This is why we say “No Kings!”
There is nothing objectionable about a parade honoring the bravery of our service men and women and the might of our military, so why do you hate our military so much?
That is a remarkably reductive argument and a loaded question. But let’s start there - Our armed service members deserve to be celebrated and honored. Individuals who choose to wear the uniform, put their lives on the line, and swear oaths to support and defend the Constitution have earned our reverence. Those who have lost their lives in the line-of-duty are entitled to our solemn gratitude. Which is why retiring servicemen and women receive lifetime pensions, subsidized healthcare, education grants, and an entire cabinet level federal department. Of course, a real question exists as to whether these services are sufficient, you’d be hard pressed to identify many other jobs in modern America where such lifetime benefits are guaranteed. We also celebrate as national holidays Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day and Armed Forces Day. Independence Day celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, but it is often marked by displays of our appreciation for the armed services. Our veterans, our fallen our and our active-duty service members deserve our respect.
However, marching 6,700 soldiers, 150 vehicles, 50 aircraft, 34 horses, and 2 mules through the streets of Washington D.C. at a cost estimated to range between $25m and $45m on President Trump’s birthday is problematic for numerous reasons.
It is just a coincidence that the parade is on President Trump’s birthday, June 14, 2025, is the 250-year anniversary of the founding of our army and it is flag day.
Actually, it’s the 250-year anniversary of when the Continental Congress voted to form the Continental Army (a Congress that was skeptical of a standing army and had grave reservations about even creating one). But sure, that is semantics. Look, you can’t honestly believe it is a coincidence that the parade is occurring on Trump’s birthday. It is pretty non-controversial to point out that the size of his ego deserves a place in the Guiness Book of World Records. Save the naivete.
However, the for the sake of discussion, I’ll take your point at face value and assume the scheduling is a matter of coincidence. That does not change or reduce the problem. Optics, appearances, messages matter. They especially matter in a democratic form of government. The very fact that a parade costing tens of millions of dollars is occurring on the President’s birthday creates the appearance of impropriety, corruption, misuse of taxpayer funds and a confusion of the role of the military in our democratic form of government. In short, the messages are all kinds of bad.
The mere fact, coincidence or not, that the parade occurs on Trump’s birthday, creates the undeniable appearance that it is a parade to honor him and him alone. That is not a thing we do in the United States. We do not honor any person with $45m vanity parades. It raises him to a position far above the rest of the citizenry. The President is a citizen, an elected official with a job to do. Not a king, not a ruler. The President is a servant of the people, and not vice versa. We should all respect and honor the Office of the President, a constitutional creation, but that is different than allegiance to whatever individual happens to hold the office.
Moreover, the implication, whether intentional or not, is that the military is an extension of the President. A military parade on the President’s birthday implies and suggests that the armed forces are his… Which could not be more wrong. The President is Commander in Chief, but the armed services belong to the people of the United States.
Well, there you have it – you said it, the President is Commander in Chief, why shouldn’t the soldiers serving under him honor him?
You are misunderstanding the role of the President and the armed services. Each branch of the military swears oaths upon enlistment or commissioning. Those oaths begin with this phrase: “I ___ , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…” There is one allegiance sworn and that is to the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and all other laws, positions and authority derives therefrom. The Constitution derives its power and authority from the consent of the citizenry. We are a nation of laws, formed as a direct response to the arbitrary lawlessness of monarchical tyranny.
As a consequence of our constitutional form of democratic governance the people who hold the reigns of power continually change. Whether congress, the judiciary or the President, the people who hold those offices are meant to be replaced again and again, while the fundamental structure exists into perpetuity. Which is why our service men and woman swear allegiance to our law. They do not swear allegiance to whatever individual or political party happens to hold power at any given moment, that would result in tyrannical autocracy. Our military serves the Constitution. It serves and protects us all.
The next phrase of the oath states: “… I will obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officer appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice…” This oath is distinctly different. It is a commitment to following orders given by the chain of command. The Constitution, Art. II Sec 2, establishes the President as the Commander in Chief of the military, and, as such, the highest level of military command. For a military to function each member must follow the lawful orders of the rank above them and, ultimately, the ranking officer is the President. Swearing to follow lawful orders is different that swearing allegiance.
Commandeering the military to engage in a parade on the birthday of the President, sends the message that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines owe allegiance to a single man. It suggests and implies that the military belongs to the President and is a tool for the exercise of his will and agenda.
Our honorable and formidable military owes allegiance to the Constitution and exists to serve the citizens of the United States. We really should not allow that message to be confused and misappropriated by the ego of a single man.
Trump is politicizing the military which is an existential threat to our Republic. If proof is required of his intent, just read or watch his remarks at Fort Bragg from Tuesday. He stood before our service members and delivered a wholly political rally speech. He hit all his favorite topics – insulting Biden, dehumanizing trans people, denigrating immigrants, and attacking our free press. No other President has or would address our intentionally neutral military in such a way. He brought along a pop-up MAGA merchandise store to a Military base. George Washington would be utterly ashamed.
Ok… Who care about the birthday! Let’s show off our might and strength to the world! You can’t honestly object to reminding the world of our power?
I can and I do.
