David S. Meyer
I'm a professor of sociology and political science at the University of California, Irvine. I've been thinking, and writing about, protest politics for almost ever. This site offers comments on contemporary events, informed (I hope) by knowing something about history and about the academic study of social movements.
Monthly Archives: December 2010
Painted Grassroots
Reading the sports section of the Sunday New York Times, I was surprised to find a full-page ad attacking the Humane Society of the United States and its president, Wayne Pacelle. The ad reported that HSUS was soft on quarterback/dog … Continue reading
Defeats and Victories
Movements don’t disappear after a legislative verdict. Victories and defeats change calculations about what’s possible and how to go about getting it, but they virtually never–at least in the United States–provide a decisive resolution to the sorts of issues that … Continue reading
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Tagged countermovements, defeat, don't ask don't tell, Dream act, immigration, legislation, victory
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Still a Dream?
When we listen to the young people who have come forward about their undocumented legal status, we hear them express unvarnished optimism about the passage of the DREAM Act. (Listen, for example, to the testimony on NPR’s Talk of the … Continue reading
Resistance in the Military
Governments fall when their leaders lose control of the armed forces. When the soldiers lay down their swords and shields and take the hands of the people in the streets, their leaders get on planes and look for somewhere else … Continue reading
Diluted Tea
Sharron Angle, the failed Republican/Tea Party Senate candidate in Nevada, has just announced that she’s forming a PAC to advance Tea Party ideals and Tea Party candidates. Angle, whose candidacy was buoyed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express, … Continue reading
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Strong Tea
Rep. Michele Bachmann, founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, promised that she would provide classes on the Constitution for her colleagues, particularly her newest colleagues. And there are plenty of them in the next Congress. … Continue reading
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Tagged Antonin Scalia, Congress, michele bachmann, Supreme Court, tea party, Virginia Thomas
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Phelps Family Flop? Not quite.
Elizabeth Edwards’s funeral in Raleigh, North Carolina, was another occasion for the Westboro Church (read: Fred Phelps and family) to get attention. As discussed here, the tiny hyperconservative church has succeeded in gaining national attention by picketing military funerals and … Continue reading
The Royal Treatment
If you’re upset about the tripling of university tuition in Britain, why destroy Prince Charles’s car? He didn’t raise tuition, can’t lower it, and will be able to find other ways to get to work–or whatever he does. But activists … Continue reading
Protest against Tuition Hikes: A Teaching Moment
“They say ‘Cut Back.’ We Say ‘Fight Back.’” The chants are the same across the Atlantic, even if the politics are somewhat different. Students and other young people in the UK have taken to the streets to protest the Cameron … Continue reading
Is the Tea Party Over (part III)
Only the left went on the attack against President Obama’s compromise on extending the Bush-era tax cuts. Faced with intransigence from the Republicans in the Senate, Obama cut a deal. He endorsed a two year extension of historically low tax … Continue reading
