Politics

Until recently, if you had asked us to guess whether a mass movement to protect democracy is growing in the United States, we would have expressed skepticism. We’ve watched law firms and universities capitulate, heard little from business leaders, bemoaned the Democrats’ geriatric leadership, and nodded along to many of our friends telling us they’ve needed to stop following the news to maintain their mental health. “News avoidance” has reached an all-time high, with some 42 percent of Americans reporting that they “sometimes or often avoid the news.”

We study social change, and even we were surprised to learn that, by some estimates, six of the eight largest protests in U.S. history have taken place since 2017. While careful counts are not yet available, the No Kings marches this past Saturday will almost surely have earned a top spot on the list. In Philadelphia alone, early estimates were that more than 20,000 people would join the protest downtown, with dozens of parallel marches planned in surrounding counties.