Hundreds of thousands of anti-Trump “No Kings” demonstrators marched on Saturday through the streets of thousands of American cities, to expose general opposition to the ruling Republican Party and to express outrage over their various policies.

Like its predecessors, this effort will have zero effect.

Performative protests like “No Kings,” the 2017 Women’s March and the Hand’s Off marches this past April—organized by Democratic Party affiliates and allies—cannot accomplish meaningful change because they do not exert political pressure. Because they are nonviolent to the point of self-policing would-be militants in their midst and, occurring on weekends when most businesses and government offices are closed and therefore non-disruptive, the crowds pose no threat to the rich and powerful or their pet politicians.

Trump and MAGA world are every day. They work tirelessly to push their radical right agenda. “No Kings” and likeminded exercises in safe, sanitized street displays (“in many places the events looked more like a street party”) meet once every two or three months and thus fail the first test of agitation, which is to create chaos sustained and predictable enough to feel at least a little dangerous.

The last time this country saw a level of agitation big enough to make the ruling class worry was during the Vietnam War. There were huge marches in cities like New York and Washington. But what really helped shift the views of fence-sitting moderates was the ubiquity and consistency of the antiwar movement. Every morning, my mom drove me to school past a half-dozen anti-Nixon folks holding signs on the median strip along Route 48 south of Dayton. Whenever we drove by the entrance to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, there were 20 or 30 lefties and hippies shouting slogans. They were there morning, noon and night, through rain, sleet and snow. No matter what you thought of them or the war, you couldn’t help but be impressed by their commitment and resolve.

No one thinks those who show up for “No Kings” are brave. It is neither sustained nor ubiquitous. Nor is “No Kings” a movement. Building a movement requires a broad-based grassroots opposition organization that is independent of the two main parties permitted to participate in U.S. electoral politics. There is no such group or party.

“No Kings” is barely even a protest. Against what? Kings? There is no danger of monarchy. The threat today is authoritarianism. Against Trumpism? Trump and Biden—whom these same people never protested because he was a Democrat—were identical on the big issues: the genocide in Gaza, the minimum wage, healthcare. Protests have demands: stop the war, raise wages, let us vote. “No Kings” issued no demands. Just a request: show up and have fun.

I could detail, and have done so elsewhere, how actually left parties and organizations have been censored, suppressed, sidelined, marginalized and finally eradicated, and not just by Republicans. Here, though, I prefer to focus on how everyone who participates in performative, safe, Democratic-organized demonstrations like “No Kings” is helping Donald Trump and the reactionary Right.

“In Manhattan,” The New York Times reported, “two siblings, Joyce Pavento, 75, of Marlborough, Mass., and Diane Hanson, 78, of Narragansett, R.I…felt compelled to travel to New York City for the protest. Ms. Pavento said she enjoyed the camaraderie of like-minded people but wondered if their participation made any difference in the end. Yet despite pessimism and fears, the sisters agreed they couldn’t tolerate staying home.”

“What choice do we have?” Ms. Pavento asked.

“This is all we’ve got,” Ms. Hanson said.

“No Kings” marchers are driven by good motives. When they watch ICE thugs brutalize immigrants and peaceful opponents, they are disgusted. They’re rightfully scared of what comes next from an administration that views the courts as impotent idiots to be ignored or annoying roadblocks to be cleverly sidestepped, separation of powers be damned. They want to live in an America that is more respectful, humane and civilized than this.

So when liberals come across a Facebook post about a protest, and their friends invite them to attend, it’s natural for them to mark their calendars and drop by the office-supply aisle at CVS to pick up poster paper. They want to do something.

Sometimes, however, doing something is worse than doing nothing. Voting Democratic (or Republican) affirms the legitimacy of the party for whom you voted and of the system itself; a voter boycott would create massive political shockwaves were it to achieve substantial support. Buying from a small business as opposed to a giant conglomerate nevertheless feeds the capitalist beast, which would starve to death were millions of us to refuse to have anything to do with it. Watching TV and cinematic schlock encourages Hollywood to crank out more.

The problem here is what 1960s radicals called “co-option.” What is needed and desperately desired by millions of people who hate Trump is opposition that is at least as strident and sustained as Trumpism, or at least effective enough to meaningfully reduce its impact. What the labor unions and other Democratic front groups behind events like “No Kings” actually offer is watered-down, unsustained drivel with no lasting impact. Democrats divert us from activism and make the system safe for Republicans.

This would not matter were it not for the fact that time, attention and energy are limited resources. Every second you spend watching sports is one you don’t spend working out. Every minute you spend doomscrolling on TikTok is a minute during which you are not petting your cat or overthrowing the state.

The problem for the Left—or, more accurately, what should be the Left—is that many of them tacitly agree when Democrats and their allies claim that they are leftist politics in the U.S., that they are the vessel through whom Trumpism may be resisted—that, if you’re worried about fascism, they’re the only game in town. Vote blue. This is all we’ve got.

It’s a compelling argument because it’s true. Not that Democrats are actively resisting Trump; everyone sees that they’re not. But it is true that Democrats are the only significant political structure outside the GOP. This is because Democrats have made it that way, by denying presidential and other major nominations or a policymaking voice inside the DNC to their party’s left flank. The DNC also sues to keep third-party alternatives like the Greens off the ballot and out of televised debates. They arrested Ralph Nader when he showed up to a presidential debate as a spectator.

Liberals, progressives and real leftists face a no-win situation. Refusing to participate in events like “No Kings” helps to confirm the right-wing narrative that Americans either agree with them or aren’t against them. Showing up, however, empowers the willfully tepid Washington Generals-style pseudo-resistance of the Democrats.

Worst of all, it sucks away the energy required to start building a grassroots Left that could organize actual resistance to the Right.

What choice do we have? Energy is zero-sum. Imagine those same throngs, gathering across the country every single day in their communities, dedicating themselves to creating a real left movement: loud, unapologetic, relentless. Nothing could stop us.

(Ted Rall, the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of “Never Mind the Democrats. Here’s What’s Left.” Subscribe: tedrall.Substack.com. He is co-host of the podcast “DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou.”)