heinous shit every single day. And also, this is going to be a joyful display of people power. It's not something you just go and do because, oh, I got to do it because it's the right thing to do. And I. I'm being pressured into it. You've been to these protests, Lee. You've seen there is dancing and laughing and singing, and people bring their dogs and their pets and it's a good time. There's a reason why there are events all over the world on Saturday in Germany and France, the UK and Canada and Spain. They're in Coloma, California, population 372. We're in. Check this out. We're in Arco, Idaho, population 930. Gustavus, Alaska. We have 17 events all across Alaska. We've got over a dozen events in every island in Hawaii. People are coming together because it's the right thing to do. They're also coming together because they're looking for community. They're looking to connect with each other. And I don't want people watching this who have never been into a protest before to think, that's for the protest types, that's for the organizer types, that's for the political types. I'm not that sure I prove it, but that's not me. No, that is you. That is for all of us. It is a welcoming environment, intentionally so we can pull more people into this work.

[Leah Greenberg]

Yeah, no, I love that because it really is. They really are very happy, joyful events. And it's also, like you said, it's a community. It's a community of people that say, we believe in the foundations of this country. We believe in the ideas of enlightenment. We believe in a land of freedom. We believe in land of the free, home of the brave. You know, like, that's not what we're being right now. Bombing children in their schools in the Middle East. That's not who we want to be. It's not who we are. But I should also remind people you mentioned that we're there to support democracy. I should remind people that the United States is no longer considered a liberal democracy, that a democracy report just came out and it was looked at by 4,200 scholars. It had 32 million data points, and they decided that American democracy is not only being downgraded, but dismantled at an Astronomical speed that we've dropped from 20th in the world to 51st in the world in one year. So we now rate below Poland, South Africa, Brazil, Israel. We still have elections for now. Right. But our president and his party are actively trying to interfere with those two. So the freedom of expression within this country is at its lowest level since World War II. And this study found that America has the same level of democracy it had in 1965 when we had literal segregation. And then you have Donald Trump working overtime to erode that democracy even more. Whether that's what he's doing, where he's talking about how he took over the media and like it's all his. His people to the SAVE act, which is clearly a voter suppression bill, to the ICE agents in our airports, which is a point of entry for the country to just not funding the tsa, you know, and they expect America to fall below the 51st democratic nation in this year again. So people should feel really passionate about protecting the thing that we have always said we were. This shining city on a hill, this democracy, this land of freedom. Because we are not. We are literally falling off a cliff. And if you don't like that, come out and say it.

[Ezra Levin]

Look, I was out in Selma a couple weekends ago for the bridge costume. It was the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday. You can see John Lewis on my wall back here, one of the heroes of the civil rights movement. One of the striking things about being in Selma for that anniversary was this sense of how young our democracy is, how fragile it was, and how many of the heroes the. The founders of the democracy that we know today, we are still with us. I was watching the documentary on the civil rights movement that I highly recommend, Eyes on the Prize. It's a couple decades old, but there was a young girl, nine year old in that documentary, who was in Selma back then, who was marching with Dr. King and is answering questions from the press. And I was out in Selma a couple of weekends ago and this woman in her six years or 70s comes up to me and Leah and it's just wild about no kings. And she says, oh, and I was here in Selma. I was here in Selma when I was nine years old. It turns out I was that same girl who is still here, still fighting for demise democracy. So if you're out there feeling like it's too big, he's too strong, the road forward is too uncertain. I'm just gonna back out. Let me tell you, the democracy that we were able to construct from 1965 on was constructed in much worse circumstances by people who had many fewer advantages that we have today. It is a dangerous time to be organizing. But this democracy was built on courage. People who raised their hand and decided to fight back when the future was interned, but they knew it was the right thing to do. You don't have to look all the way back to 1965 to see that either. Look into the Twin Cities. Look in the Twin Cities in January of this year. Normal, everyday people, neighbors linking arms against an authoritarian force. We can be part of that history. That can be the story that people tell 61 years from now. But we got to do it. We got to do it. And we got an opportunity this Saturday to do it.

[Leah Greenberg]

Over the weekend, the president declared basically 50% of the country was his enemy. He put out a tweet, or whatever they're called on Truth Social, saying that with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy to America was now the radical left, highly incompetent Democratic Party. And I felt like, are you kidding me? Like, I know he hates us. I get it. We are told all the time, we're the radical left, we're the Democrat monsters. But I felt like this is the President of the United States saying we are the worst things in the world, aside from Iran, which we just bombed and killed everybody in.

[Lee McGowan]

It's.

