Sally Kohn is a CNN political commentator and author of the book, "The Opposite of Hate." The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) When British colonists dumped 342 cases of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773, the British authorities -- that is, the "powers that were" in the New World at the time -- regarded the act not only as a destruction of private property but a violent insurrection. The colonists were protesting against the crown, but to the British press they were "incendiaries" whose actions constituted a "riot."

Americans now look back on this moment as a key spark for the American Revolution and view those protesters not as incendiaries but heroes. Perspectives change; historic truth depends on who's writing the history. Mind you, the colonists then were simply protesting a tax increase.

Protestors at the United States Capitol and in Maine and Alaska and West Virginia and Arizona this week are protesting the idea that our government, in a rushed and hushed process, may give a lifetime Supreme Court seat to a man who is not only a dangerous right-wing ideologue but one whose off-the-rails, under-oath testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week may have included lies -- and who is credibly accused of sexual assault.

People protesting Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court are mainly just showing up and speaking up, as is their First Amendment right under the Constitution -- the law of the land that those first Tea Party protesters paved the way for. But to hear conservatives twist it, the Kavanaugh protesters are not only physically threatening but dangerous to democracy.

Of course that's ludicrous. Protest is not only ingrained in the American story but essential to it. Protest isn't a threat to our democracy but a means of its preservation.

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