Authoritarians have studied protests. They've adapted, and the effectiveness of protests has dropped.
Becoming Dangerous: How to Go from Activist to OperativeThey have evolved; so must we.
CHRISTOPHER ARMITAGE
…snip…
…intelligence agencies…study what works. They gather information. They identify vulnerabilities. They apply pressure through coordinated operations.
…snip…
An operative understands exactly how power works in their specific context. They have the skills to independently gather intelligence and act effectively. An operative can make their target organization, or individual, feel the consequences of their choices every single day.
I want to be completely clear. I don’t advocate for violence. Not because I have a moral problem with violence. I don’t advocate for violence because the evidence unequivocally shows it is ineffective against authoritarian movements. If it worked I’d encourage it. It doesn’t. So I don’t. What works is making power too costly to exercise. What works is making them think about you when they’re trying to fall asleep.
I get the impression that a lot of DUers haven't yet run across his writings. If they had, there'd be a bunch more folks sharing his quite brilliant work. He is the most prolific and innovative thinker I've ever encountered and his strategies are astute and aimed at what works. Footnoted too. He's published several books, including Conservatism: America's Personality Disorder. Some of his work has been accepted for peer-reviewed academic journals.
Fascinatingly eclectic experience.. Military service, worked for about ten years in a prison, became a lawyer, as well as author. Interviewed by Thom Hartmann and many others. His Substack, The Existentialist Republic, is the best place to get his articles and he makes a lot of his handbooks for activists free to download. His stuff isn't behind a paywall.
He has made the case for bar associations disbarring the corrupt members of SCOTUS, along with the case law they've violated and links to the publications whose investigative work exposed Clarence Thomas and Alito's. He personally filed a request for investigation and disbarment of John Roberts with the DC bar association.
An ever-growing Existentialist Republic activist community formed on Discord, divvying up interests and tasks to do research, develop scripts, advocate for his policies with members of state legislatures, attorneys general, DAs and county attorneys, etc.
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Nobody thinks protests "destroy" politicians. But they must be doing something effective, or why would you expend so many words to put them down?
As for street protests, all the constant honks of support from cars is "indifference"? 
Your disdain of protesters and the events they organize take part in are duly noted. You have expressed your opinion, as is your right, and some of us beg to differ, as is our right.
Some of us derive inspiration, strength, and encouragement from making our voices heard out on the streets, in chorus with likeminded others, and we will continue to do so. Will we change many voters' minds thereby? Gee, I don't know. But who said that was the main purpose of these activities? I've always thought of protesting as a way for people to, as I said above, make our voices heard, in a much more powerful way than any of us could ever do on our own.
When a whole crowd of people gathers on a busy street to hold up signs and shout slogans together, interesting things happen. There's the affirmation and reassurance each of us gets from knowing we're not alone, something that we all need as much of as we can get these days. There are the reactions of passers-by, the honks, and the waves, that tell us there are many others who care about what's going on, beyond those of us who showed up with our signs. There's an energy that flows through and among all of us, protesters and passers-by alike, that is reviving and invigorating and gives us the strength we'll need to go on fighting in the weeks and months ahead.
Afterwards, we go home physically tired but mentally uplifted and recharged, cheered to know that we're not as isolated as we feared, that we actually have lots of company, and resolved to plunge with renewed vigor into the work that needs to be done. Work like talking to voters and working to change minds, which is very important, as you pointed out.
Showing up at a protest doesn't mean we're not going to do anything else. Some of us will be writing postcards, knocking on doors, phone banking, ir fund raising. And many of us will be talking to our friends and neighbors. Some will be doing all of the above. Some of those things may reap more tangible results than others, but all of them reinforce and support each other as well as those of us who do them.
Of course protesting alone doesn't win elections. What a silly idea! But to imply that they have no value at all seems like an equally silly idea to me. Protests are just part of the picture, but they have legitimate purposes, not the least of which is to support and reinforce our determination to continue with all of the other tasks that are necessary to win elections. If you don't get anything out of them, fine. You do you. Just please find a way to do you without raining on everybody else's parade, and don't make assumptions about what else we protesters may or may not be doing. And don't forget we ALL want the same thing, to save the country we love before it's too late! 
It's traditional to indicate that it's a cross post and what place on DU your cross post is from. For example, this would be from General Discussion.
If you are cross posting someone else's post, it's traditional to give them credit with a hat tip.
For example, if I cross post your OP (original post), I would include:
Cross post from (place) and the link with a hat Tip to
summer_in_TX.
That's how I learned to do it from the more senior DUers.
❤️