[Leah Greenberg]

It seems like it doesn't matter what we do now. We, meaning those of us who are not white, Christian, nationalist mega members, are going to be the enemy and our own government is against us. So the question is, what are we doing about that, aside from putting our blankets over our head and thinking this is the saddest thing. And I can't believe this happened, because we can either be sitting ducks or we can fight back. I don't know how you look at something like Trump publicly declaring, you know, that 50% of the country is his enemy and that harm should basically come to us and not feel worried. And I think that's one of the beauties of a no Kings rally, is that you see the amount of people who are on your side. I think we need to be together when that's what we're being given every day.

[Lee McGowan]

So I have talked to you a million times about my darling, sweet goldendoodle chips. We are a dog family. We are obsessed with this dog. He is the. The best boy, but he is also an incredibly picky eater. So I know what I'm talking about when I say this food is good. In fact, we are legitimately in a phase where all he will reliably eat is Sundaes for dogs. Sundaes was founded by a veterinarian and mom, Dr. Tori Waxman, who got tired of seeing these so called premium dog foods filled with fillers and synthetics. So she designed sundaes. It's air dried real food made in human grade kitchens using the same ingredients and care you would use to cook for yourself and your family. Every bite of sundaes is clean and made from 100% meat and superfoods with no kibble. That means no weird ingredients that you can't pronounce and no fillers. Compared to kibble or other brands, Sundaes invests 50 times more in its ingredients to ensure premium quality. Because your dog deserves food made with care, not in the interest of cost cutting. And the best part, you just scrape, scoop and serve. There's no freezer, no thawing, no prep, no mess. Just nutrient rich clean food that fuels their happiest, healthiest days so you get more of them to share. Together. We travel with sundaes. I keep a bag of sundaes in my office when chips get snacky. I was saying recently that he had a bout of steroids and he was particularly starving all day. So he was eating Sundays as snacks throughout the entire day. So make the switch to Sundays. Go right now to Sunday's for dogs.com politicsgirl30 and get 30% off your first three orders. Or you can use the code politicsgirl30 at checkout. That's 30% off your first three orders at sundays4dogs.com politicsgirl30 Sundays for dogs.com politicsgirl30 or use the code politicsgirl30at checkout. We had my son's girlfriend here for the first week of spring break.

[Leah Greenberg]

She lives in New York.

[Lee McGowan]

They do long distance and her mother was here for a couple of days.

[Leah Greenberg]

So I invited her over to the house.

[Lee McGowan]

House. Then I looked around my house and I thought, oh my God, I need to clean everything. But the thing with spring cleaning is it's not just about organizing drawers. It's about deciding what stays in your home and what doesn't. You end up decluttering a closet and tossing out expired products and opening all

[Leah Greenberg]

the windows and rearranging stuff.

[Lee McGowan]

But here's what most people overlook. Under the sink cleaning products. Or in my case, beside the washing machine cleaning products. That might be some of the most harmful products in your entire house. Us cleaning cleaning companies are not required to disclose every ingredient in their formulas. That means when you see the word fragrance, it can legally represent dozens of undisclosed chemicals. And there's lots of conventional cleaners that contain ingredients that are linked to hormone disruption, respiratory irritation and indoor air pollution. So here you are trying to make your home cleaner and you could actually be adding more toxins to it. This is why branch based Branch Basics was founded by three women who experienced firsthand how everyday products can impact your health. After years of research, they realized something powerful that your home environment plays a major role in your overall wellness. So Branch Basics makes human safe cleaning products for your entire home. All of their products are plant and mineral based, fragrance free and made safe certified, which means it's screened against known and suspected harmful chemicals. So this spring, don't just declutter your home, reset what you're bringing into it. A truly clean home should be a healthy one. And if you want to try doing this, here's the good news. Branch Basics are now available everywhere you shop, Target, Amazon and of course where I would suggest you buy [e-mail] tossing the toxins has never been more convenient. And for anyone grabbing the premium starter kit, you can get 50, 15% [e-mail] with our code POLITICS. Just use POLITICS for 15% off the premium starter kit@branch basics.com and as always, after you purchase, if they ask where you heard about them, please make sure to mention our show branch basics.com code politics.

[Leah Greenberg]

I think we need to be together when that's what we're being given every day.

[Ezra Levin]

Leah, I can't say it better than that. That was incredibly eloquent. I agree with everything you just said. The one thing I would add is that Donald Trump is going to Donald Trump. We know what he's going to do. He's not some kind of special figure. He's like any other authoritarian you go to, any other country that has experienced rights and authoritarianism, he is doing what they do. This is no longer about Donald Trump. This is about us. This is about the country we want to create, we want to stand up for. And so the question is, do we stand up for it or not? Trump is a lame duck unpopular president who's on the way out. He is deathly afraid of massive peaceful organizing that produces both a rebuke of his regime and electoral outcomes that take away his power. We can do that. That's within our control right now. So I agree we should be angry with this regime. We should be disappointed that this is what it's come to. We should think about what brought us to this point and what we need to build going forward. But we shouldn't feel Powerless. If we were powerless, he wouldn't be organizing against us. He doesn't want you to show up this Saturday. So here's an idea. Show up this Saturday in force and bring a lot of friends.

