Trump Resistance Movement

Occupy Wall Street has been called many things including: unfocused, ungrounded, and silly. Others coin it as “America’s first internet-era movement” (Rushkoff). In quintessence, Occupy Wall Street is a series of protests and demonstrations that oppose the influence that corporate greed has on American Democracy. The protestors manipulate marches and nonviolent demonstrations to express their dissatisfaction with the state of American Politics and economy. This relates to the political science concepts of power, performance democracy, and protective democracy.

These events of the election lead me to ask Alejandra and Fernando about the anti-protest that have been bursting out all over the country. I asked Alejandra and Fernando how they feel about them and if they had participated in an any of the protest. (Fernando) – “Well right after they announced the winner a lot of people at UCLA were not happy so they started a protest against Donald Trump. It was around 11:50 pm when the protest happened. I would have joined but I had a long day from work and school and I had to wake up early the next day. Is not that I didn 't care and I didn 't want my voice to be heard I was just not emotionally ready I literally started crying. Although I wasn 't there physically I was there in spirit because it was great to have a community back you up. I could hear the chants of "f*** Donald Trump," "We want equality, not supremacy," and "we hate Trump" then after that they quickly faded away. I heard from friends that the protest was around 600 students and it ended up really late like around 3 in the morning. Although I was not present my protest is getting my education and to achieve my goals. As well as to empower others and to show them that anyone can achieve anything if you believe in yourself. As well as to show my community and people of color that they belong at UCLA”.

Starting with voting, voting was an important example of the “unreported resistance.” In the 1980 presidential election, Reagan won the election with 51.6 percent of the popular vote, which was twenty seven percent of eligible voters. Due to the electoral system, a small margin of popular votes can create a large margin of electoral votes. The media can declare a landslide for a presidential candidate, but it does not represent nearly what the majority of the nation wants. This unrepresented group was the unreported resistance. With only twenty seven percent of eligible voters choosing the president, then a large group goes unreported. This is seen in not just presidential elections, but in other aspects of government. For example, a poll demonstrated that sixty one percent of Americans were in favor of a single payer healthcare system, yet government officials

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center the “Patriot” movement began in the early 1990’s as a “response to what was seen as violent government repression of dissident groups (Potok, 2012).” The movement reached 858 groups but quickly faded until late 2008 when its numbers shot up to 149, “just as the economy went south with the subprime collapse and, more importantly, as Barack Obama appeared on the political scene as the Democratic nominee and, ultimately, the president-elect (Potok, 2012)”. The number, however, skyrocketed by 755% in three years to a total of 1360 in 2012 (Potok, 2012).

Peaceful resistance positively impacts a free society, particularly in a Democracy such as the United States. Abraham Lincoln famously described our national foundation as a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”, and for such a statement to be true, it is necessary that voices of US citizens be heard.

Within the Mexican American parties political participation has been a key factor towards getting representation within the eyes of the government. When people continue to protest for their rights they often show that they have not only begin the race, but they have put an effort to win. Organizations such as the UFW (United Farm Workers) have shown that political change can happen if people organize for a cause they believe in. This boycott showed that Mexican Americans are capable of organizing a group to voice their opinions against the dominant Anglo views. Mexican Americans were heard when they protested for their wellbeing because they were often being exposed to pesticides. Protests like this have shown that the voices of these protests

Despite the inequality in the United States, many Americans have been determined to have their voices heard. Recently, movements such as Occupy Wallstreet and the Tea Party Movement have formed in response to the growing wealth and control by the “1%”. These social movements have become very popular at times due to discontent among the populace and the wide accessibility of social media. While these movements tend to have rapid success early on; lack of cohesion, results, and true direction

Throughout history, the citizens of America have led protests and movements against unjust actions by those in power, laws that seemed to violate one’s rights or laws that seemed to hurt or discriminate against others. These protests have been crucial to shaping the nation into what it is today.

Civil unrest is happening in the United States, again. Since starting his election, Donald Trump has managed to offend may minorities such as Muslims, Women, African Americans and Hispanics. These groups, along with many others, feel that under Trump’s leadership they will become a lesser citizen and not have the equal rights that they should be allowed. In the days after the election, there were many reports of racial threats and violence to these minority groups(The Washington Post, 2016). These seem to be coming from white supremacy groups who supported Trump during his campaign. Protesters in many U.S. cities took to the streets to chant “We reject the president elect!”(Thomson Reuters) . Immediately following

Although indicators of positive change show increased awareness from participation in the march, racism and support of repression is not only remaining but arguably growing among certain parts of the public. No recent event exemplifies this better than the election of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 American election.

Since the dawn of human civilization, there have been governments. As a species, we have always attempted to efficiently and systematically maintain order. However it is not uncommon for those same governments to turn on the people it protects, as evidenced by the countless tyrants and authoritarian regimes that plague our history. When studying the complex subject of a free or oppressive government, it is rather interesting to look at the stark contrasts between how both of these organizations handle protests against their rules or laws. The authoritarian regime holds absolute power, meaning that nearly any form of complaint against their actions will be met with disregard, or even punishment. However in a free society in which the government must answer to the people, protests are the language of the discontent, signifying to a representative government that change is needed.

Americans reject the course Trump has chosen to make America great again. Since he was sworn into office, protests have erupted across the country in response to the President and his administration; from the women’s march to the protests at the SFO Airport and airports across the country.

One of the most recent protests was when women were marching against President Trump’s inauguration in the Women’s March on January 21, 2017. Millions of women worldwide and around 500,000 in Washington D.C. came together with signs, pink hats, and sometimes offensive costumes to show their disgust for our new President. Many supporters of this cause could

Peaceful resistance is a major part of American history, from the American Revolution to the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement to the Travel Ban protests of today. These instances of peaceful resistance shape American society for the better, as the voices of minorities are heard and unjust laws are ended. Peaceful resistance does positively impact a free society, as supported by Henry Thoreau, demonstrated by the 1960 Civil Rights Movement, and anticipated by protests of today.

“As they fathom injustice, organize to protest, craft a tactics, and engage in action, these bodies read what is happening and articulate their imaginative rebuttal. In so doing they demonstrate to themselves and all those watching that something can be done. Could this be why they are called political ‘movements’?”