Everyone has the right to express their political beliefs
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
While voting is the chief way in which we Americans are able to express our political beliefs and determine our own self-governance, and all Americans who are eligible should vote, due to the Electoral College system, it is difficult for your voice to be heard if you are a left-leaning voter in a deep-red state like Alabama, or a conservative in a deep-blue state like Connecticut.
However, no matter your political persuasion, there are other ways to make your voice heard as a left-leaning person in Alabama. Firstly, you can call your representatives. Even if your representative is of the opposite political persuasion, your call can make a difference. One prime example of the efficacy of calling your representative is Thom Tillis’ vote against the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Despite Tillis’ reputation as a stalwart conservative, he voted against the bill due in large part to the outcry from his constituents, including left-leaning individuals such as myself. In his official statement on his decision to vote against the bill, he stated he “did his homework on behalf of North Carolinians” to determine the impacts that the bill would have. I applaud Tillis for listening to his constituents, even though he had to go against his party to do so. It behooves senators and congresspeople to listen to their constituents so that they can obtain reelection, and one primary way they know the will of their constituency is by direct contact to their office. They should strive to represent the will of all of their constituents, not just the ones who voted for them.
Secondly, you have the right to engage in peaceful protest. While some, who generally advocate for either violence or complete inaction, believe peaceful protest is not effective, the data says otherwise. Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist and professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Maria Stephan, the former lead foreign affairs officer for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the U.S. State Department, analyzed over 200 violent revolutions and over 100 nonviolent movements.
They found results that may shock many: the nonviolent movements were more successful than the violent ones. 53 percent of the nonviolent movements were successful, in sharp contrast to a mere 26 percent of the violent movements. In addition, when Chenoweth and Stephan looked at Polity scores, which are a tool used by political scientists to determine how autocratic or democratic a regime is, as well as if a nation has become more or less democratic or autocratic in a year, they found that the violent movements that were successful tended to promote new autocratic regimes, while successful nonviolent movements tended to make a nation more democratic.
Violence leads to tyranny, and nonviolence leads to democracy. According to Chenoweth and Stephan, every nonviolent movement that got active participation from at least 3.5 percent of the population succeeded. The July 14th “No Kings” protests accomplished over a third of this goal, with, according to the peaceful anti-Trump organization 50501, 1.2 to 1.8 percent of the American population protesting the actions of the Trump administration on a single day. Participating in peaceful protests has, historically, been one of the best ways to make your demands heard.
Reader, you need to be involved in the political process. It is not just your right, but your responsibility. Protest is patriotic. To be patriotic is to love your country, see her flaws and to actively work for a better nation, not to idly sit by for three years and 364 days at a time, watching the nation go in a direction that you believe hurts those Americans who are the most marginalized.
Martin Luther King Jr. proves my point more succinctly yet eloquently than I ever could: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”.
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