Episode 1 of a YouTube series on the question, “Why Protest?” Each video shares an answer from a different vantage point or experience of protest.
Episode summary:
GOP senators voted unanimously on 3/1/25 to target some of the already most vulnerable children for being different. Living in Maine, it’s necessary to point out this includes Senator Susan Collins.
The morning after the vote, the Ivy League Debate Club circles in Democratic Leadership are murmuring their wishes that we regular folk avoid talking about it. “Shh. This issue loses the game in Maine!” they say.
But we’re not in an oak-paneled room of cozy polite opponents winning on points. MAGA has played Kayfabe for years. Confidence wins that game. And that means confidence in one’s values, whether they be cruel (Republicans targeting kids) or kind (lifting up all children, not using them).
The priorities of this argument are also oriented inappropriately to elections. Yes, elections matter, but winning them is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to build a constructive, trusting, nurturing society that includes and benefits as many people as possible, and they’re HURTING VULNERABLE KIDS. It is crucial to make that unacceptable, and that means standing up in our communities and setting the standard. That is what public demonstrations do: reset the agenda to reframe the stakes and priorities, with the confidence needed to win a Kayfabe audience over.