Yes, George Floyds brutal murder, a flagrantly racist president and the pent-up emotions of a pandemic motivated people to take to the streets to demand racial justice. But social movements never emerge just because conditions are bad.

Bill Moyer, a movement strategist, wrote about this dynamic in his Movement Action Plan. He noted that the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979 became a rallying point for people concerned about the dangers of nuclear power. Yet Michigans Enrico Fermi plant had been closer to a full meltdown in 1966 and didnt lead to soul-searching or a social crisis. The difference was that in the intervening years, organizers had worked to seed local groups, build national networks, hone responses to the pronuclear lobby and develop alternative policy platforms.

The current movement has done all those things, spurred largely by the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the killing of Michael Brown. It grew into a network of dozens of local Black Lives Matter chapters across the United States and Canada. Groups like Black Youth Project 100 and Movement for Black Lives built comprehensive policy platforms, leading to radical, ground-shaking demands like defund the police. As Jessica Byrd, a leader in Movement for Black Lives, said in a recent interview with Time, Movement made this moment different.

If one isnt aware of this work, its easy to assume that after this phase of street protests ends, the movement will be gone and it will be time to turn to the real work of voting to fulfill our civic duty.

But people who understand movements know that voting is not the end its one part of the process. Movements amplify complex questions that otherwise get simplified to sound bites in elections. Questions like: Does society really need armed police answering mental health crises? Can the police be reformed while still armed with military-grade weapons? What are practical alternatives to police systems? By changing peoples views, movements apply pressure to decision makers.

Contrary to popular belief, movements shouldnt be measured by whether the preferred candidates get into office, nor are they undermined by short-term failures to cobble together national legislation.

A better yardstick for a movement is the publics perception of the problem, a growing certainty that current policies dont work and ultimately peoples commitment to embracing alternatives.

Link:

Voting Isnt Everything - The New York Times