Posted on 06/04/2016 3:56:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Americans admire protest movements and civil disobedience, but they draw the line at violence, so harassing and beating up Trump supporters could do him a lot of good.
My central supposition about this election is that Donald Trump will lose because most regular middle Americans just won’t vote to make that man their president. This has nothing to do with ideology. It’s just about Trump. Not everyone out there adores Hillary Clinton by a long shot, and I understand well that for a lot of people this is a choice between beef liver and lumpfish, but I just think at the end of the day most people will say, No, I just can’t—I just can’t help make that crude, boorish, vindictive, childish man the president of the United States.
I think this is what will save Clinton—and the country—in the end. But as soon as I think that, I think: But what if I’m wrong? What could make people change their views on Trump, become sympathetic to him?
In theory, a number of things. Trump could stop being crude, boorish, vindictive, and childish. (I said “in theory.”) Clinton could be indicted. The economy could tank. I think those are unlikely—and yes, I saw the jobs report, but it’s early days to start talking about a recession, and it may be a silver lining of the report that it makes the Fed wait longer to raise rates, which most economists I talk to think it should do anyway.
But here’s one thing that’s not a long shot—and is in fact happening right now—that I fear will make Trump a more sympathetic figure to the kinds of Americans I’m talking about: left-wing protestors turning violent and throwing eggs at Trump supporters and burning hats and flags.
Now no doubt, someone has already fired off an abusive tweet at me calling me names and screaming at me that I just want powerless people to STFU, as they say in Twitterland. No, I do not want powerless people to STFU. I emphatically want powerless people to have more power. And the way you get more power in this country is by protesting peacefully, and voting, and doing all those boring things.
And I emphatically don’t want a racist, misogynist, neo-fascist in the Oval Office. But violent protests at his rallies increase the likelihood of us getting exactly that.
The operative word in that previous sentence is violent. Protest, Americans like. It’s in the DNA and all that. Protest got us where we are. It got us the 40-hour work week, the civil rights revolution, the end of the Vietnam war. Occasionally in these instances, things turned violent, especially in the case of labor organizing. But usually, the violence was initiated by those who held the power—the companies, in the case of union organizing, or the state, in the case of civil rights.
In the modem-day American context, it’s not in the interest of the powerless to initiate violence. They’ll always get screwed. Always. They’ll always be blamed by the media, called “rabble-rousers” and “trouble-makers,” and the worst of the footage, like those people throwing eggs at that woman in the Trump football jersey in San Jose, will be shown over and over and over again, giving my regular middle Americans up above reason to think the violence was 50 times worse than it actually was.
And those regular middle Americans will say to each other: “Goodness, Jean, those protestors are just awful, aren’t they?”
“Why, yes they are, Bob. So rude! And dirty, too.”
“That’s not the American way!”
And it will go on from there, and that night after dinner, they’ll flip on CNN (because these are not Fox viewers—an important point) and they’ll see more footage and they’ll see interviews with Trump supporters who were standing there more or less minding their own business and suddenly got their faces punched in, and they’ll work themselves into a reactionary state and decide that maybe a vindictive boor is precisely what those people need.
I guess the thinking of violent protestors is, Trump is a fascist, and the right response to fascism is violence. In some times and some places, yes, it’s been the necessary response. But we’re not anywhere near that point. Trump doesn’t have a private army. Yes, some of his rallies were getting awfully creepy there for a while, and he did inexcusably egg his people on toward violence. But all that has tapered off. If Trump won the presidency and assumed emergency powers, then yeah, I’d understand violence then. Might even advocate for it. But we’re a long way from that.
Instead, we have reached a point where we have to start worrying about the impact of all this. You have to admit—it takes a lot to make Donald Trump look like a victim. But that’s what he’ll look like to middle America if this violence continues. And it will continue.
There is, however, one person who might have the power to end it. No, not Hillary. I mean the candidate the protestors, peaceful and violent alike, undoubtedly admire the most. If this gets much worse, even though none of this is his fault, maybe Bernie Sanders could step up here. That would be actual leadership. [UPDATE: I see that Sanders, to his credit, did denounce the violence and say he didn’t want those kind of supporters.] But they might not listen even to him. Deep down, some of these people probably want Trump, because a Trump victory would confirm their deepest-held belief about what a fascist country this really is. They’ll erase out the part about how they helped make it so.
William Ayers and Angela Davis should have been roasting in hell a long time ago. The fact that they are STILL walking around alive and free is an abomination.
Of course you said more clearly, way better and much before I did. So, put me down as I totally agree with you.
Anti-Trump Voices Amplify on Internet, With Violent Results
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/us/politics/donald-trump-protest.html?_r=0
That’s true, he does grow on you. I thought it a joke when people started talking about him running last spring.
I knew of him vaguely but was not a viewer of his show, had not read his books.
I have watched some of his public appearances on YouTube and they are quite engaging.
The most amazing thing is his willingness to call a spade a spade.
Republican politicians typically would rather do the dance around the truth they think is required by the Ministry of Propaganda.
Trump doesn’t care.
He just says Hillary belongs in prison.
Illegal aliens should be deported.
Gore-Bull warming is a hoax.
Other countries are fleecing us.
Muslims are a danger to us.
Truth, it’s so refreshing.
Oh they know this one did not look good. They must have thought that it would not escalate. That the retards that support them would display self-control.
Did these people really think, SJWs, Illegals, and Muslims have self-control?????
The reason that such violence is counterproductive is that it exactly mirrors the process of regime change in Third World countries.
Which is precisely Trump’s message: Don’t let America step down to become Third World (as Ob has tried to make us). Rather, make us great again, the leading superpower.
Ah, the left's latest "big lie". Goebbels would be proud of these vermin...
NYT just admitted many of the “protestors” were gang members.
Herr Goebbels borrowed many of his ideas and techniques from President Woodrow Wilson’s team, so the circle is complete.
Perfect translation.
I like this article.
I (think) I see the criticism, in light of your long support for Ted Cruz, but it seems to be you are now pro-Trump and I don’t think the criticism is now warranted.
Thanks for your post. Keep up the good work.
How could I be a Cruz supporter? Cruz is no longer in the race.
I was defending you.
Basically I was saying although you were (strongly) posting, for quite a while, as very much a Cruz person. It seems you have come around to Trump now.
I like the article, and support your current posting. You are a very positive influence on FR.
Keep up the good work.
That’s right; Trump is becoming the “V” character in “V for Vendetta”...
“Trump is the personality that people love to hate, but it isn’t really hate. “
Trump is more like a WWF bad-guy who you suspect you could have a beer and laugh with after the match.
The more the libs hate Trump, the better I like him...inverse logic to fit the bill.
Some seriously convoluted reasoning on the part of the author: The “protesters” are actually now doing what the communists and fascists have always done all through history but TRUMP IS THE FASCIST? Yeah, right...
Did I try to tell you what to post?
But if you post opinions of Friends of Hillary, why be defensive when you get the negative feedback you provoked?
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