There is a saying… “If you have to tell everyone how smart you are, you probably aren’t.” The meaning is simple – intelligence speaks for itself. Strength is the same. Those with true strength do not need constantly remind everyone they have it. Think of the schoolyard bully. The bully proclaims their superiority through acts of violence against those perceived to be weaker. But typically, those violent displays are the product of their deep seeded insecurity. The bully seeks out the fear of others in order to fill the emptiness of their own insecurity.
The United States does not ordinarily engage in large scale displays of its military might because it doesn’t need to. There is no doubt we have the strongest and most formidable military in the world. For better of worse we are constantly exercising that power all over the world. We do not put missiles on parade because this country has nothing to prove.
Parades of this nature are ordinarily the province of dictators, tyrants and autocrats – kings and emperors[1]. There are three reasons why weak governments engage in performative displays of military might: 1) to convince the world of their strength; 2) to intimidate their own people by reminding of their capacity for violence and 3) for the vanity of tyrants.
This is why military parades are so closely aligned with the U.S.S.R. and North Korea. Even at the height of its power the U.S.S.R. had deep cracks running through its foundations. The possession of nuclear weapons elevated the U.S.S.R.’s power and might, but from a conventional weapons standpoint its military was always weak comparatively weak. North Korea is an ongoing example of this same phenomenon. Those countries displayed their arms to try to convince the world of their strength. The U.S.A. has never needed to do that.
More importantly though, dictators and tyrants use military might to scare their own people and remind them that resistance and dissent can be crushed with state sponsored violence and power. Dissent is an American VALUE. We are supposed to welcome and encourage the free expression of ideas and opinions. Our military exists to protect our rights to free speech, freedom of assembly and constitutional democracy. We do not want displays of military might to be used to suppress the exercise of those rights by people who express disagreement with those in power.
Right now, our military has been misappropriated and deployed against our own citizens in LA. Which makes concerns about displays of military might all the more immediate. Yesterday we had military deployed by Trump to suppress protests against his policies on the West Coast. While simultaneously, Trump had commandeered the military for a vanity parade on his birthday on the East Coast. Coast to coast, the imagery is one of a military that belongs to the President and will be used to intimidate opposition and suppress viewpoints that do not align with the President’s.
That is as un-American as anything I have ever seen.
Look its just patriotism! Why are you so unpatriotic? What do you hate America?
As it happens, I believe peaceful protest, expression of free speech and dissent from tyrannical government are themselves patriotic actions. I love this country. I always have. Which precisely why I do choose to look at it critically. Which is why I ask it keep moving forward and try to fulfill the promises of its founding. I dissent because I believe we can and should be more. I dissent because I believe we can and should expect more from our leaders.
But… If I am being completely honest, I do not feel particularly patriotic these days. This country is rapidly becoming unrecognizable to me.
We are not supposed to be a place where humans are snatched off the streets and disappeared to foreign countries without due process of law, and yet that is happening daily all across our country. I thought we were beginning to recognize that humans are humans regardless of race, color, nationality or legal status. We can reasonably debate immigration policy, but I thought we believed, as a nation, that every human is entitled to due process of law.
We are not a country that arrests legal residents (LEGAL!) on student visas and institute deportation proceedings simply because they exercise their free speech on a controversial issue. But, now many times has that happened in the last three months?
We absolutely do not (or haven’t in a long time) arrested sitting Senators (Sen Alex Padilla) for asking questions of the executive branch. Yet, somehow that happened. This week.
We do not erase our history and whitewash our mistakes. We do not deny the errors of our past, we do not erase their existence. We critically examine ourselves our history and we learn so that the same mistakes are not made. Somehow though, that has been actively occurring.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/technology/trump-history-websites.html
I always thought America was great because we learn from our past and chart a better path forward.
We do not arrest, threaten, undermine and degrade our judiciary for simply doing their job. We are supposed to respect the co-equal branches of government and follow the law, even if when we do not agree with a judge’s decision. I should know, I am a lawyer, and I disagree with judges regularly, but I never, NEVER, take to social media to denounce them.
Certainly, the person holding highest office does not threaten people for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights of speech and assembly with violence – “They spit. We hit.” – Donald J. Trump; “If there’s any protester that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force.”- Donald J. Trump.
We certainly do not waste tens of millions of dollars on a vanity parade on the President’s birthday.
… and yet, here we are.
So, I am not feeling particularly patriotic in any of the ordinary ways. I’ll be a patriot by demanding this country live up to its promises. I’ll be a patriot by continuing to believe in the Constitution, even while those sworn to protect it seek its destruction in the name of greed, hate and division.
As difficult as times are, there is cause for hope. Yesterday I took my family to the No Kings protest in downtown Chicago. We bore witness to thousands of people of all races, ages and religions standing together in the name of democracy. It was in my own town, a small, upper-class suburb, where I found the most cause for hope. Hundreds of people lined our main road and stood together in support of democracy. It was a sight I never expected to see. I was also astounded and gratified to see video from my hometown – a small city in Michigan that is close to equal parts blue and red. Perhaps a thousand people took to the streets in support of democracy.
As bleak as things seem, our democracy is not beyond saving.
[1] Of course, there are exceptions. Off the top of my head – France’s Bastille Day Parades.
