Calls are going out now for mass protests in the streets. Citizens opposed to the many illegal acts already committed by the current regime and the policies they tell us are coming plan to meet that crisis by forming large crowds and waving signs.
Proponents of mass demonstration point to the successes of the 1960s (and the '60s part of the '70s) where mass gatherings focused media attention on opposition to the Vietnam War and helped to end it
Equally dramatic in the media but somewhat less successful were the protests for racial equality that led to civil rights and voting rights legislation, the removal of overt color barriers, and driving the worst of racism underground for a while. Great gains were made at the cost of blood, but those gains fed immediate backlash.
One of the most enduring images of the 60's is that of Woodstock, in 1969. That was a mass gathering, but instead of blocking streets and disrupting a major city with angry shouting and clashes with law enforcement and counter-protesters, it was hundreds of thousands of people coming together to listen to music. It was a pinnacle of Baby Boomer influence on the direction of society. It was also poorly organized and had to be bailed out by the grownups, but the grownups did so with kindness and relatively good humor. Perhaps this was partly because the kids were doing their thing in an out of the way place.
The festival itself did showcase how a huge crowd of people -- estimates have run as high as half a million -- could get together and express their hedonism and grievance for three days without violence and destruction. There was destruction, but only what comes from packing a bunch of people together in a compact area and letting them trample it for a long weekend.
Because the theme was peace and love, it was easier to generate peer pressure to direct the audience's feelings toward that. It was definitely not G-rated, but the focus on nonviolent things made anger socially unacceptable.
The Vietnam War had been a festering sore in American society since about 1964, although US involvement dated back further. Woodstock was part of a short-term campaign compared to Black civil rights protests, even if it felt long to the privileged teens and young adults who wanted to end the stupid war that would ultimately claim tens of thousands of American lives, and probably millions of Southeast Asians.
Unfortunately, times change. The lens of history distorts as much as it clarifies, especially where protest techniques and their results are concerned. For a protest to work, it has to generate sympathy in the larger population witnessing it. This often means that the protesters suffer injuries and deaths at the hands of whoever has been oppressing them. Blood runs freely in the timeline of the labor and civil rights movements, and even the women's movement. None of those movements made gains because of strategic battle victories. They got what they got because they turned public opinion in their favor, against the bullies who were beating them down.
A protest is an act of faith that the public can and will eventually feel sympathy enough to vote in favor of the changes that the protesters request or demand. Anyone who gets shot, lynched, or beaten senseless is hoping that the sacrifice is worth it. Anyone taking part could be a casualty. This is why military services traditionally used a draft system to get enough combatants to fight a real war. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the British navy actually resorted to abducting men off the streets to get enough of them to complete the crews of warships. As war became more industrialized and horrific, men had to be forced to join.
The results of drafted forces in the Vietnam War led the Department of Defense to say "thanks but no thanks" after that. The services recruit volunteers. The coercive forces that direct people to join up are provided by the economy now. No need for a showy draft. Just hype the job security benefits to the lower rungs of the economic ladder.
Protest movements have no draft leverage. Recruiters for a protest event have to overcome the legitimate survival instincts of working people. Do I have the day off? Will I get fired for participating? Will I get injured, killed, or arrested? Will some provocateur spark violence? Will it do any good?
Protests based in anger and resistance to oppression are automatically more vulnerable to escalation into violence. Protests that inconvenience the uncommitted majority of the population have trouble generating sympathy. "We don't need your stinkin' sympathy," the true believing protester might say. "We need you to get off your ass and join us!" What we really need is effective education. Yelling, chanting, waving what seem like cleverly worded signs, and maybe getting pepper sprayed (or worse) for the cause might provide years of reminiscence for the survivors, but if it doesn't generate a shift in public thinking it was a complete failure.
The current crisis calls for elected officials and government employees at all levels to fulfill their roles and put us back on course to serve the diverse population of our almost-free country. We've been fairly close a few times since the middle of the last century. We keep getting dragged back toward primitive attitudes that suppress women and minorities, and undervalue the lives of laborers at every level.
We do face challenges from nations that don't value their citizens, who use them to advance economic interests. The oligarchs who profit from exploited labor all over the world make a good point when they say that our consumer lifestyle depends on cheap labor somewhere. They never admit that their goal is cheap labor everywhere. Cheap labor sounds great until you realize that the vast majority of us are that cheap labor.
If the United States disintegrates into armed civil strife it will not be a neatly organized Civil War or revolution against clearly delineated tyranny. It will be skirmishes and murders that probably lead to imposition of martial law and real crackdowns that drive resistance underground. Normal people just want to survive. Most of us will do our best to fade into the background and lie low, hoping that the overlords will collapse on their own. On a long enough time line, they will. Their greed and indifference to humans and the natural world will bring ruin. But that time line is long and unpleasant.
A general strike would stop the economy, and need not include any public gathering. Just don't go to work. Unfortunately, most of us can't prepare for the shutdown of nearly all goods and services. Any such action would not last long and would include only a small percentage of the working population.
Effective resistance by private citizens calls for quiet acts of ordinary communication. Call elected officials. I'm terrible at that. More often I will email, but as an individual, not as a co-signer on a canned petition provided by an organization whose position I support. Before that I wrote actual letters. It does take more time than calling, but can be less intimidating if, like me, you don't really like talking to people. It also seems to me that something that lasts, like an email or a letter, allows the reader to review what I wrote rather than just responding with bland courtesy and hanging up.
It's impossible to stay on top of all of the destructive actions unleashed by the current regime. Don't try to chase them all. I do mention in my communications with elected officials that nothing is really unimportant, because everything connects on some level. That level isn't necessarily deeply buried.
Meanwhile, in the government itself, some elected officials are exerting their power, while civil servants are attempting to thwart the blatantly illegal incursion by the minions of DOGE. Nothing that a mass gathering of citizens could do will impress the current holders of power. If anything, it could be spun by them as an excuse to crack down in the name of public safety, to benefit the masses still trying to get through their daily lives. The real resistance is being fought in the courts and in whatever might persuade more voters to start voting in favor of their own pay grade, instead of imagining that they might miraculously find themselves craving those millionaire and billionaire tax breaks.
The answer was only ever education and communication. We survive or fall based on marketing. You can call it something else, but it's all just selling an idea.
"Hey, let's take care of each other and the planet!"
"Shut up, weirdo!"
