Charge is carried by electrons moving. The protons are always stationary.
The answer I found online is the protons are stuck in the nucleus so they can't move ("strong nuclear force"). But why can't the whole positively charged atom move?
[Physics] Why don’t the positive charges in a conductor move
chargeconductorselectricity
Best Answer
Atoms in a solid are usually stuck to each other in some sort of a rigid lattice, which gives the solid its structure and shape. This is not the only possible state of affairs: they can also slide past each other, if the temperature is high enough, but then they are likely to do so endlessly, all of them, and the material becomes a liquid. And, indeed, in a liquid you can have both negative and positive charge carriers, where the positive ones are entire atoms with one electron stripped off.