There have been complaints from liberals about the disruptive nature and alleged incivility of the anti-Trump resistance. Speaking for many, David Gergen recently on CNN unfavorably compared the present day resistance to the Vietnam War protesters and the civil rights movement asserting “The anti-war movement in Vietnam, the civil rights movement in the ‘60s and early ’70s, both of those were more civil in tone…” This viewpoint is widely shared; Senator Charles Schumer has denounced “harassment of political opponents” as “not American”; Senator Cory Booker has expressed similar concerns.
But this represents a profound misunderstanding of civil discourse, protest and disobedience. The Antiwar Movement was anything but civil, marked by the closing down of businesses and universities and a highly uncivil chant: “Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” Civil rights leaders, while committed to nonviolence, understood that their success depended as much on “disruption and coercion…as on dialogue and persuasion” writes Thomas J. Sugrue in “A Misguided Obsession with Civility” in the New York Times on July 2, 2018. Mr. Sugrue goes on to say: “…history is a reminder that civility is in the eye of the beholder. And when the beholder want to maintain an unequal status quo, it’s easy to accuse picketers, protesters and preachers alike of incivility, as much because of their message as their methods. For those upset by disruptive protests, the history of civil rights offers an unsettling reminder that the path to change is seldom polite.”
Our Founders, those who wrote the Constitution, understood this well.
“We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather bed.” Thomas Jefferson, 1790
“Be not intimidated…..by any pretense of delicacy, politeness or decency. These as they are often used are but three different names, for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.” John Adams, 1765
“Timid men…prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty” Thomas Jefferson, 1796
“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending and all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks…” Samuel Adams, 1771
John Jay