I read in another diary, that Sanders supporters are practicing being arrested in their preparation to protest the result of the Democratic Primary. The only justification I can reason is that they believe their ideology so transcends the current political system, that it should not be subject to the consent of the democratic process.
This isn’t 1968. We aren’t limping into a convention without a clear articulation of our party’s preference. Even if it were so, 1968 resulted in calamity, so I’m not sure why anyone would want to go down that path. I have no qualms with civil disobedience in the name of a just cause, but I have serious moral questions for those, who choose to abuse the practice for their own selfish whims.
Civil disobedience itself has become less effective. When I was young, and protesting Tom Ridge signing Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death warrant, an older black man speculated as to why. He said that the civil rights movement had seen great progress from civil disobedience, because the public understood that blacks had no avenue of political power to affect change. It was white college students, who began wearing down the value of protest. In the 1960’s college was not a common path for most people. Also college students were granted deferment from the draft, which made them beneficiaries of the policies they were protesting. To the public at large it looked more like spoiled white kids whining, rather than the legitimate struggles of oppressed minorities.
I’ve heard other explanations that just state the public was suffering from protest fatigue, so that by the start of the 1970’s, they began to tune out messages brought through civil disobedience. I tend to give the public more credit than this. I think they look at the protesters and evaluate their plight justly.
Here is my frustration with the Sanders campaign gleefully leading young people towards criminal charges. He is telling them to mar their record in protest of the democratic process. I see nothing noble in that cause. If you are planning to protest the Democratic convention, please don’t get arrested over this. Use good judgement, because it isn’t worth it.