On the long-term value of marches and protests

I’m all for more demonstrations and marches. Mostly. Sort of.

Let me explain.

I’m all for more demonstrations and marches, but for them to bear the fullest fruit, they’re going to have to convey us to a darker and more difficult place, at least temporarily.

The Women’s March(es) around the world was wildly and stunningly successful.

My wife and I took part in the March on Austin, TX, and were blown away by the energy of the crowd and the utter lack of violence and disorder. It was empowering to all the participants to see not only women standing up publicly, but also others in the progressive alliance standing with them, reminding us that we will all have to stand together in order for any of us to get anywhere. 

While marches and protests keep our community’s energy - and the public profile – up, let’s be blunt. They’re not going to close the deal. The real, long-term value of public demonstrations come when the authorities have decided they’ve had enough and start to crack down. The pay-off for the civil rights and anti-Vietnam protests of the ‘60s came when the authorities decided that they’d been patient long enough. They’d had enough of the agitation, and were certain not only that they’d be justified in using force and confinement, but that they’d be applauded by the great middle.

That’s where the establishment’s strategy came apart in the ‘60s. Seeing people marching in the streets may have temporarily boosted support for the regime. Seeing people they knew, or at least people they could identify with, getting assaulted or hauled off to jail just for peacefully demonstrating, however, gradually shifted support from the powerful to the average citizen’s friends and neighbors.

The bottom line is: a vast and so far silent percentage of Americans aren’t going to demand change until the faces on the internet and the news look like people they identify with, and those faces are attached to bruised or shackled bodies. It’s a simple equation, and not a pretty one.

I don’t have much doubt, given the gleeful intransigence of the rabid right, and given the authoritarian core of our current occupant in the White House, that we’ll get to that painful and very mess denouement.

It will take patience to see this darker, yet more rewarding fruit, and to see this journey to an end.  It will take significant commitment to one another and to the goal.

I hope – or at least want to stand fast with others in their hope – that the end of the journey will bring the restoration of our nation’s better nature.