Authoritarians have studied protests. They've adapted, and the effectiveness of protests has dropped.

[ShazzieB]

14. All righty then.

Your disdain of protesters and the events they organize take part in are duly noted. You have expressed your opinion, as is your right, and some of us beg to differ, as is our right.

Some of us derive inspiration, strength, and encouragement from making our voices heard out on the streets, in chorus with likeminded others, and we will continue to do so. Will we change many voters' minds thereby? Gee, I don't know. But who said that was the main purpose of these activities? I've always thought of protesting as a way for people to, as I said above, make our voices heard, in a much more powerful way than any of us could ever do on our own.

When a whole crowd of people gathers on a busy street to hold up signs and shout slogans together, interesting things happen. There's the affirmation and reassurance each of us gets from knowing we're not alone, something that we all need as much of as we can get these days. There are the reactions of passers-by, the honks, and the waves, that tell us there are many others who care about what's going on, beyond those of us who showed up with our signs. There's an energy that flows through and among all of us, protesters and passers-by alike, that is reviving and invigorating and gives us the strength we'll need to go on fighting in the weeks and months ahead.

Afterwards, we go home physically tired but mentally uplifted and recharged, cheered to know that we're not as isolated as we feared, that we actually have lots of company, and resolved to plunge with renewed vigor into the work that needs to be done. Work like talking to voters and working to change minds, which is very important, as you pointed out.

Showing up at a protest doesn't mean we're not going to do anything else. Some of us will be writing postcards, knocking on doors, phone banking, ir fund raising. And many of us will be talking to our friends and neighbors. Some will be doing all of the above. Some of those things may reap more tangible results than others, but all of them reinforce and support each other as well as those of us who do them.

Of course protesting alone doesn't win elections. What a silly idea! But to imply that they have no value at all seems like an equally silly idea to me. Protests are just part of the picture, but they have legitimate purposes, not the least of which is to support and reinforce our determination to continue with all of the other tasks that are necessary to win elections. If you don't get anything out of them, fine. You do you. Just please find a way to do you without raining on everybody else's parade, and don't make assumptions about what else we protesters may or may not be doing. And don't forget we ALL want the same thing, to save the country we love before it's too late!