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··3 min read

Protests Could Shape Election Results More Than We Think

What Comes Next?

There’s no hiding it, there’s a lot of anti-presidential sentiment in the US right now. Riots and protests are not exactly a new thing when it comes to the American people. As long as there have been politics and prejudice, there will be protests.

Usually, when a President has to speak out on protests, they tend to try and be objective. They’ll make a grandiose speech about how cooler heads will prevail and how we need to try and understand each other. Operative word being ‘usually’, as this time around, the president of the United States made controversial statements instead of reassuring ones.

President Donald Trump has never been known for being tactful and easy going. But many people assumed that with most of the US falling behind the George Floyd movement, that this would be a rare time of unity. That all changed when Trump decided to side completely with the Police and threaten an increase in violence.

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All of this is coming at a time when presidential candidates are getting ready for the final plunge before elections. With a lot of angst towards the Electoral College already existing, it could not have come at a worse time. Tensions were already rather high around the College back in 2016.

Subsequent investigations into Trump, Biden, Clinton and Sanders have done nothing to assuage public perception. If anything, over the course of the last 4 years, things have steadily declined in public perception of Trump and his Administration.

Mix in the latest updates, and we could see a drastic turn of events in neither favor of Biden or Trump. The recent protests that are actively fighting against police brutality, authority intervention and racism. These protests are waking a lot of people up to fallacies and bigotry in the US system.

There is no escaping it now for either the current president or whomever becomes the future president. Hell, none of us can escape it at this point. Whether it’s by physical interaction due to our proximity of living by large cities, or social media posts.

Again, What. Comes. Next?

Begs the question though, what will this change? Will policies be adapted and new policies put in place to prevent this happening again? Are we going to wake up to an article about people being gunned down in the streets by bloodthristy officers? Is Donald Trump going to escalate tensions by calling in the military and staging a coup of the system?

We don’t say this to be inflammatory. The message may seem clear to most people, but a lot of us have serious questions about where everything is headed. Riots never accomplish anything but an escalation in violent activity. Protests may change something, but only when the protests control the narrative.

Right now, the narrative is violence. Buildings are burning, people are being assaulted, cars are running people over, riot officers shooting tear gas etc. That’s the story of the George Floyd protests. What should be the message, is being drowned out by the President, by the media and by the looters.

This is a time for solidarity, if we want change to happen, it has to be on our terms. It cannot be dictated by violence coupled with reformation demands. Violence is never the answer, that’s what kick started this whole movement. We need to be better.

If this protest does indeed see a massive shift in politics and change in the system going forward, then mission accomplished. However, we need to ask ourselves; what are the changes? Not a dream, what are the specific changes that need to happen? Laws, policies and amendments are what accomplish goals.