Blue Lives MatterTo Election Protesters: What Are You Trying To Accomplish?By Officer Blue On November 9, 2016
As election protests ramp up across the country, illegally blocking roads and setting the stage for rioting, election protesters should ask themselves what they are actually accomplishing.
Donald Trump just won the U.S. presidential election. That means that roughly half of voting Americans chose Trump over Hillary Clinton. You are not going to be able to protest and rally your way out of this. When President Obama won his last election, large groups of people were calling for his impeachment. In the area I live, there were even people set up with petitions to remove him from office. Talking to these people it seemed clear to them, “Everybody hates him.” They were clearly wrong, considering that he had just been re-elected. Somehow, ignoring all logic and reasoning, they thought that there was enough support to remove an elected president from office immediately after he had won an election. What America is experiencing now is essentially the same thing.
Going out into the streets to protest the election results is endangering people’s safety and property. And for what? Masses of people are participating in what is essentially a giant temper-tantrum. Not too long ago, masses of people from across the country got together to protest Wall Street. Despite all of their participation and energy, they didn’t accomplish anything. The lesson that should have been learned after the failed Occupy Wall Street protests is that you can’t just protest against something, if you want to make change, you need to organize for change.
Black Lives Matter is a perfect example of a group that knows how to organize to enact the changes they want. They started as a mass movement, and organized to push a political agenda which has almost nothing to do with with what they were protesting. Black Lives Matter uses their protests as a platform to bring attention to their misguided cause.
All of these angry Trump opponent have the ability to organize to change America’s political system, but instead they are stamping their feet and screaming. Many are even “threatening” to leave the country, in the “I’m going to take my ball and go home” reaction.
We have a political system which allowed two of the most despised candidates to receive their party’s nomination. A majority of Americans aren’t happy with the system, no matter who they voted for. You can use this energy to change the system, or you can continue to endanger people while you throw your temper tantrum.
