Trump presidency portends the return of 1960s style civil disobedience

There are so many contradictions in Trump's words and tweets there is no certainty as to what his first actions will be as a president.

However, what is certain is that many people and social groups are fearful that Trump will try to implement socially divisive policies that target particular minorities.

There is already talk of 1960s style civil disobedience with marches and sit-ins and strikes and boycotts.

The start of Trump's tenure will be chaotic.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/09/the-return-of-civil-disobedience

[QUOTETHE RETURN OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCEThe sixties produced a conviction that “democracy is in the streets.” The Trump era may echo that.

On December 6th, less than a month after the election, Vice-President Joe Biden, who was in New York to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award, for his decades of public service, used the occasion to urge Americans not to despair. “I remind people, ’68 was really a bad year,” he said, and “America didn’t break.” He added, “It’s as bad now, but I’m hopeful.” And bad it was. The man for whom Biden’s award was named was assassinated in 1968. So was Martin Luther King, Jr. Riots erupted in more than a hundred cities, and violence broke out at the Democratic National Convention, in Chicago. The year closed with the hairbreadth victory of a law-and-order Presidential nominee whose Southern strategy of racial politicking remade the electoral map. Whatever innocence had survived the tumult of the five years since the murder of John F. Kennedy was gone.

It was telling that Biden had to sift through nearly a half century of history to find a precedent for the current malaise among liberals and progressives, but the comparison was not entirely fitting. Throughout Richard Nixon’s Presidency, Democrats maintained majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The efforts of the antiwar movement to end American involvement in Vietnam had stalled, but Nixon’s first years in office saw the enactment of several progressive measures, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Clean Air Act, as well as the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2016, the Republicans won the White House, maintained control of both chambers of Congress, and secured the ability to create a conservative Supreme Court majority that could last a generation or more. Donald Trump, a man with minimal restraint, has been awarded maximal power.

Last summer, the A.C.L.U. issued a report highlighting the ways in which Trump’s proposals on a number of issues would violate the Bill of Rights. After his victory, the A.C.L.U.’s home page featured an image of him with the caption “See You in Court.” In November, Trump tweeted that he would have won the popular vote but for millions of illegal ballots cast. This was not just a window into the conspiratorial and fantasist mind-set of the President-elect but a looming threat to voting rights. Ten days after the election, the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense Fund released a statement opposing the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions, of Alabama, as Attorney General, based on his record of hostility to voting rights and on the fact that he’d once brought unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud against civil-rights activists. But, with a Republican majority that has mostly shown compliance with Trump, despite his contempt for the norms of democracy, the fear is that he will achieve much of what he wants. Even if he accomplishes only half, the landscape of American politics and policy will be radically altered. This prospect has recalled another phenomenon of the nineteen-sixties: the conviction that “democracy is in the streets.”

Movements are born in the moments when abstract principles become concrete concerns. MoveOn arose in response to what was perceived as the Republican congressional overreach that resulted in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. The Occupy movement was a backlash to the financial crisis. The message of Black Lives Matter was inspired by the death of Trayvon Martin and the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Occupy’s version of anti-corporate populism helped to create the climate in which Senator Bernie Sanders’s insurgent campaign could not only exist but essentially shape the Democratic Party platform. Black Lives Matter brought national attention to local instances of police brutality, prompting the Obama Administration to launch the Task Force on 21st Century Policing and helping defeat prosecutors in Chicago and Cleveland, who had sought reëlection after initially failing to bring charges against police officers accused of using excessive force.

Last July, when the Army Corps of Engineers gave final approval for the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, anxious that the pipeline would threaten their water supply, started an online petition and filed a lawsuit to halt construction. Thousands of activists, including members of Black Lives Matter, and two thousand military veterans went to Standing Rock, to protest on the Sioux’s behalf; last month, they endured rubber bullets and water hoses fired in freezing temperatures. On December 4th, the Army Corps announced that it would look for an alternate route. But, since Rick Perry, Trump’s choice for Energy Secretary, sits on the board of Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the pipeline (and in which Trump, until recently, owned stock), protesters are settling in for a long winter.

In that context, the waves of protests in Portland, Los Angeles, Oakland, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., in the days after the election look less like spontaneous outrage and more like a preview of what the next four years may hold. Unlike the specific protests that emerged during the Obama Administration, the post-election demonstrations have been directed at the general state of American democracy. Two hundred thousand women are expected to assemble in front of the Capitol, on January 21st, the day after the Inauguration, for the Women’s March on Washington. Born of one woman’s invitation to forty friends, the event is meant as a rejoinder to the fact that a candidate with a troubling history regarding women’s rights—one who actually bragged about committing sexual assault—has made it to the White House.

