“Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. It is a corrective to the sluggishness of "the proper channels," a way of breaking through passages blocked by tradition and prejudice. It is disruptive and troublesome, but it is a necessary disruption, a healthy troublesome.” WayLawDemocracyHealthyEssentialsTraditionPrejudiceProtestPassagesDepartureDisruptionTroublesomeBlockedDisruptive Book:The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy Source: The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy
“...dissent, protest, presures of a wide variety that escape elite control can modify the calculus of costs of planners, and offer a slight hope that Washington can be compelled to permit at least some steps towards "justice, freedom and democracy" within its domains.” JusticeStepsDemocracyCostOffersWideVarietyProtestPermitElitesCompelledDomainDissentCalculusPlanners Author:Noam Chomsky
“To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.” DemocracyFoundationInjusticeProtestAmerican Democracy Author:Thurgood Marshall
“Liberty lives in protest and democracy prospers under conditions of change. When we travel about the world and come to a country whose newspapers are filled with bad news we feel that liberty lives in that land. When we come to a country whose newspapers are filled with good news, we feel differently.” WorldFeelsCountryLibertyDemocracyLandConditionsNewsFilledNewspapersProtestGood NewsBad News Author:Daniel Patrick Moynihan
“Stock ownership in the US is very highly concentrated. [Shareholder actions are] something, but it's like the old Communist Party in the USSR, it would be nice to see more protest inside the Communist Party but it's not democracy. It's not going to happen. [Shareholder actions] are a good step, but they're mostly symbolic.” HappensWould BeActionPartyStepsDemocracyNiceProtestCommunistOwnershipBeing NiceSymbolicShareholdersCommunist PartyUssr Author:Noam Chomsky
“One of the great things about our democracy is it expresses itself in all sorts of ways. And that includes people protesting. I've been the subject of protests during the course of my eight years and I suspect that there's not a president in our history that at some point hasn't been subject to these protests.” PeopleWayYearsCoursesPresidentDemocracySubjectsEightGreat ThingsProtestSuspects Author:Barack Obama