No Connection

As is habit for me, I picked up my camera and went down to some of the midday "No Kings" protests that were being held in the local area. They were pretty much like all of the other protests I've been to, with people standing around holding signs, and generally preaching to the choir. There was the occasional person who felt the need to voice their dissent with the crowd, but for the most part it was people proclaiming their message to the like-minded.

A small group of the protestors who showed up for the rally in Kenmore, Washington.

Which is fine, as far as it goes, but people in Blue states putting on street theater for each other is unlikely to solve the problems that they're attempting to solve. Mainly because those problems aren't really about the depths of anyone's feelings or their willingness to spend a couple hours on a Saturday standing on the sidewalk.

Rather, the problem is that the United States is slowly dividing into two mutually hostile camps over the question of what it means to be an American. Donald Trump, whose political instincts lead him to insert himself into conflicts, picked a side, and has started making some of their grievances into policy. People in the northeast suburbs of Seattle understanding their identities as Americans is all fine and good, but it does nothing to bridge the divide, which is essentially faith-based.