Here in Tennessee, the majority are blind republicans–blind to everything. None of my neighbors listens to reason, or responds to appeals to facts, logic, conscience, sentiment, or even self-interest.
Marsha Blackburn is my Senator, & she does nothing but culture war jabbering & sending form letters.
It has been advised that citizens should “take to the streets”.
How?
Where?
What would make a difference?
The local Democrats are a joke. As eccentric as bird watchers.
What to do?
Some ideas here.
The point of public protest demonstrations is to a) persuade the public that there is a serious problem, and b) capture the attention of lawmakers in an effort to make them take your cause seriously. The experience of the “Occupy Wall Street” did pretty much the opposite, and while the multitude of protests following the killings of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor did effect some changes it also galvanized a counter-backlash that has pretty much fed into ‘culture wars’ bullshit.
As for garnering attention of lawmakers, the Republicans in Congress have made it utterly clear that they have zero fucks to give about the interests of their constituents; some because they are MAGA true believers or opportunistic hangers-on, others because they are (rightly) terrified of being primaried by well-funded candidates backed by Elon Musk, and even Mitch McConnell’s nominal opposition is purely out of self-interest rather than principled objection or holding himself and his every-shrinking coterie of Republican Classic for all they did to bring about this situation, not to mention every Democrat who has voted even a single one of Trump’s appointees into office in some badly midplaced ethic of being ‘bipartisan’, as if that is how Trump’s quid pro quo works.
I frankly don’t see public protest as moving the needle even a bit, and indeed, Trump loves the attention which he can blame on “fascist Antifa” or “Nancy Pelosi” or “CNN”, but if you are going to protest, it shouldn’t be over the diverse array of basic offenses to democracy, the conversation, or even the ability of women to have physical sovereignty over their bodies. It should be one singular message that unambiguously reads, “Impeach the motherfucker, now!” because that is literally the only way to stop this tide of authoritarianism that is in motion.
Stranger
Terrific.
I contacted them hours ago–no response.
As @Stranger_On_A_Train notes, marches and protests are unlikely to do anything. Campaigns are different. Here’s a how-to guide. Warning: it ain’t easy.
How about “Nelson Eddy-style”?
I’m not even going to bother with that.
I agree with this. The local news reported two large protests. One was in Philly. The other was in Delaware county, Pennsylvania. I know nothing about the politics of Delaware county. Philadelphia is filled with Democrats and has leaned Democrat for a long time now. Protesting Trump is useless. Protesting Trump in a city filled with Democrats is somehow even more useless.
I’m not sure that an all-male march carrying torches is going to carry the right connotations right now –
Well, yeah, it won’t have any effect on The Donald and his band of merry sycophants. But A LOT OF protests making A LOT OF noise and getting A LOT OF media coverage might wake up those people who only read the trump-generated headlines that promise low egg prices and no more smelly immigrants taking away 'Murrican jobs. People are really stupid and ill-informed these days and it will take a lot to get their attention.
I’m thinking of civil rights demonstrations of the '60s and Vietnam War demonstrations of the '70s-- enough of them finally did get people’s attention, even in the government. How long did it take to build the momentum in those cases/
Ain’t gonna happen. People did not vote for Trump in spite of all the bigotry. They voted for Trump precisely because they support all the bigotry.
Except the demonstrations weren’t the reason that the US exited Vietnam. In part, we left because an increasing number of draftees were fleeing the country while others were being maimed and killed in a war nobody could explain why we were fighting (and that Nixon campaigned on extracting the US from) but mainly because the economic burden in an era of increasing inflation was crippling the domestic economy. Had the war gone longer, the 1973-4 oil embargo would almost certainly brought US involvement in Vietnam to an end. The demonstrations certainly brought public attention to these issues but also polarized opinion even though planners had acknowledged since the mid-‘Sixties that the US could not win a war in which there were no clear objectives and a force that could disappear into the population, even as President Johnson was extolling them go “go kill some people.”
Not just the bigotry; the bluster, the unapologetic buffoonishness, and most of all the performative cruelty. People keep arguing that most people voted for Trump because of inflation/price of eggs/offshoring of jobs/whatever as if these were things he fixed in his first term and would do again instead of engaging in pointless ‘trade wars’ and incentivizing manufacturers to automate production instead of backing trade unions. Anybody who voted for Trump purely for economic reasons is a complete moron because it is clear that Trump understands nothing about economics or running a (successful) business, but most voted because Trump vowed to get vengeance for them, primarily by attacking immigrants, Muslims, queer people, and ’Marxists’.
Stranger
Ok.
Do you think civil rights demonstrations had any effect on changing policies? If not, what was the tipping point?
