As I write this, the low-temperature forecast for Inauguration Day is 20 degrees, cold enough even by the standards of this transplanted Chicagoan. But despite the chilly weather, rest assured that there will be thousands of people on the streets of D.C., all protesting the inauguration. There will be people turning their backs on President Bush, holding signs, yelling slogans, and wearing and selling buttons. Will any of them accomplish anything?
Before writing this column off as another pointless diatribe from the right, remember that I have the same goals as the protesters. I believe that Bush will be counted among our worst presidents. I simply want my side to make its case effectively - and protesting doesn't do the job.
To begin, consider the justifications for protests. Clearly, they aren't designed to change the minds of President Bush, or even his supporters. In politics, if someone disagrees with you, you've already lost him. And the protests aren't designed to win over the average voter either (unless the Radical Cheerleaders are suddenly appealing to swing voters). Protests are designed for just two reasons: to gain attention to your cause and to show your strength. These two functions can explain why some protests succeed, and why those at the inauguration will fail.
Protests serve as notice to leaders that a movement commands the support of a large number of people and that those people are willing to take action for the cause. It's spectacularly inefficient - imagine getting all those people in one place, just to deliver a message that could have been communicated through e-mail. What protests lose in efficiency, however, they gain in sheer impressiveness. The best protests are ones that get aerial photos, like the March for Women's Lives last spring. Anybody who saw those photos couldn't help but be impressed, even if he or she disagreed.
Now imagine the photos from the inaugural protests. Of course, there will be nothing as visually impressive as those million people gathering on the Mall. But even worse is the message the protests will send. The coverage of them will necessarily be dominated by coverage of the inauguration itself. The image, whether Democrats like it or not, will be that of small, weak opposition compared with the vast size of the inauguration overall - no matter what the relative sizes actually are. These protests will not drive home a message of overwhelming strength.
The other reason to protest is to draw attention to a cause, to thrust it into the public eye. One way that protests become meaningful is to become memorable, thus drawing the public to look at an issue it had been ignoring. The most famous protests from history are those that attracted significant media attention, which communicated the protests to the rest of America, making them shared cultural events. The Montgomery bus boycott and Dr. King's March on Washington are memorable because of the attention they drew.
In this, too, the inaugural protests are doomed to fail. Of course, they will be covered. But they will be a mere ancillary to the main event - they will always be defined by the inauguration they oppose, and they will never define the nation's agenda. In fact, even holding them is an admission that the nation's agenda is being set by George W. Bush.
So as you wave your sign, think about what you're doing. Don't go to a protest and think you've done your part against Bush and can rest easy. In his column, Paul Perry says that Democrats need to have a narrative, and he makes a strong point, but we can't spread a narrative without people willing to do the hard work.
To make the best use of our resources, we should harness the activism, passion and commitment of the protesters and put them to work in the most effective way possible. So today, you might consider staying home, and donating that Metro fare (and more) to MoveOn, the DNC or anyone on this side of the aisle who fits your ideology. Open your wallets and work as hard as you can, but be smart about it. Protesting the inauguration is the wrong move - and only the right moves will build a liberal majority in this country.
P.S. That said, this column is not intended as a slam on the hard work of any of the protesters who will be at the inauguration. Their sentiments are noble and right - but their tactics are flawed. Of course, there will be those who disagree with me, on the left and on the right. That's why I'm committed to being accessible to my (hopefully numerous) readers. Feel free to sound off via e-mail at meelar2@yahoo.com. Or, if you'd like a more public forum, write a letter to the editor or op-ed in response to my column. Of course, I can't promise they'll be published, but I will read all the e-mail and most likely reply.
Dan Miller is a junior in the School of Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences.
