A Case for Civil Disobedience in 21st Century America

Regardless of personal political beliefs, most of us believe that there are things the government should improve upon. Whether you think they have too much control, they need to support the needy more, they need to decrease the military budget, provide Medicare for all, privacy invasions, their extreme use of force, American foreign interference, or against the corruption we are seeing from presidential administrations since Nixon. We can all agree that the government is off track and must be put back on it.

An underutilized weapon in the democratic process is civil disobedience. It is a weapon that will force a prompt governmental response. It is breaking the law in a peaceful organized manner, with an ideological and practical motive behind it. People usually have a lot more power than they think they have. They outnumber the police, the military and the government. Not only count wise, but also, money and power wise.

When the great American Henry David Thoreau started his civil disobedience in protest of the implementation of a poll tax that was placed to fund a war against Mexico. Since he was jailed for refusing to pay his poll tax in 1846, many people have heard of him and started following through. After he wrote an insightful article called Resistance to Civil Government, his work influenced huge movements around the world. From Mahatma Gandhi’s pacifist activism to get rid of the British occupiers to Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights movement. Pacifist action has spoken louder in the recent years than any military or violent means has done. It accomplished civil rights, ended discrimination, ended illegitimate imperial rule, and helped end the Vietnam War.

Considering the government’s recent actions in response to the pandemic, the Cares Act of March 2020, was the biggest upwards transfer of wealth in the history of humanity. Mega corporations were bailed out in huge amounts, billionaires increased their wealth by unimaginable quantities. Meanwhile, the people who are suffering during that period got the crumbs of the deal. The government then failed to pass another relief bill until December, which gave Americans nothing but a small portion of the leftovers from the first Cares Act.

I propose that the taxpayers of the United States of America withhold our tax money from the government until they are back on track, until they know that their duty first and foremost is towards the American public. We must remove the great influence of huge corporations which have been holding their taxes hostage from the government by moving their headquarters to tax havens to minimize their tax liability. Then they go ahead and lobby the government to satisfy their corporate interests, throwing crumbs at legislators who act in their favor.

We the people must have our voices heard at last.