“If Kamala Were President, We’d Be At Brunch”—And That’s The Problem
Amid "No King" Protests, Liberal Comfort Politics Rears Its Ugly Head
Of all the things the American political machine produced this week—another fascist cosplay parade in D.C., more ICE raids, another billion-dollar bomb drop paid for in student debt—what we also got, thankfully, was resistance. Across the country, protesters took to the streets with signs declaring “No King”—a direct response to Trump’s latest authoritarian spectacle, complete with tanks, flags, and a Midwestern Mussolini vibe without much of a crowd.
The protests weren’t just about Trump. They were about the entire imperial theater we’ve been force-fed for decades, one where presidents aren’t public servants but personalities, and where dissent is expected to stop the moment someone “blue” takes the throne.
Which brings me to the sign I saw online from a protest in L.A.:
“If Kamala Harris Were President, We’d Be at Brunch.”
And I thought—yeah. That’s the problem.
Because brunch, in this context, isn’t about French toast. It’s about liberal sedation. It’s about mistaking vibes for values, symbolism for substance, aesthetics for actual policy. Kamala Harris as president would’ve meant fewer angry tweets, sure—but the material conditions wouldn’t have shifted much. And the illusion of progress might’ve been even just as dangerous as the chaos of Trump.
Let’s not forget: under Biden and Harris, the U.S. has not just enabled but funded Israel’s genocidal siege on Gaza. Peaceful student protesters were brutalized on college campuses from coast to coast—for daring to say Palestinian lives matter. Immigration policy under this administration hasn’t just stalled—it’s veered even further right. But we’d be at brunch, right?
That’s the comfort liberalism sells. Not safety, not justice—just the temporary illusion that things are fine because they’re quieter. It swaps out fascist aesthetics for technocratic ones. Same cages. Fewer headlines.
Yes, Trump is a fascist cartoon with a crayon crown. But Bidenism is what happens when you try to beat authoritarianism with goodwill and press conferences. It’s climate inaction with a recycled slogan. It’s war crimes in a blue tie.
And the scariest part is we’ve seen this before. Democrats rally the base with urgency—“this is the most important election of our lives!”—then coast into power with no intention of actually changing the material conditions that made Trumpism possible. Come 2028, assuming we still have elections, a Democrat will likely win. The brunch crowd will celebrate. Then disappear.
Palestinians will still be under siege. Immigrants will still be detained and deported. Free speech will still be criminalized. But brunch will be back on the menu.
This is the liberal cycle: panic → protest → vote blue → disappear. Not because people are apathetic—but because liberalism has trained its base to measure success by feelings, not outcomes. It doesn’t kill loudly. It kills through quiet neglect. Through a well-timed tweet. Through a latte and a podcast that says “everything is complicated.”
So yeah, I’m grateful for the protest turnout. I’m grateful people are still showing up. But I’m terrified we’ll win this round—only to fall back into brunch-mode, letting the right reload while MSNBC plays highlights from Harris’s Spotify playlist.
We need a clear agenda. A real resistance. Not one that ends at the ballot box, and definitely not one that ends with eggs benedict.
Because if the only thing stopping us from caring is who's in the White House, then we were never serious to begin with.
Have your Aperol spritz, fine. But make it a side dish to accountability. Talk about genocide with your mimosa. Discuss surveillance over your eggs. Just don’t make your brunch quiet.