We Interviewed an Anti-Trump Inflatable Frog. It Made Some Great Points.
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Over the past decade, Donald Trump’s opponents have struggled to find an effective answer to the rise of right-wing authoritarianism. There have been deeply earnest, sign-carrying boomers. There have been Antifa-inflected, black-clad protestors ready to spar with militarized Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
What there had not been, however, were inflatable frogs.
That is until Donald Trump sent troops to Portland, where ICE agents ran headlong into a 24-year-old in a blow-up frog suit named Seth Todd. Todd met a line of grim ICE agents by dancing and thrusting his hips. An agent sprayed pepper spray directly into his air vent, but he wasn’t defeated. Instead, more inflatable frogs joined him in the days that followed, dancing in the streets.
Fast-forward to Saturday’s “No Kings” protests, a coordinated series of protests in cities and towns nationwide. Here in Washington, D.C., it became clear that inflatable frog absurdity has become the resistance’s weapon of choice.
At a mass protest on downtown’s Pennsylvania Avenue, the joking signs outnumbered the serious. There were people in colonial America costumes and in clown costumes; some signs mentioned “6-7.” One protester held a sign calling for Tom Cruise to save them; another accused Trump of loving Nickelback. One group carried a Flying Spaghetti Monster banner. There were some old hits—the Handmaid’s Tale costumes from the Women’s March days, for example, and tiny hands. But there were more references to antifa: some women dressed as “Aunt Tifa” with reading glasses and curlers in their hair, a reference to Republican efforts to portray anti-fascist protesters as extremists.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement“I Stand with Frog Dude,” one banner read. Another: “No Kings, Only Frogs.”
It’s a joke, but it’s not only a joke. At a time when the administration is seeking to portray its political opponents as seditious enemies—ones worthy of violence and prosecution—the injection of levity is a matter of strategy: In some No Kings protests, organizers encouraged participants to show up in Halloween costumes. These organizers aimed to deny the........
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