Rachel Maddow: Why protesting against authoritarians matters

Why is protest important?

in an authoritarian system or against a would-be authoritarian leader.

I don't think it can be overstated that one of the reasons protest is important is because it can keep you sane.

Um, but also, I mean, generally speaking, when it comes to your rights, use them or lose them. Any authoritarian worth his inevitably weird hairdo,

would love to extinguish your right to protest, your right to free speech, your right to free assembly. It is harder to take those rights away from free people when free people regularly exercise those rights.

But tactically, strategically,

protesting is also important against authoritarianism.

Even if the authoritarian himself doesn't care about what the protests and the protesters are doing.

It's important still because authoritarian leaders like to present themselves as all powerful, right? They like to present themselves as strong men who have all the power they want or need, they can do anything they want. But strong men leaders alone don't have that much power at all, particularly in a system like ours, which is historically a democracy and is only right now in the process of consolidating into a would-be authoritarian state at the hands of a would-be dictator.

Right? We're still in the process here. Nothing is inevitable. The American people and institutions in this country get a say into how far he's going to be able to go.

And sometimes protest is the most important lever in determining what institutions and powerful people themselves are willing to do,

regardless of what Trump wants.

I will say, for example, it's not within Trump's power to remove a late night comedian from the air for criticizing him.

Right? Trump can't do that unilaterally.

He needs the company that employs that comedian.

He needs the other companies involved in that business to effectively act for him.

Once he starts complaining about that comedian and saying that guy ought to not be on the air.

When Trump pressures companies to do his bidding in a case like that, often times those companies will just cave and do what Trump tells them to do.

But often times,

those companies will also be susceptible to pressure from the people.

Pressure from the people to not do what Trump wants.

Also,

Trump's chaotic lawless deportation spree, right?

He can't do it alone.

Trump tried at first doing it all with military planes.

Remember how hilarious that was?

He had like huge C-17 cargo planes, those can carry 77 tons of troops and equipment.

And Trump was flying C-17s around with like five people on board in the back.

Because he thought that would look tough.

Dude, we're we're paying for that plane.

You got five guys on board.

Now,

he needs he needs contractors to participate in this.

Like, say, Avelo Airlines.

To volunteer to provide deportation flights.

Because they're excited to make money off of ice.

To make money off of Trump's deportations.

And that is, of course, Avelo's right to compete for contracts like that.

But then, you know,

if you want to just say you're going to spray some Febreze around and unhook the shackles.

And then try to sell the American flying public on also buying seats on those same planes.

For their vacation flight to Cancun or whatever.

After you've been using them to deport people in Trump's utterly lawless, chaotic,

shambolic deportation regime.

Well, you know,

the people of the country, people of this country are going to have something to say about that too.

Which Avelo is now learning.

With every look at their bottom line.

For every Avelo Airlines,

for every Paul Weiss law firm and all the other law firms that did corrupt deals with Trump.

For every corporation, like our parent company for another hot minute, Comcast.

That wants to pay for Trump to take a literal wrecking ball, excuse me, I mean an excavator to the White House.

Those public facing companies should know there's a cost in terms of their reputation with the American people.

There may be a cost to their bottom line.

When they do things against American values, against the public interest, because they want to please Trump.

Or buy them off or profit somehow from his authoritarian overthrow of our democracy.

Protest may or may not move Donald Trump.

himself, although these people at Trump Tower in New York this weekend were doing their best to try to make sure that it does.

But even if protest doesn't move Trump directly,

it constrains his power.

By moving the public facing, consumer facing people and entities that he has to enlist in what he's trying to do.

I, for example, will be quite surprised if Maryland's Democratic Governor Wes Moore does not end up ripping up that state's contract with Avelo Airlines.

Right? If he doesn't, he's going to be answering to Maryland voters about that.

Forever.

In Chicago, the protests and the community reaction against Trump's immigration agents in that city.

Have taken on now almost an epic scale.