My eleventh grade European history teacher said something that will always stick with me: “In Europe the government is afraid of the people. In America, we are afraid of the government.” That statement was true then, and it is most definitely true now.
A Donald Trump presidency is frightening for many people — for the immigrants he wants to deport, for the Muslims he said he wants to ban, for the gay couples Mike Pence thinks signal “societal collapse,” and for the black people that he incited violence against at his rallies. But to these people, this hatred isn’t new. White people are just now discovering it because it has boiled to the surface of our national discourse in such a way that we cannot pretend it doesn’t exist.
So naturally, when Donald Trump did in fact win the electoral college, protests broke out around the country. Will these protests change the fact that Trump is the president-elect? No. But it will send a message to our government, our people and the world that we will not just blindly let the media and Trump’s voters forget the racism and bigotry that fueled his rise.
To those calling these protests stupid: stop. Even before the election Donald Trump supporters, like Joe Walsh who sent out this horrific tweet about “taking up arms” if Trump loses, were planning on protesting the results if they didn’t go their way. We should be supporting peaceful protests, no matter if we agree with them or not, because America works best when everyone works hard.
Democracy requires participation — not every four years, or even every two years, but every day. Protesting isn’t stupid, and it shouldn’t stop. Not on Trump’s first day in office, or on his 100th day in office, or on his last day in office. The president is not bound to a narrow constituency like a congressional district, he is bound to all of America. And if America doesn’t yell, the presidency won’t listen.
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