From emancipation to women’s suffrage, civil rights and BLM, mass movement has shaped the arc of US history
Trump’s first and second terms have been marked by huge protests, from the 2017 Women’s March to the protests for racial justice after George Floyd’s murder, to this year’s No Kings demonstrations. But how effective is this type of collective action?
According to historians and political scientists who study protest: very.
From emancipation to women’s suffrage, from civil rights to Black Lives Matter, mass movement has shaped the arc of American history. Protest has led to the passage of legislation that gave women the right to vote, banned segregation and legalized same-sex marriage. It has also sparked cultural shifts in how Americans perceive things like bodily autonomy, economic inequality and racial bias.
This is all assuming we have free and fair elections which we absolutely don’t anymore, from gerrymandering to the electoral college to shoddy infrastructure, to rouge poll workers who were told to occupy the positions by a sitting president.
Yeah, I get it. We are talking about the effectiveness of protesting though, not the effectiveness or condition of government. This current US government is only going to be removed by torches and pitch forks, French style.