I think that demonstrators for civil rights in the ‘Sixties in Montgomery, Mobile, and else where brought public attention to an issue that was growing into massive civil disruption. But these were not spontaneous movements arrise out of nowhere in the span of a few years; they had their origins going back into the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, expanded in the post-WWII era with the establishment and expansion of what are now known as “Historically Black Colleges and Universities” (staffed in substantial measure by Jewish professors who had fled fascism in Germany, Austria, France, and elsewhere in Europe), was fostered by Evangelical churches, and generally enjoyed both broad popular enthusiasm outside of the South (at least, as long as ‘they’ weren’t moving into ‘redlined’ suburban neighborhoods) and political support by the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations, cumulating in Johnson championing the Civil Rights act of 1964 and the War on Poverty as well as broad judicial support affirming that blacks are afforded the same rights and not in the “separate but equal” sense of Plessy v. Ferguson.
What we have today is an almost complete inversion; the Evangelicals have largely embraced White Christian Nationalism; the executive is pro-authoritarianism and anti-civil liberties, and enough of the population has bought into the ‘culture wars’ nonsense that they are all too happy to go along with rolling back civil rights of all kind including, crucially, protections of voting rights. There is no coherent movement against all of this despite “Kamala Harris’s Fight Fund” sending out demands for donations on a daily basis because what the fuck are these people going to actually do with that money? The general notion that the federal government has become bloated and overreaching while actually being largely ineffectual in protecting people from predatory business practices is not wrong (although if the ‘solution’ is to disestablish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and virtually eliminate independent oversight of all major agencies and departments I think the problem has been badly misframed) and the voting population was clearly ready for something other than a mostly status quo even if it means voting for an inept self-described dictator whose most notable accomplishments is hosting a reality t.v. game show where people compete to be subservient to him and running multiple waterfront casinos into bankruptcy, among his long string of other business failures and suspect/fraudulent/corrupt dealings.
So, I don’t know…what is it that you want to protest? That a plurality of voters approaching a majority of those who did the bare minimum voted for Trump? That he is doing exactly what he said he would do and now people are shocked, shocked that they have to take him both literally and figuratively? That the “world’s richest man” (at least, in the hypothetical that he could somehow realize all of the market-generated speculative ‘wealth’ into actual dollars or real assets) openly bought the attention of the winning candidate and has now installed a coterie of Muskovites into federal agencies to access data and accounting/payment systems with zero controls or oversight into what they do with the information? Personally, I think the biggest immediate threat is the trifecta of Pam Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr being installed into positions that are critical to national security and safety from epidemic threats, but all three were approved through the standard Senate hearing and confirmation process, so are we going to protest that the institutions of democracy are working ‘as they should’ but not with the result we want? Notwithstanding, of course, what “Drill, baby drill!”, and worse the impending disestablishment of climate surveillance programs and purging of all data and models from public view, as well as almost certainly pulling funding for all experts working in climate science and related research at NOAA, NASA, USGS, USDA, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, et cetera, which is going to leave us blind to the increasingly dire threat of climate change that we’re already not taking any real measures to abate or adapt to.
I’m just kind of at a loss as to what protest is going to accomplish because it isn’t as if even ‘low information voters’ are totally clueless about the corruption going on in plain view or that the price of eggs, et cetera, keeps going up, and unless it somehow inspires twenty or more Republican Senators to vote for conviction on an impeachment that the House seems manifestly unlikely to initiate, it’s kind of like pissing into the wind.
Stranger
I think the focus should be on one issue. I think massive demonstrations DEMANDING the arrest of Elon Musk would be a great start. Even MAGA must agree that nobody wanted this unelected bozo causing havoc at the treasury. Demand Elon’s arrest, perp walk, no bond, prison as a flight risk, and immediate trial as a national emergency. Demonstrations for that and only that by millions of Americans.
No side demonstrations about climate change or racism or even impeaching Trump at this point.
JUST ARREST MUSK NOW!!!
The rest of the problem later.
DEMAND ELON’S ARREST NOW!!!
There were big protests in Trump’s 1st term. They didn’t achieve anything. Why would they be more successful this time?
Said it before, I’d love a good sit-in or noisy march. I’ll take an “arrest Musk sign”
Don’t think the Dialysis clinic would be impressed.
I would not be out on the streets fighting, protesting anyone.
Donate $$ is my only way to help.
I think the MAGA faithful are pretty happy with the job Elon is doing so far to disrupt and deconstruct government bureaucracy, as are the Heritage Foundation fucktards behind Project 2025 (albeit for different reasons). The relatively few remaining ‘normal’ Republicans are somewhat distressed (or in Susan Collins’ vernacular, “very concerned”) but not enough to, you know, actually do anything about other than Mitch McConnell who after having protected and promoted Trump has suddenly decided that this is all too much only to realize he no longer has a pulpit to preach from as far as the GOP is concerned.
Elon is essentially as untouchable as Trump, at least unless and until the latter turns on him.
Stranger
Thanks. Food for thought. Or nightmares.
FWIW, here are some pictures of yesterday’s protests. Not positive this is a gift link (The Atlantic).
Here is an Associated Press article (free) with pictures.
(#8 is my favorite.)
Stranger