The first Inauguration of George W. Bush, in 2001, saw mass protests driven by the sentiment that the election had been stolen. The protests that greet Trump will, in all probability, exceed them: some twenty other groups have also applied for march permits. Given his history with African-Americans, Muslims, Latinos, immigrants, unionized labor, environmentalists, and people with disabilities, it is not hard to imagine that there will be many more to come. The Congress is unlikely to check the new President, but democracy may thrive in the states, the courts, the next elections, and, lest the lessons of the sixties be forgotten, the streets. ♦][/QUOTE]

 

Liberal counter culture movement reborn, uglier than ever.

 

Progressives didn't get their way in this election, so many plan for chaos and violence in retaliation. It's not too surprising given the Bolshevik roots of their movement. The funniest part is they were worried about Trump supporters becoming violent after the election.

 

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Look at how bad life has turned out in all the most socialist nations: Cuba, China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea. They are all repressive hell holes.

The more socialism and revolution---the worse the outcome.

 

Meh, the snowflake revolution is about to begin. Prepare the safe spaces.

 

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Oh look, more identity politics followed by a wall of gibberish text, wailing, and teeth gnashing.

Instead of us listening to the violins, why don't you post one of these "socially divisive policies" so I can destroy it.

 

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So another hippie movement, except this time they're more hypersensitive than ever... Who cares, toss a mild insult their way and they'll run away crying. It's time for the adults to take care of the country.

 

It's always amusing to watch the infantilised bleat about adults being in charge and especially so when who they mean is Trump.

 

People are waking up to the danger the neoMarxists that now control the democrats. They should continue their tantrum, it really helped this election. I suggest they start by blocking the interstates while people are on their way home from work.

This seems like the first attempts by the left to pin the social unrest that occurred under President Obama on President Trump. The neoMarxists are so predictable

 

Bury your head back in the sand, trust me.

 

Trust me.

Ha, I'd forgotten there was an even more inanely trite internet dribble than the 'move over, the adults are here now' meme.

 

"Back in the day" we Boomers (who were in our late teens and early 20's then) protested against liberal Democrat, Lyndon Johnson's completely unnecessary, fraudulent war in Vietnam, and, we also protested in favor of Black people being able to do things everyone else could do -- like ride a bus, go into a restroom, eat in a restaurant, and vote.

Today's protestors? They're bellyaching and howling about wanting cradle-to-grave welfare handouts, free "this", free "that", free college, and promoting a perverse, (*)(*)(*)(*)ed-up society very much like the nightmare Orwell described in his masterpiece, "1984".... These adult-children need to pull their heads out of their smartphones, out of their asses, and actually DO something worthwhile in life before they go screaming that so much is wrong with everything.

Hint: How credible is a person who (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)es about what things are like on Mars when he hasn't even been to Mars...?

. Boomers, 1968 . . Millennials, 2016

 

In comparison to the tragedy of these millions of clueless men and women, Trump is certainly an adult. They bring shame to our country with each and every 'demonstration'. Don't these intellectually defect losers have anything better to do with their time? Time is capital, and they're wasting it. They could be getting richer instead of standing in cold weather, protesting something they can't control.

 

Better than electing Hillary and returning to the 30's

 

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I don't think Trump cares, neither do I. Why would anyone other than libs care if other libs burn down their own communities?

 

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Sounds like someone is blowing the prog whistle.

 

Well not so fast... they are collecting unemployment, and Soros is paying them too. Bank. $45/day.
And what else are they to do? What else do skill-less flunkies do with their day but act all bigoted and ignorant.

The more they protest, the more they repulse their own party members.

 

Umm Obama is nothing more than an idiot child. He is fake false and no normal person can even relate to him. he is so far from reality. But I guess youd call him an adult right??. face palms.

 

hahaha right on mate. The easily offended, looking to be offended. Anything will do.

 

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Oh no, sit ins . That will teach us.

 

You mean George Soros was paying protestors in the 60's as well? Who would have thought?

 

In the 60's we protested Viet Nam. We fought in the streets against racial injustice. We had great music that helped change America.

Today they are protesting for a safe place. They riot in the streets because "their" candidate lost. And the music? One of their biggest stars can't remember how to lip-sinc her most famous song.

Hippies did have bad hair and odd clothing, but at least we stood for something and fought for it. Millennials seem to think Tweets and hashtags will make things better. (guess we'll soon see)

PS: I don't ever recall seeing any 60's protests demanding a living wage, transgender bathrooms or banning "trigger" words.

 

What is actually very funny or ironic about this is that when conservatives questioned Obama on his agenda they were all bigots!

Let the leftist groups protest all they want, but when it comes to civil disobedience put them in jail for felonies so that they can never vote again!

 

Trump wants socially divisive policies? Obama has done it for eight years, so it would just be a continuation of the status quo.

 

Trump is obviously the most divisive President in US history. What other president has sparked protests before they even assumed the office?