WEBVTT

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We live in an age of protest.

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On campuses and public squares,

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on streets and social media,

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protesters around the world
are challenging the status quo.

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Protest can thrust issues
onto the national or global agenda,

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it can force out tyrants,

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it can activate people who have
long been on the sidelines of civic life.

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While protest is often necessary,
is it sufficient?

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Consider the Arab Spring.

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All across the Middle East,

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citizen protesters 
were able to topple dictators.

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Afterwards, though,

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the vacuum was too often filled 
by the most militant and violent.

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Protest can generate 
lasting positive change

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when it's followed by an equally 
passionate effort

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to mobilize voters,

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to cast ballots,

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to understand government,

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and to make it more inclusive.

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So here are three core strategies for
peacefully turning awareness into action

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and protest into durable political power.

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First, expand the frame of the possible,

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second, choose a defining fight,

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and third, find an early win.

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Let's start with expanding the frame
of the possible.

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How often have you heard
in response to a policy idea,

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"That's just never going to happen"?

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When you hear someone say that,

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they're trying to define the boundaries
of your civic imagination.

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The powerful citizen works to push
those boundaries outward,

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to ask what if -

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what if it were possible?

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What if enough forms of power -

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people power, ideas, money, social norms -

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were aligned to make it happen?

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Simply asking that question

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and not taken as given all the givens
of conventional politics

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is the first step in converting
protest to power.

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But this requires concreteness about what
it would look like to have, say,

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a radically smaller national government,

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or, by contrast, a big single-payer
healthcare system,

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a way to hold corporations accountable
for their misdeeds,

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or, instead, a way to free them
from onerous regulations.

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This brings us to the second strategy,
choosing a defining fight.

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All politics is about contrasts.

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Few of us think about civic life
in the abstract.

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We think about things in relief
compared to something else.

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Powerful citizens set the terms
of that contrast.

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This doesn't mean being uncivil.

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It simply means thinking about a debate
you want to have on your terms

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over an issue that captures the essence
of the change you want.

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This is what the activists pushing for
a $15 minimum wage in the U.S. have done.

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They don't pretend that $15 by itself
can fix inequality,

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but with this ambitious 
and contentious goal,

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which they achieved first in Seattle
and then beyond,

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they have forced a bigger debate
about economic justice and prosperity.

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They've expanded the frame 
of the possible, strategy one,

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and created a sharp emblematic contrast,
strategy two.

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The third key strategy, then,
is to seek and achieve an early win.

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An early win, even if it's not 
as ambitious as the ultimate goal,

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creates momentum,

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which changes 
what people think is possible.

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The solidarity movement,

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which organized workers in Cold War Poland
emerged just this way,

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first, with local shipyard strikes in 1980
that forced concessions,

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then, over the next decade,

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a nationwide effort 
that ultimately helped topple

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Poland's communist government.

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Getting early wins sets in motion
a positive feedback loop,

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a contagion, a belief, a motivation.

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It requires pressuring policymakers,

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using the media to change narrative,

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making arguments in public,

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persuading skeptical neighbors
one by one by one.

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None of this is as sexy as a protest,

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but this is the history 
of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement,

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of Indian Independence,

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of Czech self-determination.

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Not the single sudden triumph,

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but the long, slow slog.

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You don't have to be anyone special
to be part of this grind,

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to expand the frame of the possible,

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to pick a defining fight,

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or to secure an early win.

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You just have to be a participant
and to live like a citizen.

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The spirit of protest is powerful.

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So is showing up after the protest.

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You can be the co-creator 
of what comes next.