The liberal clutching of pearls is pathetic

The liberal clutching of pearls is pathetic. Liberals, establishment Democrats, the financially comfortable if more laws controlling the bodies of the marginalized are enacted are like clockwork standing by the critiques of the conservatives that protesting outside of judges’ homes, places of work is way too much. It’s unbecoming of people who deserve rights and their voices to be heard.

It’s utter bullshit and either an attempt to rewrite history or out of the realistic fear that they too will be on the chopping block next when direct and possibly violent action gets our rights quicker than voting for the electable Republicans within the Democratic Party does.

Since American Studies is the cross I chose to bear and now I’m in Boston, I’ve done a lot of reading about the events leading up to the revolution, and the culture of civilian participation. It’s so fascinating how in a way protests were much more  radical, direct, and honestly violent were. The more I read, the more I thought, “Hmm, we need to bring this back. Liking our representatives tweets and Met Gala outfits just aren’t doing the job.”

Things were a quite different back then: There was a monarchy, and mostly white men with land had vote. However,  because of the Puritan tradition of reading the Bible to understand the word yourself, Boston was the most literate place in western world and people complained. People spread pamphlets. And people rioted.  Burning effigies of political figures and breaking people out of jail houses for laws the people did not agree with are some of the hot points leading up to the Revolutionary War.

Because the high amount of enfranchisement still excluded a majority of people, the people exercised their agency through riot and protest. That was the only way that those who argued and decided the law could gauge whether or not the people approved. Over time, possibly one of the reasons tensions rose  intensely and the Revolutionary War occurred was because there was a break of trust between the Crown and the people. While the people could not vote for the king, there was some sort of obvious agreement that the crown and parliament heed the actions, the riot of the people as a way to negotiate law. Increasingly their “voices” were not being heard and people essentially raged.

A few examples of violent direct action. I’ll be brief:

Glorious Revolution Hits Boston

If you haven’t heard of the dominion of New England that’s alright it only lasted two years. Only two years because this thing called the Glorious Revolution happened and King James was deposed. News doesn’t travel fast but as soon as enough people found out in the colonies,  they organized and rioted and arrested Royal Governor Andros, the first non-puritan leader of Massachusetts,  held him for months and sent him on a boat to  England to be tried. He was acquitted and eventually became governor of Virginia,  but he wasn’t coming back to Boston.

Stamp Act Pisses Everybody Off

In the aftermath  the Stamp Act, a tax on all paper goods including playing cards, a mob eventually gather outside of Thomas Hutchinson’s home and they demanded he deny being in favor of the act. He refused. Days later, a mob returned and ransacked and destroyed his home. He was forced to ask for financial assistance in his pajamas as that was what he what he escaped in. Prior to this, though, he did not publicly speak it,  Hutchinson wrote letters to the governor and to London low-key pleading to the go through with the tax. He was ignored. And now we are in this declining empire.

Boston Tea Party

Long story short there was a tea tax. It pissed people off. English tea was being sent to Boston and people did not want that tea to hit land. They were ignored  so with some planning  a mass of people methodically  removed heavy chests of tea from ships and poured them into the Bay. Folks beat up anyone attempting to steal the tea and profit on it themselves. This was a deliberate act of destroying taxed property they refused to be subjected to. This was arguably the event that lead to London cracking down even more on Boston particularly and the escalation to the Revolutionary War.

Ultimately, I think it extremely fair to say that the trust between the people and the establishment, the people and the court, the people and all branches of government have been broken. The time to riot again is nigh. It is a massive part of our legacy.

If you’re interested in reading more about it, here are my sources. This is very brief since  the details of society back then are just so different and a little difficult to grasp and rationalize. I may go deeper one day. Who knows.

• Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution.
• Winship. Michael P. Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America
• Carp, Benjamin L. Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party & The Making of America
• Smith, Barbara Clark. The Freedoms We Lost: Consent and Resistance in Revolutionary America