Civil Disobedience In Shay's Rebellion

During Shays’ Rebellion, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison in a private letter, “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” Though he wrote while Daniel Shays led an armed insurrection of 4,000 veterans in Massachusetts, I believe Jefferson, when he wrote of “a little rebellion”, referred not to large-scale violent events such as Shays’ Rebellion and the American Revolution, but instead to periodic instances of civil disobedience, such as the Stamp Act boycott or the Boston Tea Party in the era before the Revolution. Jefferson recognized the necessity of civil disobedience to preserve the vitality of the young democracy his generation had toiled to …show more content…
For example, 48% of Donald Trump’s backers in the 2016 US presidential election supported continued federal funding of Planned Parenthood, despite the Republican candidate’s vehement and vocal opposition against the organization. These voters, like many others in his fragile coalition, primarily voted for Trump’s economic message, not for his social platform. Civil disobedience allows these voters to signal to their lawmakers when they have overstepped their electoral mandate—many conservatives, in fact, rallied alongside liberals at the Women’s March on Washington the day after President Trump’s inauguration. In the future, these disgruntled Trump voters may join liberals in acts of civil disobedience against Trump’s policies which are unjust or violate a fundamental higher law—of the Constitution, of basic human rights, or of moral …show more content…
After this condition is met, civil disobedience and responses to popular movements can inject a populist sentiment in the political sphere and revitalize it—for instance, consider the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Tens of thousands of protesters of the Vietnam War and other issues marched in the streets during the event, leading to multiple arrests and subsequent riots, but also to the post-election McGovern-Fraser Commission, which democratized the Democratic Party’s nomination process and called for greater inclusiveness in the party. The 1960s have been described as the “golden age” of civil disobedience in America—it was said “democracy is in the streets”—and the structural and circumstantial obstacles in our time merit the ushering in of a nouveau golden age, to ensure our free society remains