If you drive near the Roundhouse in Santa Fe this Saturday, you will see the crowds. The downtown streets might be blocked, the bullhorns will be loud, and the cardboard signs will be held high for the "No Kings" march.
The usual political commentators will spend the weekend screaming about dark money and radical agendas. But I want to talk about something else. I want to talk to the young New Mexican holding the sign.
Take a hard look at the organizations coordinating this weekend’s protest. These are not grassroots, local neighborhood groups. They are well-funded, out-of-state NGOs. They are backed by massive national war chests, run by highly credentialed political insiders from D.C. and the coasts who have already built highly successful, comfortable lives.
They have a vector. Do you?
There is a seductive trap in modern activism. It offers you a tribe, a sense of immediate purpose, and a feeling of righteousness. It tells you that all your struggles are the fault of a system or a phantom "king." But what these wealthy organizations will never tell you is that they view you as expendable.
When the march goes too far, when traffic gets blocked illegally, and when the police move in, who do you think goes to jail? It is not the wealthy NGO executives sitting in their coastal offices. It is the local New Mexican who got swept up in the emotion. You are the one who gets the arrest record. You are the one who has to explain a misdemeanor to a future employer. You are the prop in their political theater, absorbing the risk while they absorb the donations.
Anger is a full-time job that pays absolutely nothing.
When you make marching for every perceived grievance your core identity, you are paying an invisible but devastating tax with your own time. The hours, days, and years you spend screaming at buildings and fighting internet wars are the exact same hours you could be using to learn a trade, start a business, build a family, and create financial independence.
Look in the mirror and ask yourself a hard question: Fast forward twenty or thirty years. You are 50 years old. Do you want to still be standing on a street corner in Santa Fe, holding a fading cardboard sign, waiting for the government to finally fix your life?
Will your future children or grandchildren be proud that you were really good at chanting slogans, or would they rather inherit a strong family, a stable home, and a legacy of hard work and success?
True rebellion isn't blocking traffic for an out-of-state political group. True rebellion is taking absolute, uncompromising ownership of your own life. It is deciding that no politician, no president, and no imported NGO will dictate your success or failure.
These groups aren't New Mexicans. They are interlopers. They parachute in, rile up the youth, generate their headlines, and leave you holding the bag.
Don't let them. Put the sign down. Step out of the crowd. Do yourself a favor: watch out for New Mexico, watch out for your family, and protect your own property and future from outsiders who just want to use you. Find your vector, build your own kingdom, and let the people who have nothing better to do scream at the empty air.
The Duke is watching.