[Leah Greenberg]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it does seem like this whole Epstein class group isn't afraid of us being angry because they make our lives worse every day and they're now acting like they don't have to win the election in November. But it does seem to me like they're afraid of us being organized. I think that's exactly right, that they have been working overtime to give us places to focus our anger that's on anything but them. It seems to me that we really need to clarify our intentions and work towards focusing our anger in exactly the right direction. Like, we can't continue to infight. We can't be distracted. We can't be demoralized. We have to look at places like Minnesota or Vermont or these communities that have come together against ICE and say, I'm going to use that as an example. There's mass groups of people. I saw so many people in Minnesota that are like, I've never been to a protest in my life, but, like, this is ridiculous. We all have to get up and go to work in the morning, you know, but they were there to. To defend their city and to defend their rights and defend what was right. And I think that's what we need to be doing right now. We have to come together, unite, focus on what we really want, which is to get this administration out and to rebuild something far better that works for all of us. And I think a no Kings rally is a clarifying moment for that.

[Ezra Levin]

That's exactly right. And when we pull more people in, we invite them to our communities of organizing and then can do more things here. I'll put something on it. Everybody's radar on May 1, the Mayday Strong coalition. This is going to be indivisible and labor and no Kings members and other folks. This is going to be a first test of using our national strength to say, no school, no shopping, no business. Because when it comes to him trying to steal the election, we are going to have to show out in force like we're doing for no Kings 3. But we're going to have to organize with the kind of depth that we've seen in places like the Twin Cities and Chicago and la. And this is a chance for us to take everybody who came for the first time for their first Protest on no Kings 3 and say, Good news, we get to do this next thing together, this new challenging thing, and build this muscle. So together we're super strong come November.

[Leah Greenberg]

Yeah. And it also comes back to the idea that it's not just a one day thing, that it's, it's a one day thing to remind you why we're here, that you're not alone, that we're doing this together. And then there's a next step and you take the next step. I mean, I think this administration, we have to acknowledge, is an existential threat both to America and to the world. And we need to stay really sharp and on target with that because this regime keeps growing, right? They keep diversifying their tactics to destroy democracy, destroy the rule of law. And we need to respond to their constant unchecked overreach and not let up on that, that ultimately we might come out this Saturday, but there's going to be steps that come after that. Like you said, it's just one tactic of many, that there is nothing more American than a no Kings rally. Because our nation was founded on our independence, on us being a constitutional republic and not a monarchy. And we are watching a man behave as if he is not only a monarch, but a tyrant who doesn't have to respond to the Constitution at all and the will of the people and our right to protest, our right to petition the government for change. That is all something we have to be standing up to represent. Because there's a reason these no Kings rallies have been record breaking. But we have to keep them growing so we scare them.

[Ezra Levin]

And look, it's, it's not something that we just have to do as we were talking about, it's something that we get to do in this moment. We get to be part of this history. And I, I think when you're reaching out to friends and you're saying, hey, I know you've not been to one of these before, or would you like to come with me? You're not asking them for a favor. You're not being a drag. You get to give them this gift. You get to give them this gift of being part of history, being part of their community. People need to be together in this moment. I, I truly believe that at a foundational level, put aside politics, put aside who's in the White House in this moment. We need to link arms together at a community level and figure out our together. We're not going to do that just online. We're not going to do that just by doom scrolling. We're going to do that by gathering together. And so no Kings is an opportunity to build those communities. And I hope people take advantage of this. I hope people give that gift of an invitation, and not everybody's going to accept your gift. That's cool. Keep on giving, keep on giving, keep on giving. That's how we're going to build. I really, I truly believe it. And this could sound like bluster, but this is what we said for Hands off, which at the time was one of the largest protests in history. This is. This is what we said at no Kings 1, where we had 5 million people at 2100 events. This is what we said in the lead up to no Kings 2, when we had 2700 events and 7 million people. It's what I'm saying now. I'm saying it because it works.

[Leah Greenberg]

It does work. It's also a way to hijack this media environment in which people are being gaslit every day, into thinking that Trump is a winner and that he can't be stopped. You know, they've taken over the media on purpose, both social media and mainstream media. You know, you had Pete Hegseth say, we can't wait for the Ellison family to take over CNN because then we don't have to hear all this neg news about the war. And you're like, this is. This is their way of propagandizing us so we don't know what's going on. These marches are a way of saying we know what's going on and we're not alone. And you can keep trying to gaslight us, but we're not going to accept it. And I think that's incredibly important to show each other and the world that we really know what's going on here. We're unhappy and we do not, you know, co sign we do not approve.

