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.
Tag Archives: Barack Obama
Gitmo and the hunger strikes
What happens when you run strap a prisoner down and run a tube through his nose to feed him? What if it’s twice a day? What if it’s one hundred people every day? This is what’s happening at the prison … Continue reading →
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Tagged ACLU, agenda, Amnesty International, Barack Obama, fast, force feeding, Guantanamo Bay, hunger strike
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1 Comment
Creating a debate on gun laws
Gun control advocates are trying to invigorate the long-ossified debate on national gun laws in the United States. This means filling the moment of public attention caused by the mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. Public demonstrations are … Continue reading →
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Tagged activism, agenda-setting, attention, Barack Obama, gun control, GunPolicy.org, Joe Manchin, mass shootings, National Rifle Association, Newtown, White House
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2 Comments
Occupy outcomes: community, rhetoric, and law
The influence of successful social movements generally plays out over a longer time than the movements themselves. What happens afterwards is complicated and contingent, and activists aren’t always quick to claim credit for what they’ve done. Nationally, Occupy effected a … Continue reading →
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Tagged Barack Obama, Brooklyn, law, Mitt Romney, Occupy, Occupy Sandy, outcomes, police, Red Hook, rhetoric
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Occupy and the 2012 elections
Unlike the Tea Party, the Occupy movement wasn’t visibly invested in the elections. Occupy groups didn’t endorse candidates, even candidates who came out of the Occupations. Occupy groups didn’t raise money for the elections, didn’t form PACs, much less SuperPacs, … Continue reading →
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Tagged Barack Obama, conventions, elections, Elizabeth Warren, michele bachmann, Mitt Romney, Occupy, organization, primaries
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2 Comments
The Tea Party and the 2012 elections, part II
Tea Partiers are frustrated about the Republican defeat in the 2012 election, and angry at politicians and pundits who blame them. All their energy, effort, and anger produced contentious campaigns, but also the reelection of President Obama and Democratic gains … Continue reading →
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Tagged Amy Kremer, Barack Obama, elections, health care, Herman Cain, immigration, Jenny Beth Martin, michele bachmann, military spending, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, same sex marriage, science, taxes, tea party, Tea Party Express, Tea Party Patriots
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1 Comment
The Tea Party and the 2012 election, part I.
Post-mortems on the 2012 election are everywhere on the right right now, in all kinds of different forms: Analysts wonder why the internal polls that left conservatives confident of the outcome up until Tuesday night and Karl Rove’s televised meltdown … Continue reading →
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Tagged Barack Obama, election, Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman, Karl Rove, michele bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Olympia Snow, Orrin Hatch, Paul Ryan, polls, primaries, Richard Mourdock, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, tea party, Ted Cruz, Todd Akin
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9 Comments
Crisis and opportunities: Superstorm Sandy and climate change
Catastrophes can be opportunities for activists prepared to exploit them. Hurricane Sandy looks like a good chance for climate change activists to put their concerns on a national political agenda that has been incredibly inhospitable. Their challenge is to attach … Continue reading →
Calm before the storm
While Hurricane Sandy slowly approaches, climate change activists appeared in Times Square, holding the parachute above. It wasn’t a huge turnout, of course, but New York City is basically shut down, including Wall Street and the Subway system. Linking a … Continue reading →
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Tagged 350.org, Barack Obama, climate change, election, elections, foreign policy, Hurricane Sandy, killer drones, Mitt Romney, New York City, Times Square
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Students are revolting: school lunches
With the help of a sympathetic teacher, students at Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kansas, produced the video above. They say, in a much more entertaining way than I will, that they’re not getting enough food to live … Continue reading →
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Tagged abortion, Allies, Barack Obama, Chef Ann Cooper, government, Michelle Obama, Renegade Lunch Lady, same sex marriage, school lunch, video
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Protesting the debates
The frame of political discussion in the United States has steadily narrowed over the past year, as the election has crowded out attention for almost anything else. Tonight the scope of politics will be limited to a small stage in … Continue reading →
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Tagged Barack Obama, debates, Gary Johnson, Green Party, Jill Stein, Libertarian Party, media, Mitt Romney, Occupy, Occupy Denver, Occupy the Debates
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