Protest Efficacy

I get very few opportunities to link to and quote Matthew Yglesias, but a post of his captures what this post is about:

If there's anything I hate more than the Farm Bill, it's protestors. Absolutely hate 'em. If people put all the time, energy, intelligence and ingenuity that they currently spend doing these things into boring jobs in Washington that involved ties and desks and offices then progressive politics would be about five times as effective as it is. Instead, we've got stuff like [...]:

My dark secret is that I find protesting completely worthless in most circumstances. I have argued with my niece and her parents on many occasions. She attended many anti-war protests. Policy differences aside, I suggested that she could advance her cause far better by writing a letter to the editor, donating money or volunteering for a sympathetic politician or candidate, starting a blog, whatever. I suggested that marching down the street in New York was not doing anything to stop the war.

Today the blogosphere is aflutter with Muslim anti-humor protesters. Like the anti-war crowd, it seems that these people galvanize their opposition and do little to engender sympathy from those on the fence. Instapundit links to a couple of articles suggesting backlash. I heard somebody say "it makes me hate Muslims." Sissy Williams in sisu quotes a comment "Even my most left-wing friends have very suddenly become deeply anti-Muslim." The Danish boycott will be swamped by the Danish anti-boycott (I had a cheese danish the other day in sympathy)

I did a little research (it only hurt for a few minutes) on protest efficacy. I found claims that they were a factor in supporting environmental legislation in the US, but the context I found was that the blog author could not find nor corroborate the statistics.

Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard has pointed out that the two effective protests of modern times were Gandhi’s revolt against colonial British rule, and Martin Luther King's march against segregation and Jim Crow injustice in the Southern U.S. Both of those, Barnes says, were directed to a sympathetic audience, basically accepting the decency of the Brits and Americans to care about the opressed's plight.

I generously add the anti-Vietnam protests and conclude that all the protesters were disenfranchised. Bull Connor and his cohorts had effectively suppressed black vote in pre-Civil-Rights-Act Alabama, Gandhi’s followers did not enjoy self rule, and 60's youth could be conscripted at 18 but not vote until they were 21.

Marching is what they had, so they used it, together with charismatic leaders and an intrinsic dignity among those to whom the protests were directed.

The Million Moonbats March on Washington, the Muslim protests against the Danish cartoons do far more harm to their cause than good.

Hat-tips:
-- Saheli: Musings and Observations, a very good blog with the environment post I discussed and a link to the Yglesias quote.

-- Chinese Petitioners’ Tactics and Their Efficacy, an interesting research paper by a Columbia Political Science student.

Posted by John Kranz at February 5, 2006 5:26 PM