This column is adapted from a speech Danielle gave Oct. 18 at the No Kings rally at The Old North Bridge in Minuteman National Historical Park in Concord, Mass.
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Good morning, friends, patriots, fellow Americans.
I am so proud of you — for showing up, for caring enough about our country to spend your Saturday morning standing shoulder to shoulder in defense of our constitutional democracy. I’m grateful to Indivisible for bringing us together, and to the Concord Police and emergency personnel for keeping us safe.
We are here for one simple reason. No kings.
That was the founding promise of this country, and it still must be our rallying cry. No kings. Not in 1776, not now.
But here’s the question of our time: How do we make sure we have no kings without having another revolution? The founding generation achieved this goal — but through bloodshed. We don’t want that. We need a peaceful way to secure the same result.
So let’s talk about how.
Five Fingers for Democracy
Hold up your hand. Five fingers. Five things every citizen can do to preserve a free self-governing society without kings.
First: litigation. The courts are one of our democracy’s defense lines. From speech rights and due process to executive overreach, legal challenges keep our institutions honest. So yes — thank you, ACLU. Thank you, law clinics, civic lawyers, and all who are fighting in court for constitutional integrity.
Second: elections. No matter your party — Democrat, Republican, independent — find and support pro-democracy candidates. Don’t let them dodge the question. Ask every candidate: What will you do to ensure we have no kings? Make them answer.
Third: showing up. Democracy is not a spectator sport. When citizens gather, whether at town halls, rallies, or public meetings, we create common knowledge — we remind one another what matters, what’s at stake, and what actions to take. Showing up is how a democratic people learn together.
Fourth: mutual aid. There are people in our communities right now who are scared, threatened, or struggling — people who just need help or a voice. We have to show up for them, too. On my way to this event, I saw a man on the sidewalk writhing and groaning in pain. People were walking right past. I couldn’t believe it. I stopped and called 911 and waited until help arrived. That’s not politics. That’s soul work. We must reorient our souls toward one another, red or blue. Democracy begins there: in care, not contempt.
Fifth: state power. Here’s the one that surprises people. If we want no kings, we have to remember that our states hold the keys to how our federal system runs. State laws control elections, and the way we run our elections is broken. Polarization is metastasizing in gerrymandered districts and low-turnout partisan primaries that reward extremism. With their mid-decade redistricting, Texas and California are escalating that polarization.
Because of that broken system, Congress has become dysfunctional. Polarization is grinding its capacity down to a sad shadow of its former role. Instead of standing as an independent branch of government, it has become subservient to the president — whoever he or she may be. The imperial presidency has been growing since World War II. But it’s maxing out. That vacuum, that failure of congressional independence, brought about by polarization, is what has enabled the growth of executive power.
If we want no kings, we must save Congress.
The Path to Saving Congress
Saving Congress starts with reforming how we elect it. Right now, in many districts, primaries are decided by as few as 8 percent of voters — the most partisan sliver of the electorate — and then the general is not competitive. That’s how we get politics driven by the extremes instead of the majority.
The answer is to replace party primaries with all-party primaries — one ballot, open to all voters, where every candidate, regardless of party, runs together. The top two vote-getters move on to the general election. At every stage of the election, candidates have to appeal to the whole electorate, not just the base. They have to forge a majority coalition by appealing broadly to voters in their districts.
This reform frees representatives to serve their full constituency — and to rebuild a Congress that can check the executive branch, negotiate across divides, and govern effectively again.
That’s how we protect ourselves from kings — by restoring balance and functionality to the people’s branch of our government.
And here’s a twist most Americans don’t realize: The states best positioned to make this reform happen are one-party states. Why? Because in one-party states, reform doesn’t shift partisan control — it simply improves representation. Those states are “tipping-point states” — places that can lead national de-escalation by demonstrating a better way.
In 2026, both Oklahoma and Massachusetts — red and blue — will have ballot initiatives to replace party primaries with all-party primaries. Those are our tipping points. Reform in those states can ripple across the country and change the dynamics of American politics itself.
Five Fingers, One Constitutional Democracy
Litigation. Elections. Showing up. Mutual aid. State power.
That’s the work of citizenship. Not just one task, but five. It would be nice if there were a single fix, a silver bullet. But these are not ordinary times, and we are called to do more than we would on an easier day.
So, again, five fingers to remember by. Each finger by itself is weak — but together they make a hand ready to clasp another and pull someone from the abyss. Strong enough to defend freedom without violence. Ready to do the work of restoring balance to our constitutional system by leveraging state control of elections to save Congress.