[Ezra Levin]

That is such a good point, Lee, because I think for those of us who are political addicts, we watch this every day. We follow the twists and turns. It can feel like, well, everybody knows this is happening. Like, what's the point? We got to understand, most of the time, most people are not paying attention to politics. That is just the reality. They're not looking at what the Senate is doing, what the House is doing. They're not following the twists and turns of Trump's illegal war there. It's noise that they tune out. And we have to get through to those people. We've got to get through to those people. Because a successful pro democracy movement cannot just be built on political addicts, on the activist class, on the organizers, on people who voted for Kamala Harris or people who say, I'm a strong Democrat. We need actually to reach people who think politics is bullshit. They don't like Democrats, they don't like Republicans. They are sure they don't like what Trump is doing, but they don't trust other folks to do anything about it. We need to convince them that they can be part of something big and meaningful and it's worth engaging. And I do not trust mainstream media to cover this. I do not trust mainstream media to say, hey, there's no Kings protests, you should show up. Here's what it's about. If you're going to reach these people, the best way to reach them is by organizing in your own community. Because you are a real life human being who lives in that community. You're not some talking head or some politico that they see on TV or they hear on the radio. You are somebody who has authenticity because you live near them. You gotta show up and pull them into this. That's how you ultimately build a massive movement that can succeed in taking down an authoritarian.

[Leah Greenberg]

Yeah. And we certainly need a massive movement to take down this authoritarian. I want to thank you so much

[Lee McGowan]

for joining us today, Ezra.

[Leah Greenberg]

Tell people how they can follow Indivisible's work, how they can support you in the future.

[Ezra Levin]

Well, look, you can go to nokings.org to find an event near you. If there's not a protest within 30 minutes of you, you've got until this Thursday to put it on the map. Pull your community together and get it on the map. Go to indivisible.org if you want more details, but here's my request to you. Don't. Don't send us any money. Don't sign any petitions. Focus your attention on recruiting people to know Kings and getting your events on the map. Nothing is more important to this democracy right now than that. So organize, organize, organize. Recruit, recruit, recruit. And then plan some time on Saturday to celebrate because it's going to be big, it's going to be joyful and it's going to be powerful.

[Leah Greenberg]

Yeah. Be responsible for your people. Bring them all out. Make it a party with yourselves. Make it into a whole day event where you get to hang out with your friends. We have to remind people that if they don't want our children sent to war, if they don't want our government to declare war on us at home, if we don't want people like Donald Trump stealing our money and our votes while they protect child predators, then we have to come out and say so. En Masse. Because we're not just going to roll over and allow this to happen to our country. That's not what this nation was built on. It's not who we are and it's not who we can allow ourselves to be. So if we want to save this country, we have to start by standing with each other. And that starts this Saturday.

[Ezra Levin]

I'll see you out in the streets on Saturday.

[Leah Greenberg]

See you there. So that was Ezra Levin reminding us

[Lee McGowan]

that no Kings is not just something we have to do, but something we

[Leah Greenberg]

get to do, that we get to

[Lee McGowan]

be a part of history by sending a very public message to our country and the world that we are mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. But it's not enough to to just go. We need to bring people with us because it's a day of community. Not just a protest against a bad president, but a gathering of good people. Authoritarians want us to feel hopeless, like they are inevitable. But days like no Kings and the actions we take with our people afterwards are the antidote to that. I want to thank Ezra for joining us today and you for caring enough about democracy to be here. Now step away from the cynicism and join us for a day of Hope on Saturday, March 28th. See you there. Until next week. PG out. Before you go, I just want to remind you that the American government is trying to silence any voices that don't toe the party line. They do not care if you know the truth. They don't want you to know about things like no Kings. They want state run propaganda, which is why we have to fund independent media. So if you respect what I am trying to do here, if you learn something from my podcasts and rants, if you would like to get this podcast ad free delivered directly to your inbox along with my kitchen rants and TV appearances, then consider becoming a member of PoliticsGirl Premium by going to politicsgirl.com and signing up. If you're already a premium member of this podcast, thank you so much for your support. And if you're not a member, please consider being a patron of my work. If you want real knowledge in a world of lies, it's essential you support those of us out here still trying to bring them to you.

[Leah Greenberg]

There is a link to sign up

[Lee McGowan]

in the bio of this episode but also on politicsgirl.com and as always, please like and share this podcast so we can grow our audience. Because the more people who have access to this kind of information, the better. As always, thank you for your time and support. The Politics Girl podcast is written and performed by me, Leigh McGowan, and produced and edited by Happy Warrior Entertainment. All rights reserved.