As I drove past a couple of "No Kings" demonstrations last weekend, the same thought kept running through my mind: These aren't helping much, if at all. Maybe even making matters worse if the protesters are spending time and effort trying to accomplish something they're not.

Peaceful protest is fully guaranteed under the First Amendment, to the point one could argue that the right to denounce the government is precisely what the founders had in mind when they crafted it. And yes, it's probably fun to hang around with like-minded folks shouting anti-Trump slogans into bullhorns to obligatory applause on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

But "the Resistance" has been resisting in this fashion for nearly a decade now, and last time I looked, Donald Trump was still polling significantly better than the Democratic Party. And Democratic voter registration across the country has been dropping like a rock over precisely the time Trump has been trying to resurrect the rule of King George, albeit in less erudite form.

Whatever the Democrats are doing, including the protesting, doesn't seem to be working, no matter how obnoxious Trump's behavior.

Some insight as to why came from a friend in response to last week's column, in which I argued that the 2016 election was probably the single greatest factor propelling our current incivility and tribalism.

My perceptive friend........

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