That’s our mission. That’s our generation’s revolution — peaceful, lawful, and resolute.
You highlighted important points: "In 2026, both Oklahoma and Massachusetts — red and blue — will have ballot initiatives to replace party primaries with all-party primaries. Those are our tipping points. Reform in those states can ripple across the country and change the dynamics of American politics itself."
Massachusetts (and John Adams) proved that point extremely powerfully by leading the way in writing the first state constitution that established the sovereignty of the people by having the people, themselves, serve as the supreme legislature and ratify their own constitution (instead of having a legislature do so, as had been the practice among states). See https://web.archive.org/web/20131019192023/http://www.mass.gov/courts/sjc/john-adams-b.html
"During the fall of 1775, Adams had recommended that the people must 'erect the whole Building with their own hands upon the broadest foundation. That this could be done only by conventions of representatives chosen by the People. . . . ' "
"In drafting the Massachusetts Constitution, Adams drew upon his vast knowledge of history and political philosophy, the colonies' experiences under British colonial rule, and his own ideas as articulated in Thoughts on Government. Adams completed his draft by October 30, 1779. He left Massachusetts in November 1779 to return to Europe as minister plenipotentiary.
Following approval by town meetings, the Constitution was ratified on June 15, 1780, and became effective on October 25, 1780."
It seems Adams said the following in June (not in the fall) of 1775 (http://files.libertyfund.org/files/2101/Adams_1431-03_EBk_v6.0.pdf):
"we must realize the theories of the wisest writers, and invite the people to erect the whole building with their own hands, upon the broadest foundation" and "this could be done only by conventions of representatives chosen by the people in the several colonies, in the most exact proportions." "Congress ought now to recommend to the people of every Colony to call such conventions immediately, and set up governments of their own, under their own authority; for the people were the source of all authority and original of all power."
Massachusetts became the model for the whole nation. As in Massachusetts, ratification of the original U.S. Constitution by conventions of the people established the sovereignty of the people as the supreme legislature.
SCOTUS Justice James Wilson later explained the related significance of the text and placement of the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution (text and structure of our Constitution). In 1793 in Chisholm v. Georgia, Justice Wilson explained that although “the term SOVEREIGN” is not used in our “Constitution,” the Preamble is the “one place where it could have been used with propriety.” Only those “who ordained and established” our “Constitution” could “have announced themselves ‘SOVEREIGN’ people of the United States.” As the Preamble emphasizes, "We the People" did "ordain and establish" our "Constitution" to "establish Justice" and "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves."
Justice Wilson also highlighted how the first and foremost separation of powers in our Constitution is between the sovereign people and all public servants: “The PEOPLE of the United States” are “the first personages introduced.”
After introducing the sovereign (the people), the text and structure of Articles I, II and III further emphasized the people’s sovereignty. They introduced our directly-elected representatives (Congress), then, our indirectly-elected representative (the president), and, last, our unelected representatives (judges). The people “vested” only limited powers in public servants in and under “Congress” (U.S. Const. Art. I, §1), the “President” (Art. II, §1) and the “supreme Court” and “inferior Courts” that “Congress” was delegated the power to “ordain and establish” (Art. III, §1).
Thank you very much for all you're doing to try to help revive and reinvigorate the sovereignty of the people in multiple states and in the U.S.
Well said! I think you nailed the premise: "Democracy is not a spectator sport" and "citizenship" means "work."
In "Common Sense" Thomas Paine emphasized similar common sense. Paine reminded Americans that if they failed to fight at home for their own liberty, then as British subjects they could be sent “to support the British arms” far from home in “Asia, Africa, or Europe.” That principle still applies. If Americans fail to fight on our home turf for our own rights (our own sovereignty over our public servants), then our public servants will make us serve them (as they are now with the practices you described manipulating elections). That is human nature and the way of the word.
In "The Rights of Man" Paine extolled the virtues of "revolution" in America, but he was clear that he (like many of his generation) spoke not of violence but of practices and power turning or revolving:
"The independence of America, considered merely as a separation from England, would have been a matter but of little importance, had it not been accompanied by a revolution in the principles and practice of governments. She made a stand, not for herself only, but for the world, and looked beyond the advantages herself could receive."
"The revolution of America presented in politics what was only theory in mechanics. So deeply rooted were all the governments of the old world, and so effectually had the tyranny and the antiquity of habit established itself over the mind, that no beginning could be made in Asia, Africa, or Europe, to reform the political condition of man. Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think."
But "no sooner did the American governments display themselves to the world, than despotism felt a shock and man began to contemplate redress."