As America watched the predictions shift from Hillary to Trump on the night of the election,it was easy to make another prediction: If Trump won, liberals would riot.
Trump won the presidency and the left took to the streets almost immediately in swarms of people crying out that Trump is “not my president” and they are “still with Her.”
Anti-Trump protests have cropped up in cities country-wide, including New York, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles, according to reports by CNN.
The outcries have come from both general population and students. Even “thousands of high schoolers,” according to CNN, most of whom are too young to even vote, walked out of class in protest. Similar protests are occurring on college campuses.
Protests are certainly a viable way to raise awareness of a problem. They are, after all, what gained women the right to vote and pushed forward the civil rights movement.
Liberal America, however, uses protests as the staple of political movements, instead of the seasoning. They dilute their own agenda with signs and chants. Protesting everything leads to protesting nothing.
Especially since the protests of today are not protests—they are riots.
Anti-Trumpers in Oakland, California shattered windows, vandalized buildings, and threw M-80 firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, and bottles at police officers, according to reports by CNN.
A woman wearing a Trump jersey was cornered, spat on, and hit with eggs in San Jose, California, according to NBC News.
These are not protests where tension broke, but rather premeditated acts of crime.
The nation is in turmoil, and it’s not because of Trump.
Liberals, especially millennial liberals, have chosen taking to the streets in “protest” as their weapon of choice. But signs and chants are not discourse; signs and chants are not solutions. All they say is “we are angry.”
While most Democrats have a right to be upset, data from 12 News suggests that many protesters didn’t even vote. Police arrested 112 people at a recent Portland protest, but only 25 of those arrested had voted.
But their uncontrollable anger—however justified it may or may not be—is working against their own cause.
Again.
When the Black Lives Matter movement dominated the media, members of the movement had an opportunity to make a statement for their cause. They had an opportunity to have their voices heard.
Warning: Video contains explicit language. Footage of protest in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov 11. Courtesy of Matthew Warner.
But when the protests turned into riots, they not only hurt members of their own community through arrests and injuries, they ensured no one took their message seriously. The same thing is happening again. Literal assaults on Trump supporters do nothing but make the “protestors” look like angry children throwing a tantrum.
Their protesting does nothing. It does not change the presidency, and turning a protest into a riot only devalues their message.
Protests can be a powerful tool, but liberals use it as their only tool, and not even as a well-polished one. They riot under the guise of protest, and then complain when their ideas are not heard or valued.
Liberal America must realize it is not enough to simply have something to say. It must be said well.
Ms. Pair is a sophomore studying rhetoric and public address as well as journalism.
