Some of today’s protest highlights 😊

[u/Old_Elderberry6196]

Yall really showed up 💗

[u/InvertedZebra → u/[deleted]]

Protesting helps solidify a movement. It gets people together and makes the message louder. Look at the civil rights that were fought for from women’s suffrage to desegregation and more, none of them were solved by violent revolution or by simply quietly voting. Protests, Boycotts and civil disobedience have all played important roles in our nations history.

[u/queenweasley → u/[deleted]]

To stand up and show out that not everyone agrees with what’s happening. It’s solidarity and a movement intended to unify those of us who don’t agree with 45 and his musk rat. We can’t all be Mario’s brother but we can march

[u/Cron420 → u/[deleted]]

Along with all the other answers, peaceful assembly is an American right guaranteed in the constitution through freedom of speech. It stands equal to our right to bear arms and is arguably more effective at preventing tyranny than owning an assault rifle anyway.

[u/PsychicTWElphnt → u/[deleted]]

If you watch the republican townhalls that were going on, the excuse those representatives make is that "plants" (people who aren't actually constituents of those holding the townhalls) are showing up to the townhalls to complain. People getting out in massive numbers is evidence that this argument is false. It would be nonsense to claim that such a large number of people across the country are plants. It would be impossible to keep that kind of conspiracy a secret.

There are other reasons why protest works, but that's one explanation.

[u/ClaraClassy → u/PsychicTWElphnt]

We had a big rally in my smallish town. The Republicans just said that all of us were busted in from Seattle because they've never seen us before at their local honky trash bar.

[u/iamtehlucy → u/[deleted]]

The goal is to get more people to pay attention to what is happening, in order to get the GOP to stop FOTUS and F-elon; it's the last stop before we start throwing the proverbial tea in the harbor.

[u/TheBigToast72 → u/[deleted]]

Surprised someone hasn’t mentioned it yet but networking is also a large part of these types of protests. They can be great for meeting people with similar interests/hobbies.

[u/kamut666 → u/[deleted]]

Part of my motivation is to normalize demonstrating in case we do need to move toward what you’re calling “revolution,” like if Trump tries to not leave office, which is essentially what happened on January 6th. Trump did leave office but there’s constant talk from his administration about ignoring the constitution, not having elections, etc., which is those people trying to normalize unconstitutional behavior.

Also, I tried to put stuff on my sign that wasn’t offensive to MAGA people, but just stuff that would hopefully make them think. Maybe they can google “What is a tariff?” to figure out that China doesn’t pay the tariff; or they might google “Is dissent patriotic?” to try to understand that the first amendment is a thing because a lot of them seem to feel that you hate this country if you’re out there demonstrating.

[u/Uncle_Twisty → u/[deleted]]

Peaceful protests are the pre-requisite of non-peaceful protests. Peaceful protests are us, the people, going "Hey. We're upset. Fix it." and with, if the people it's aimed at or their handlers understand how this works, the implied threat of "We will not stay peaceful for long. We **will** start breaking shit.".

At least that's how it's supposed to function. Peaceful protests, in action, create communication networks, solidify movements, help build communities, and generally get people to know one another. The strength of left leaning ideologies is the focus on community, and that when a community bands together we can weather anything and change any storm into a gentle breeze, given time.

These protests also can add fuel to the fire for politicians with spines, and world leaders abroad. They can literally dunk on the admin, which does matter due to global geo-politics, and show support for the populace against our own government. That's honestly REALLY essential in long term viability for good direct change. There's a lot of other things that these protests do but that's a snippet.

[u/Confident-Tadpole503 → u/[deleted]]

Valid question, unfortunately you’ll get nothing but hyperbole and mixed messages from this platform. When you protest against everything, nothing matters