The murder of five police officers in Dallas has killed street protest. Activists are partly to blame.

You knew your protest marches weren't working. And yet you failed to acknowledge the crisis. The result was predictable and horrifying. 

As I warned in April: “it is dangerous to continue to use tactics that aren't effective. What we don't want is for people to lose hope in the possibility of protest entirely. Because then they become more violent.” 

Who will march in the streets now that in the best of cases it achieves nothing and in the worst of cases it is used as a cover for lone-wolf terrorism? This is the end of protest.

Now that protest as we know it is no longer an option, activists are faced with a dilemma: win wars or win elections.

Either we gain sovereignty through an armed insurrection that devolves into martial law; or we gain sovereignty by building an electoral social movement capable of sweeping the people into power. 

Those are the only options remaining: nihilism or optimism.

I’m on the side of optimism. Will you join me? 

Micah White
July 8, 2016
Nehalem, Oregon