Last Saturday, “No Kings Day,” saw large demonstrations in Northampton, Easthampton, Greenfield, Springfield, Shelburne Falls, Sunderland, Cummington, Pittsfield, Amherst, Granby, Williamsburg, Ashfield, Orange and Boston. They were among the more than 100 protests in Massachusetts and over 2,100 across the country in cities and towns, big and small. The common denominator? Devotion to resistance and the fervent hope, if not always the firm belief, that we can mitigate, if not totally prevent, the fascist takeover of the United States now in progress.

Friends, my wife and I stopped by Northampton’s and joined the one in Springfield where signs, all homemade, captured the moment. Many emphasized NO: No to ICE, No to Trump, No Tyranny, No Kings since 1776, No Kings. No Kings. No Kings.

STOP signs also were prevalent: Stop Trump & Dictatorship, Stop Authoritarianism, Stop disappearing people.

Some signs reflected history: 2025, the New 1933. Silencing the Press Will Not Silence the Truth. Never Again. Similarly: the Lyin’ King. Stop Putin’s puppet.

More than one quoted Trump. “You’ll never have to vote again.” A particularly poignant poster was an image of the Statue of Liberty cradling a young immigrant woman.

Many protesters held signs with American flags, containing messages such as, Our flag is for freedom, not fascism; Pro-America — Anti-Trump.

Though there is nothing funny about any of this, maintaining a sense of humor may be vital to surviving these dark times, so here’s a shout out to those who made signs that said, Ikea has better cabinets. Are we great yet? Cause I just feel embarrassed. And this one: Not a paid protester, just a pissed-off citizen. My favorite of this genre: Fight truth decay.

There were quite a few signs about signs (sort of): All of my outrage can’t fit on the sign; So many crimes, so little cardboard.

The themes on many signs: Due process for all. Courage is contagious. The only minority destroying this country are the billionaires. What are you going to tell your children?

The mood was both somber and inspiring. At one point you could hear a murmur coursing through the crowd and see cell phones coming out. I checked mine. The news headline: “Minnesota Lawmaker Is Assassinated in Act of Targeted Political Violence.”

A paragraph in that story that I noted: “Officials urged residents to avoid anti-Trump protests while they hunt for the gunman … They were concerned that the killer might be targeting them.”

Two days later the suspected gunman would be captured.

These murders bring home the fact that violence has become normalized. With regard to possible protesters in Washington, D,C., Trump promised a violent response, an egregious affront to the First Amendment, to decency and democracy.

In 2016, when Trump told his supporters at a campaign rally to beat up a non-MAGA-believer, there was loud criticism of him. Now, in response to his desecration of the First Amendment and his threat of governmental violence to be inflicted on dissenters, you could barely hear a whisper of criticism.

On our radio show last week, my co-host Buz Eisenberg and I interviewed Craig Robinson, the author of “How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism.” Robinson defines fascism as “a nationalist, anti-liberal, sexist and violent right-wing political movement that aims to remake the world … (I)t tends to be authoritarian and to have a single leader with a big personality.” Fascism condones and uses violence, and “doesn’t play by the rules.” Sound familiar?

But what, you might ask, did or could these demonstrations accomplish? That’s a legitimate, indeed a critical, question.

Induce policy changes? A day later, for a confluence of reasons, Trump ordered a cessation of ICE raids at farms, hotels and eateries — demonstrating, perhaps, that Trump’s venality has some limits? Sadly, no. Within 24 hours Trump, over business objections, rescinded his recission. The raids would continue. The demand for deportations prevailed — for now.

Another purpose of the demonstrations is movement building. Take a look at Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan’s highly regarded and meticulously researched book “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.”

The book demonstrates how sustained nonviolent demonstrations involving 3.5% of the population can bring down an authoritarian government. The demonstrations on Saturday involved between 11 and 13 million people. That’s 3.5% of the population. It’s only one day, but it was an impressive beginning.

A third purpose is to break through the isolation and assure us that we are not alone, to give hope and sustenance to further resistance.

And there’s yet another purpose, which on our radio show Buz Eisenberg pointed out last week. Buz reminded us of a famous quote from A.J. Muste, a name you may not know.

During the Vietnam War, Muste, a labor organizer, clergyman and political activist, stood in front of the White House every night for years holding a lighted candle. One evening with the rain pouring down a reporter asked him whether he thought that his nightly vigil and protest could change the policies of the country. Muste replied that he had no illusions that his solitary protest would change the country. “I do it”, he said, “so that the country won’t change me.”

Bill Newman, a Northampton-based civil rights liberties lawyer and radio show host, writes a monthly column.