Author Archives: David S. Meyer

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About David S. Meyer

Author and professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine

More airport protest consequences; a dissent channel

The conditions that help protest movements grow also generate institutional efforts at resistance. So, sorting out the impact of protest on policy is tough. Scholars generally want to employ tight measures of protest movements (the number or size of demonstrations, … Continue reading

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Assessing the airport protests: a first cut at consequences

As of 3:15 Pacific Standard Time today, Trump’s travel ban remains on hold. A 9th circuit appellate panel unanimously agreed to let District court Judge James L. Robart’s temporary injunction on enforcement stand. Of course, the appellate ruling is by … Continue reading

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Quick responses in Romania don’t mean resolution

When Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu announced a new policy decriminalizing  slighter smaller-scale official corruption , Romanians took to the streets quickly and in very large numbers.  An estimated 600,000 people demonstrated across the country, with perhaps 250,00 in Bucharest. … Continue reading

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Happy birthday, Rosa Parks (2017)

Happy birthday, Rosa Parks!  Born on February 4, 1913, Parks was not a tired old lady in 1955, when she refused to move to the back of the bus.  She was an experienced and committed activist, deeply tied into the … Continue reading

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Lunch counter sit-ins anniversary

It’s the anniversary of the start of the sit-in campaign in Greensboro, North Carolina. I’m always moved and encouraged by the audacity of those young men.    There was once a store called Woolworths.  It sold dry goods, mostly cheap … Continue reading

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Notes on how protest works, the travel ban

Protest matters, but not by itself, and usually not quickly. The massive Women’s March and the miraculous airport protests haven’t yet triumphed: the president remains committed to restricting Muslim access to the United States and rolling back reproductive rights…among other … Continue reading

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Korematsu Day, 2017

I try to post about Korematsu Day each year, and the repost is below. This year, of course, the treatment of people of different faiths or ethnic backgrounds is particularly salient. It’s important to recall that the Fred Korematsu who … Continue reading

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Democracy’s rapid response: defending immigrant rights in the Trump era

We live in extraordinary times, made so by the threat of tyranny, not of terrorism. When the Trump administration forced implementation of a new set of entry restrictions clearly targeted more at Muslims than terror, the responses were massive and … Continue reading

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March for Life 2017, with presidential support

If the annual March for Life (discussed here in the past) is able to generate anywhere near the turnout of the Women’s March last weekend, it will be an extraordinary achievement. Unlike many on the left, abortion opponents were able … Continue reading

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Protest in the Trump era, part 3 of ….: Loyalty?

Sometimes effective political action requires leaving a job you like; sometimes, it means finding a way to do that job properly. Most of the political protest we think of as protest looks at least a little like the Women’s March. … Continue reading

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