I think you need only pull out the relevant text and put some more feeling into it. There is isn't much point in doing research for paltry Medium royalties.

Up until recently, I believed that protests were a mechanism for the public to show the politicians that votes were on the line. If people are ready to take the time and travel to reach a protest, that is telling them about their motivation to cast a ballot.

A few months back, CBC Radio interviewed a sociologist about the mechanics of protest. She said it works like this:

1) Protests get media attention.

2) Media presents more of the issue to the public

3) The public learns and changes its opinions.

4) Then the politicians realize enough votes are on the line.

I think this progression is more representative of the effectiveness of protests than my more simpler model. In my six years in a political party, I cannot recall the party changing its position because of any protesting.

Hmmm. Maybe I need to write an article. I have always thought protests were a sign of mediocre governance.

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BTW, I was born in 1959. I never understood why I was lumped in with the boomers. But I was an avid reader of Mad Magazine, which portrayed all the issues of which I was too young for.