There Sure Were a Lot of American Flags at the “Hate America Rally”

The No Kings protest, heading toward the US Capitol BuildingAllison Robbert/AP

The first protester I noticed as I approached the No Kings rally Saturday was dressed as a giant yellow duck. All around, demonstrators were converging on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC—one wore a Lincoln-style stovepipe hat and carried a sign that read, “Protect Constitutional Rights” and “I ♥ America.”

Animal costumes have become an ever-present symbol^[2] of the anti-Trump movement—a way to mock the administration’s assertions that protests are overrun with dangerous radicals. In DC, the duck was joined by a smattering of other fauna: a chicken here, a few dinosaurs there. But what struck me most about the event—which House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted^[3] would be a “hate America rally”—was how earnestly patriotic the demonstrators were.

American flags were everywhere, carried by people of all races and ages. A few flew upside-down, symbolizing—Alito-style^[4]—a nation in distress. Most were waved proudly. Signs declared protesters’ allegiance to the country, the Constitution, democracy, and the rule of law.

Robin, a DC resident whose flag-adorned sign included the full text of the First Amendment, said she wanted to make clear that “just because we’re liberals doesn’t mean we hate America.”

There were other flags, too: A lot of Pride flags; some Palestinian, Mexican, and Ukrainian flags; an Irish flag. There were a ton of DC flags—they’ve popped up everywhere in the city since Trump’s militarized takeover.

But those were all out numbered, by far, by American flags. The protest organizers made sure of that. Many marchers had clearly brought their own from home, but volunteers were on hand to pass out flags to anyone who wanted one. “I’m trying to protect democracy in this country,” said Neshama, one of those volunteers. “We need to show that the people at the rally are pro-America.”

I talked to a trio of older protesters sitting on a wall, together holding an American flag as marchers streamed endlessly past. They didn’t want to give their names or have their photo taken; they said they were afraid of being doxxed. “I support democracy and our country,” one of them told me. “It’s not about ideology.” He said that growing up, he’d never imagined that all three branches of government would be “supporting autocracy.”

A woman chimed in; she wanted to share what another member of the group had said to her earlier: “I’ve never bought an American flag before, and this is what it’s come to.” We all laughed, and one of them added that “it was important to show that we love America, too.”

On my way out, I walked past the Department of Labor, which has been draped since this summer with an enormous image of Donald Trump’s face. In front, a party was going on^[5]. Icona Pop’s “I love it” blared as protesters danced with a stegosaurus, a unicorn, and a revolutionary in a tricorne hat.

When the music paused, a voice came over the loudspeaker. “We are all American,” he said. “It’s our constitutional right to be here.”