Student protest movements in America are often messy and divisive, but they tend to be on the right side of history. If President Joe Biden doesn’t take the anti-war protests more seriously, he is likely to end up on the wrong side of history and the November election as well.
From the Vietnam War and civil rights movements in the 1960s to the anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s and Black Lives Matter in 2020, these efforts sought to tackle the role of U.S. institutions and government in perpetuating injustices.
Many might detest their methodology, and we should all clearly oppose violence or hate speech within their ranks, but the broad causes are just and historically vindicated.
These protests will be vindicated too. America’s young people are not alone in opposing continued U.S. support of Israel’s actions in Gaza. A Gallup poll released in March showed that 55% of Americans today disapprove of it — a shift from the beginning of the war, when most Americans wanted the U.S. government to robustly support Israel’s war efforts.
For those who ask why students aren’t protesting Hamas, it’s because these institutions aren’t supporting or helping finance the terrorist group.