Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld and his panel had a field day this week after an article described the recent No Kings rallies as little more than “group therapy” for unhappy people, and conservatives couldn’t be happier someone is finally calling out the showboating for what it is. The clip and writeups made clear that some analysts are treating these gatherings as more about emotional validation than policy change, a reality Gutfeld has mocked on-air.
Researchers at American University — the same folks the mainstream press leaned on for demographic breakdowns — found the D.C. flagship event was dominated by a narrow slice of the population: mostly educated, middle‑aged white women who learned about the rallies on social media. That narrowness undercuts the movement’s pretense of speaking for broad swaths of America and exposes how hollow the performative politics really are.
A licensed psychotherapist interviewed about the crowds didn’t mince words, describing the spectacle as “a kind of group therapy playing out in the streets,” and even suggesting many attendees are projecting their personal unhappiness onto politicians. If you strip away the inflatables and hashtags, you’re left with catharsis, not civic strategy — a pastime, not a political program.
Make no mistake: these rallies weren’t tiny local protests, they were national productions that organizers expected to draw millions on October 18, a show of force magnified by national media attention. But size alone doesn’t equal seriousness; mass turnout can be a marketing tactic as easily as it can be a mandate for policy. The left’s ability to turn feelings into spectacle doesn’t substitute for legislative wins or governance.
That’s the real conservative gripe — not that people can gather, but that the gatherings substitute for actual solutions while the media lionizes them. Organizers and allied groups take donations, mobilize energy, and create narratives, all while the same outlets ignore the everyday issues hurting working Americans: illegal immigration, failing schools, rising costs, and crumbling public safety. The therapeutic chanting and inflatable costumes make for great cable bites, but they don’t fix a single border town or workforce pipeline.
Gutfeld’s point landed for a reason: a protest whose very existence proves the absence of a king only highlights the protesters’ theater, not tyranny. Conservatives should call out the pieties and the performative grief, defend real civic engagement, and keep pressing for policies that actually improve families’ lives. If the left wants to hold group therapy in public, fine — but don’t expect the country to bow to a tantrum dressed up as moral urgency.
