Reasons Behind the Frequency of Citizen Protests in America

Protests have long been an essential part of American life. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution provides protection for many acts of protest by protecting the right to peacefully assemble in public places and freedom of speech. Protests are utilized to attract attention to events, injustices, and critical issues.

Varying from peaceful marches to powerful acts of civil disobedience, protests can be found in just about every political and social movement of the past century from the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, and 1960s to Anti-Iraq war protests of the 2000s protesters have pushed proudly through our history. Still many question whether protest activities are really influential in affecting American politics.

There have been a variety of different types of protests protests in the United States throughout history. During the civil rights movement in the 1960s, activists used different strategies including sit-ins, marches, and boycotts to combat racist laws. Today boycotts are becoming the most common form of protest because they are easier and cheaper to organize due to technology. Social media is a very effective way to reach a large group of like-minded people within a short period of time.

Just a day after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, a retired lawyer for the state of Hawaii, Teresa Shook posted a message on Facebook asking women if they would participate in a protest rally in Washington around the time of Trump’s inauguration. To this day, that is the largest single-day protest in American history. Despite the fact that social media clearly affects how protest events are organized, the fundamental practices at protests are the same. The basics of carrying a sign, marching, and saying saying chants of participating in a peaceful form of protest are all the same.

Protests against presidential administrations and police have intensified in the 21st century. Some examples of protests against the recent presidents include Anti-Iraq War protests during the George W. Bush Administration, and the tea party protests against former President Barack Obama’s health care and taxation policies. According to scholars, there has been an increase in protests during the Trump Administration. Since the Trump presidency, several marches have drawn 50,000 people or more to protest against this administration’s policies on current issues of science and racial justice, and climate change. However, this is common during Repubican presidential administrations.

The most notable protest was the Women’s March the day after Trump's inauguration when more than 4 million people in Washington and elsewhere participated in numerous anti-Trump demonstrations. 1.2 million people took part in 950 rallies, marches, sit-ins or other forms of political activity during April of 2017. Protests against the police force have also become more prevalent during the 21st century. NFL players have kneeled during the national anthem to protest police shooting, especially of unarmed black men. Other movements against police brutality have include disruptive maneuvers such as stopping traffic on a freeway. While most recent protests have been peaceful, some have generated violence and even death.

There have always been political and ethical concerns surrounding protest activities. During August of 2017, a suspected neo-Nazi drove his car into a large crowd of protesters killing one and injuring 25. Vandalism and violence have erupted in some protests against police brutality, including the murder of five police officers by a sniper during an otherwise peaceful protest in Dallas in July 2016. Additionally other movements against police brutality have exercised disruptive maneuvers such as stopping traffic on a freeway. As a result of this, many states are starting to impose restrictions on protests, and police and college campuses began negotiating with protesters to settle on agreed upon locations in which they can practice their first amendment right.

As one would expect, many Americans disapprove of violent and provocative behavior that has resulted from protests. Research shows that nonviolent protests are more effective, when a protest becomes violent people respect for the cause deteriorates. In a 2017 Pew Research Center poll discovered that 79 percent of American citizens believe that the right to protest non violently is an integral part of maintaining a strong democracy. Although it is still highly contested if protests are an effective way to cause political change.

Protests draw a lot of media and public attention, but protests alone are not effective at making policymakers change course on an issue. In reality they rarely affect presidential policy or help pass bills. Despite all the protests against the president, Trump has shown few signs of changing policy. In order to achieve policy changes, protests must be followed up by efforts to negotiate and lobby with their politicians. Movements alone do not write laws, but they do open up a conversation for change. Protests allow for citizens’ voices to be heard and help with mobilization, but protests are not enough to make politicians alter their own political beliefs.

There are extra steps that must be taken in order to make a change in the government. In politics, protests are an outside game striving for or in opposition of policies from outside formal political institutions. This is only a piece of the strategies needed for changing government or law practices. In order to make a lasting impact there needs to be a long-term commitment to an inside game of lobbying and participating in political campaigns. Given the nature of street protests, dominated by slogans demanding immediate action, it is difficult to persuade some participants to work for a cause over many years. It is hard to get people to show up and say, We’re going to march as part of a 60-year process toward racial and economic progress.

As a result of this, protests seldomly directly result in the passing of a bill or affecting presidential policies, but still help focus attention to a movement bringing people together to persistently work towards an issue.