When protestors gather again on Saturday, October 18 in towns from Woodstock to Warwick, they’ll be carrying hand-painted signs that read No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings. The slogan—part defiance, part plea—has become shorthand for a country sliding toward strongman rule.
The No Kings movement began last June as a spontaneous eruption of outrage against Trump’s planned military parade in Washington. What was then framed as a symbolic protest has since hardened into something more urgent: a grassroots defense of constitutional democracy itself.
A Year of Authoritarian Creep
Since those first rallies, the administration has acted as if the spectacle never ended. Federal troops have been deployed to American cities under the pretext of “anti-crime operations,” conducting warrantless searches and detentions that local officials describe as unlawful. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched aggressive incursions into “non-cooperating” cities—including raids in the Hudson Valley—without local coordination or judicial oversight.
Abroad, the pattern has extended to military action. In August, US Navy patrols in the Caribbean sank two unarmed Venezuelan fishing vessels accused of “narcotics activity,” killing 14 crew members. No public evidence has been produced, and no congressional inquiry has been allowed. Each episode adds to a portrait of executive power exercised without accountability—what constitutional scholars once warned could become “emergency government as normal practice.”
At home, new executive orders have granted federal agencies wide latitude to disregard congressional subpoenas and to coordinate with private militias for “border assistance.” Critics in both parties see these moves as a direct assault on the separation of powers.
The View from the Valley
If the Hudson Valley has long seen itself as a bellwether for civic conscience—from anti-nuclear protests at Indian Point to Black Lives Matter marches in Kingston—it is now once again a site of democratic reaffirmation. The regional chapter of No Kings has maintained steady momentum since June, organizing teach-ins, legal-rights workshops, and monthly vigils. This weekend’s events mark the movement’s return to the streets at a moment when the institutional checks on executive authority appear increasingly fragile.
More than 2,500 rallies are planned across the country this weekend, from small-town gatherings to major demonstrations in cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle. What began as a spontaneous protest against Trump’s June parade has since evolved into a decentralized national network, linking local organizers through shared messaging, training, and legal support. The breadth of participation underscores that the anxiety over executive overreach is not confined to the coasts or blue states—it’s a nationwide assertion that the republic still belongs to the people.
Organizers stress that the gatherings are peaceful and nonpartisan, aimed at preserving the rule of law rather than advocating a particular political program. Many events will include voter-registration tables and know-your-rights materials distributed by allied civic groups.
A Map of Conscience
Across the region, rallies will dot the map like a constellation of civic alarm bells on Saturday, October 18:
Delaware County
Greene County
Columbia County
Ulster County
- Gardiner: 11 am–12:30pm, 137 Main Street
- Kingston: 2–3:30pm, Academy Green Park
- Saugerties: noon–1pm, Market & Main streets
- Woodstock: noon–1pm, Woodstock Elementary School
Dutchess County
- Beacon: noon–4pm (address shared with registered participants)
- Poughkeepsie: noon–2pm, Victor C. Waryas Park
- Poughkeepsie: 11am–noon, 5 Winslow Gate Road
- Rhinebeck: 10:30am–12:30pm, Lions Minipark
Orange County
- Cornwall: noon–2pm, Cornwall Plaza sidewalk
- Goshen: 2–4pm, 255 Main Street
- Middletown: 3:15–5pm, Boston Market sidewalk
- Newburgh: 10 am–noon, Montgomery & 2nd Streets
- Warwick: 10–11:30am, Railroad Green
Sullivan County
Constitutional Crossroads
The No Kings website defines its mission as “collective, nonviolent action against rule by decree.” That phrase reads less rhetorical by the week. With federal authority increasingly unbound by judicial or legislative oversight, and with the executive asserting powers that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, the protests serve as both warning and affirmation: democracy survives only through the willingness of citizens to defend it in public.
A republic, Benjamin Franklin reminded us, if we can keep it. This weekend in the Hudson Valley, people intend to try.
Why no mention of Delaware County? There are rallies in Margaretville and Delhi, at least.
Is there a protest planned in Rockland County?
There is one just across the River in Westchester in Ossining!
You can use the No Kings interactive map to find protests across the country. https://www.nokings.org/#map
Nope, not having any of it. Not all of your readers are liberals, you know.
Some people just have way too much time on their hands.
You got that right!
There was a No Kings rally turn out of about 400 people at the Winslow Gate location in Poughkeepsie on 6/14. The P. Journal failed to publish anything about it – before or after. Let’s hope they do better this time? Maybe the editor or their corporate sponsor needs some publicity should they fail again.
What nonsense. If we had a despotic king, no one would be allowed to rally. Tired of the anti Republican slant in the Chronogram. I finally moved out of NY due to horrible politics of Kathy Hochul. Couldn’t be happier in the south.
Why are you trolling? You might feel more comfortable in Nazi Germany, applauding your neighbors being taken by stormtroopers. And they didn’t have universal healthcare either.
Blaming ” others” and instilling fear are good tactics to keep the uneducated from asking why only the rich are benefitting from huge tax breaks that could be used to fund universal healthcare, childcare and quality public education. We are the richest country in the world and yet most people would be bankrupt if illness hit? Why are we one of the very few in Western world to NOT help our citizens on univetsal healthcare and childcare? The brainwashed want you to blame ” illegals” who, by the way, have long been barred from accessing health care for free! But Faux News would and rich pols would have you believing that our hospitals are filled with undocumented so you can’t get Healthcare. Oh by the way many hospitals in South may close in rural areas because of that big beautiful bill Trump pushed to get tax cuts for himself, his family and cronies. Hope you are a billionaire too, otherwise you and your children will be paying for decades as it added to our country’s debt.
Meanwhile everything in Walmart is either disappearing or much higher prices because of the huge tax on the poor and middle class called tariffs. Wait till you get your next health insurance bill- went up to fund Billionaires tax cuts. They didn’t report that on Faux News because owned by Murdoch who benefits as he is a billionaire. And most of local papers been brought up by a corporate entity backed by billionaires, so uniform reporting across the country to keep people in the dark. Michael Moore was right, rich and powerful want uneducated people as they are easily led.