America watched another theater of the left unfold on October 18, 2025, as the so-called “No Kings” protests filled streets from coast to coast — a nationwide show of anger staged while the federal government remained shuttered. Organizers boasted massive turnout and celebratory scenes in major cities, but the timing was no accident: the rallies came during a prolonged shutdown that has real costs for hardworking Americans.
The Democratic establishment did not hide its glee. DNC Chairman Ken Martin openly referred to President Trump as “an orange monster in the White House” while campaigning alongside New Jersey Democrats, turning a political rally into personal sputtering that did nothing to solve the shutdown or the issues facing voters. This kind of dehumanizing rhetoric — tossed from the dais by party leaders — is emblematic of a national party that prefers theater to governing.
Meanwhile conservative media rightly pointed out the political calculation behind the protests, with Fox News reporters flagging the spectacle and Republican senators blasting Senate Democrats for using the moment as cover. Veterans like Sen. Joni Ernst joined the pushback on Fox’s programs, calling out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and demanding real answers for why Democrats are holding the country hostage rather than negotiating a clean reopening. The American people deserve representatives who work, not virtue-signaling pageants.
Let’s be blunt: when party operatives and activists spend their energy chanting and painting enemies instead of addressing soaring prices, border chaos, or stalled paychecks, they’re showing contempt for the very voters they claim to represent. Democrats who parade around calling the president names while tens of thousands of federal workers worry about their next paycheck are divorced from the priorities of ordinary citizens — and voters remember that come election time.
Conservative lawmakers who have been warning about the weaponization of outrage were right to call out this circus. Joni Ernst and other Republicans are doing the right thing by forcing a contrast: concrete policy versus theatrical rage, open government versus political stunts. If Republicans stand firm and keep pushing for accountability, they’ll expose that the left’s latest tantrum was more about optics than outcomes.
Hardworking Americans are tired of posturing from both parties, but especially from those who cloak petulant insults in the language of patriotism. It’s time to demand that our leaders return to the business of governing — reopen the government, secure the borders, and stop treating our nation like a stage for Trump-bashing rallies and empty slogans. Patriots know the difference between real leadership and cheap theatrics, and they’ll hold the guilty accountable at the ballot box.
