Protest against what?

Last weekend, millions of Americans took to the streets on Flag Day and the Army’s 250th birthday to protest Donald Trump. Funded by billionaire heirs to capitalist fortunes, among others, people concerned about Donald Trump marched to ensure there would be no king in the United States. Their act of protest was, at essence, an act of worship.

There is a large irony to the protests. Donald Trump is an elected and term-limited president. Despite the political left’s insistence that Trump is a would-be dictator, tyrant, or king, he has only about one thousand three hundred days left in his presidential term. Concurrently, he is being regularly stymied and slowed by unelected judges who possess life tenure. Who is more kingly there? On May 15, Justice Samuel Alito in a Supreme Court argument on the propensity of progressive district court judges to use nationwide injunctions against Trump described the judges as “monarchs of their realm” when in court.

The term limited president gets checked by the life-tenured judges. Their decisions can be appealed all the way up to nine life-tenured justices, the longest serving of which, Justice Clarence Thomas, has been ruling from the Supreme Court for 34 years. Some of the district court judges blocking Trump have been on the bench since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. That is how the founders of the United States structured the system. That is how the system works. That means the United States is in no danger of having Donald Trump suddenly become a king.

While all of this is true, partisans on both sides of the political divide have increasingly engaged in catastrophic thinking. The other side are enemies out to get power, keep power, and use the power to destroy their opposition. With Donald Trump in the White House that catastrophic thinking has infected the news channels polluting the minds of progressive Americans, their social media echo chamber, and their outlook on politics.

An increasing number of studies show progressives, particularly white female progressives followed by white male progressives, struggle with mental health more than any other group. They are also the least churched group of people in America. Again, multiple studies have repeatedly shown that the more one goes to church the more a person considers himself happy and not struggling with mental health issues, including despair. Likewise, the more one is in church, the less one is regularly engaged in politics.

This may come as a shock to progressives, but the data is largely incontrovertible—people regularly in church are less engaged in politics than those on the left who never go to church. For progressives, and even some Christians who have increasingly replaced their local church community with politics, protest is a substitute for worship. Instead of going to church and appreciating the sovereignty of God and understanding that all things work for the good of those called according to His purposes, these people go to protests.

At the protests, they no longer feel isolated or alone. They visibly see the body of believers there actively worshipping in protest together. They see that others care as they do. That shared support and common cause elevate the protestors mentally. It is, in their mind, good for their soul. It also explains why white progressives are so much more likely to protest and easier to turn out for a protest than any other group. It is what they do for religious fulfillment.

The result this past Saturday was a massive and overwhelmingly older white crowd of Kamala Harris voters. They showed up to vote in November and were crushed by Donald Trump winning the popular vote. Now, they are showing up to protest Trump, seeing large numbers without contradictory data of Trump’s support in the crowd, and reassured others care as deeply as them.

The punchline is that if the election were held again today, Donald Trump would still beat Kamala Harris. But in a crowd full of protestors who insist America must never have a king, the contrary indicator is not present for them to see so it is easy for them to dismiss it. In one thousand three hundred days, Donald Trump will move into history. The protests will have done nothing but make the participants feel virtuous and righteous. For the protestors, those feelings are what matter more than any outcome.