The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Newton Center Green in Massachusetts was packed on Saturday, despite temperature in the 30’s and a biting wind. A 10-piece local brass band energized the crowd with a rousing Saints Go Marching In. There were young and old, black and white, center and left, pets wearing “No Kings” doggie jackets, and speeches, lots of speeches. We didn’t stay for the entire event but were there long enough to be moved by the spirit and the message.

En route to our hometown No Kings Rally, my husband and I figured that, between the two of us, we represent 123 years of speaking out and going to protest rallies- first as activists, later as journalists. Civil rights, anti-Vietnam War protests, women’s rights, fair housing, and lots of others in between. Mostly moved by the spirit of having to do something. Has it mattered? Not our behavior alone. But with countless thousands of others, working together, over time and with countless setbacks, shared efforts of many contributed to moving the moral arc of history toward justice. Now we are in a perilous period of setbacks.

Will the 3300+ demonstrations across the country Saturday (more than 160 in Massachusetts), involving millions of people, protesting the many flaws and violations, wrong-doing and law-breaking actions, crass and crooked behaviors of the President, actually have an impact? Will yesterday’s spirited opposition translate into meaningful political action?

There has been some descriptive scholarship correlating large mass mobilization size with movement success. Consider the 3 1/2 % rule, which holds that when 3.5% of the population of a country actively protest nonviolently against an authoritarian government, they can shift loyalties among regime supporters and precipitate that government’s change of policies or even fall from power. That’s been the underlying rationale for Indivisible’s organizing the “No Kings” protests.

The estimated numbers have grown steadily from the first No Kings rally in June 2025 ( 5 million) to October 2025 (7 million) to this weekend’s. But the 8+ million people protesting in the United States Saturday still represent only 2.4 percent of the population. The “magic number” in the United States is 12 million. If that political science precept holds, at least four million more are needed.

This may have been the largest organized protest in our history. But to effect meaningful change, the engagement must be sustained and enhanced, with the next target being record-high turnout in the mid-term elections to block egregious policies in the short run and effect a change of government in 2028.

The challenge now is to avoid doom scrolling and resist the drive to check the dystopian news multiple times a day. We need to save our sanity but be strong enough to recognize authoritarianism and the symptoms of illiberal democracy when we see it. Find the candidates worth supporting – at all levels- wherever they are in our country– in races that matter. Support other activists who have the capacity to persevere. And, above all, let’s keep remembering this: