The Tea Party? Black Lives Matter? The 1960's Civil Rights Movement? The Vietnam War protests?
Mostly no.
If you mean the Boston Tea Party, and not the Tea Party Protests in 2009, then that is a way more complicated topic than 'they protested and it effected change.' You're also talking about Colonial America which makes the entire comparison kind of ridiculous on its face considering things like population density and even -who- was protesting (rich people). In VERY brief; the Boston Tea Party was one element of the beginning of a WAR. No one got any rights because of a protest, and if action had not immediately followed the protest, nothing would have changed. I.E. ALL the protests we've been seeing since 2016. I guess we can revisit the Tea Party comparison if these anti-Trump protests result in an actual civil war. And even then, I'd argue no protests we've had thus far have been the watershed moment for that war and were, therefore, basically worthless.
Black Lives Matter? I dunno. Let me know when racism is over and cops stop killing black people. So far in 2025, 181 black people have been killed by police. Cops are still militarized all over the United States, and still have almost no accountability, and no reforms have been made to the laws that basically allow them to cry 'I was afraid' and get away with murder. I don't think the protests worked. But I'm not a Black American. Ask them if they feel safer around cops today compared to six years ago.
The Civil Rights Movement (read: Movement, not protest) was not a single protest that effectuated change. Again, far more complicated than 'protest = change.' It was a nearly 15-year movement that people kept showing up for, in massive numbers, with lots of power behind it. In a version of the US not yet entirely controlled by special interest groups. It also involved a lot more than just a once-per-month protest with fewer and fewer attendees every time. The Supreme Court got involved on the correct side. Congress was involved. We had the Fair Housing Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act -- an entire sub-section of the US Government being on board and active WITH the movement.
And, for the record, the Civil Rights movement was criticized in its own time for accepting too much small, incremental change over major reforms.
Vietnam War Protests also probably would have amounted to nothing if not for Kent State, which is when public opinion hit the boiling point as much against the incumbent government as against the war itself. The Vietnam War (as I know that you are aware) lasted from '69 to '73. Protests started immediately. Protest didn't end the war. And no serious historian I've ever seen has ever suggested otherwise. It absolutely was a contributing factor, but not in the way that's comparable to what's happening right now, and not in a way that's replicable today. Maybe if we have mass demonstrations against ICE/anti-immigration that stops people from joining up with ICE and Border Services? Maybe? Even then, probably very different and I doubt the current population of the US could be bothered to sustain that for long enough to actually stop anyone from joining ICE. In fact, we're so divided (and connected) right now that I don't think there are very many people 'on the fence' to even be influenced in that way anymore.
So yeah... no. I don't think any of those are good examples of what we should be doing or good comparisons to what we are doing, nor do I think any of them are examples of peaceful protests actually having a significant impact on policy on their own.
Edit to say: I want to be wrong here. This isn't me just being snide and 'well, ackshually!' Truth and accuracy just mean.. everything to me. And I think too many people are deluding themselves about what's happening and that's going to make this all go so much worse. Specifically because people are being presented with this idea that if they go to a protest once a month, we're fighting. 'And when we fight, we win!' I heard that somewhere... from a couple of fucking losers.
We have to be real about what impacts the direction of the country and effectuates real change. It isn't just a few protests a quarter. It just isn't And it never has been. People need to KNOW that. Not because they shouldn't protest, but because they have to be prepared for what comes next.
