Different motivations for protesting

Watching all the marches and protests over the Republican victory, it starts to get crazy.  What are these people looking for?  What do they want?

There are some who simply can't handle the fact that they didn't win the election.  They are protesting, but really, it's not a protest, it's simply them acting out their anger.  In reality, there is nothing for these people to be protesting about.  Did Trump someone manage to cheat by changing the election results?  Did Trump lose the election but seize power illegally?  No.

Like it or not, Trump won a free and democratic election, and as a result, he's the President.

To protest against the election RESULT is to protest against the very concept of democracy.  The whole reason we have elections is because some people would like person A to be the president, and others want person B to be the president - so to solve this problem, we have a vote, and the person who gets the most votes wins.  It's fair and democratic.

The attitude of these protestors is actually a danger to democracy, in that what they're asking for is the results of a fair election to be overturned so that THEIR person can become president.

There are those who say that they want their voice to be heard loud and clear.  Again, this doesn't make any sense.  Your voice WAS heard when you stepped into booth and marked your choice on your ballot.  Your voice was respected, and your vote was counted, just like all the others. 

So protesting "to be heard" makes little sense.  If the election had been rigged and your vote was thrown away and not counted, then yes, absolutely you should protest - that would be completely unfair and undemocratic.

But that's not what happened.  What happened is that your voice was counted, but so was someone else's, and in the end, when we counted up all the voices, more of them said they wanted Trump than said they wanted Clinton.

But make no mistake: You were heard, loud and clear.  But other people heard you and wanted Trump instead.  Whether or you agree with their choice or not, it's anti-freedom to say that they didn't have to right to make it.

There are also those who have genuine concerns about a Trump presidency: his characters, what he might do, etc.  It makes sense for those people to feel that way: there is a ton of uncertainty as to how things are going to go over the next few months.  Trump has said a lot of scary and crazy things.

However, protesting generically is pointless.  When someone protests, there should be a specific thing they are doing it for.  Look at the Vietman War protests - it was clear what the protestors wanted, and had the government simply ended the war, all the protesters would have gone home and it would have been over.  (Sadly, LBJ and Nixon showed was real tyrants they were by ignoring the obvious will of the people on the issue of the Vietnam war.)

Still, the point is that if Trump does something specific that needs to be changed, then protesting makes sense.  Saying that you'd like to see "the wall" never built - that's a clear demand.  It's something that people can get behind.

But generic protesting doesn't do anything.  Those people just saying "not my president" aren't really accomplishing anything, because there's nothing that can be done to appease them.  Sure, you can say "not my president", but what do you want to happen?  Do you want Trump to resign?  Do you want the results of the election overturned?  Do you want Clinton put in power even though she lost the election?

See, none of that is reasonable, nor does it have any chance of happening; this is why making a generic statement like "not my president" really doesn't act as an agent of change in any way whatsoever.

But that leads to the last type of protestor, and unfortunately, the most common: the person that defines themselves as working for good, whether it be activism or social justice or whatever - but who is so caught up in it, that they actually DO NOT CARE about the cause they are protesting.  They simply enjoy the rush that comes from being out on the street, being loud, and being able to "do good" and look down on other people.

These types of people do the most harm, because they are not rational, and they are not working for a specific cause - they have a self-definition of being a "good" person and "fighting evil" that they do not even consider whether the actions they're taking can ACTUALLY LEAD TO CHANGE.  They act loudly, forcefully, and IRRATIONALLY, because they're caught up in their own self-definitions.

This is why you cannot reason with this type of protestor, you cannot have an open and honest discussion with them about the issue: they are simply about taking action because that's what they do: act, regardless whether or not they have all the facts or truly understand the situation.

And these are the types that are the most angry, the loudest, and the most violent.  They have lost themselves and their real sense of identity in their 'mission' to fight for good.  And that's why they end up being the worst of both worlds: they don't create positive change and they act aggressively in their efforts that have no results.

LKvi