Protesters at Trump Rallies: Good or bad? Helpful or unhelpful? Worth the effort or not?

[Stinky The Clown]

On the one hand, they are saying what many people are thinking: this man is dangerous, evil, crazy.

On the other hand, they give him and his moron minions specific targets for the hatred.

On the one hand they show the world there are people willing and ready to stand up to him.

On the other hand, they give the media ever more reason to justify their broadcasting of everything that comes out of his vile mouth.

I could go on with Trumpian yins and yangs, but you get the idea.

Are the protests/protesters helping or hurting?

[daleanime]

1. I don't know....

How has just letting him and corporate media do what they want work?

[jberryhill]

7. How was it working?

Well, let's see, his net negative rating was skyrocketing without the protests in the rallies. It seemed like he was doing a fine job of making sure he doesn't win the general, all by himself.

Outside the events is one thing, but I don't see what good is accomplished by protesting inside the event.

[daleanime]

9. I don't think anyone would suggest going into the snake pit....

we don't need anyone hurt, but being hated by 55% of americans doesn't hurt him to much. If 35 to 38% will vote for him, we are in danger of a Drumpf presidency. Especially if we run someone with a familiarly high unfavorable rating.

[SusanCalvin]

2. My personal opinion, with no backup except my gut,

Is that I'm fine with sidewalk protests but I wish they'd stay out of the hall. Too much chance for someone to get hurt and it just feeds Trump.

[randr]

3. His rallies should be surrounded by chanting masses

Not to support a Democratic candidate but to express disgust at all who would attend his Klan rallies.

[Bragi]

8. Quite so

Opponents should not go into the meetings because Trump supporters are too unstable to resist becoming violent. Massive demonstrations outside Trump events are the way to go.

[leftynyc]

4. Peaceful protests are fine

Continually interrupting his speeches is not.

[bigwillq]

5. I support peaceful supporters

this goes for Ds, Rs, Indys, Greens, whatever party or candidate they identify with.

[mikehiggins]

6. Stay away

All these protests do is help the networks profits. No one at a Chump rally is going to have his/her mind changed by having us provide them with targets for their malice. Ignore them. Let the MSM find some other storyline to fill their empty air.

[SusanCalvin]

11. There you go. nt

[Bragi]

15. I respectfully disagree, here's why

Like many others, I too fear the rise of Trump's brand of thinly-disguised fascism.

That said, do you know what is already an important difference between the rise of Hitler in Germany, and the rise of Trumpism in America?

It is this: As of Friday night in Chicago, there has now been more open, visible public opposition by Americans to Trumpism than was ever the case in Germany during the whole pre-war period.

That is a point worth savoring. As Hitler seized power and implemented his Nazi agenda, we know that too many sensible Germans waited it out, doing nothing, convinced that Hitler would eventually self-destruct, or that sensible people would eventually do something stop him.

As of now, as of last Friday's events in Chicago, it appears this won't be happening in America.

For that, I am immensely gratified. That's why I think the demonstrations around (around, not inside) Trump events must continue, stay peaceful, and hopefully get larger and larger.

[4139]

10. Hold 'counter rallies' down the street for Hillary or Bernie. Keep it positive.

[backscatter712]

19. And be ignored. n/t

[LAGC]

46. Yup. Got to keep that protesting confined to "First Amendment zones."

Far away and safe from anyone noticing or caring.

[FlatBaroque]

12. I'll let Charles Pierce speak for me on the matter

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a42984/message-to-trump-protesters/

Stay out of the buildings.

Stop being played for such suckers. Stop enlisting yourself in his bloody vaudeville. Stop giving him stuff to lie about at all the rallies that actually do end up happening. Stop making yourselves part of the show, because it's not working. It doesn't affect him at all. In fact, his campaign gains strength from it, like some science-fiction monster that absorbs the energy of whatever attacks it and then uses it to destroy. It doesn't gain you any allies; as should be clear by most of the meeping responses from the elite political press, the best it can get you is lectures about how Both Sides in our politics should settle down and let cooler heads ponder impotently about How We Got To This Point. That discussion never quite comes around to the simple, obvious fact that the Republican Party ate the monkeybrains 30 years ago and that the prion disease it thereby acquired is now cascading through its higher functions. That there is even one allegedly serious person taking seriously the allegedly serious argument that the president is somehow at fault for how the Republican madness is acting out in public is a measure of how far the disease has progressed, and of the spavined state of our institutional immunity to it.

[bhikkhu]

25. Very true; he seems to be an expert at making protesters "part of the show"

to the point that, I suspect, if there were no protesters he would recruit them himself.

[FlatBaroque]

29. I'm pretty sure he already has. /

[Monk06]

41. I concur, especially in the case of the stage jumper and the old fart who sucker punched the guy in

Chicago

Police security are also treating Trumpist Sturmabteilung with kid gloves allowing them to push and kick protesters on the way out of the hall

Personally I think the protests should continue so the whole country and the rest of the world can see the ugly underbelly of socalled American Conservatism

[gordianot]

13. Protest give them an excuse to complain, in this case separation works.

Stay away

[hfojvt]

14. a poly sci prof once said

Nixon realized that the only thing more unpopular than the Vietnam war in the eyes of the public - was the Vietnam war protesters.

Is a protester the same thing as a disrupter? Or vice versa?

Does my first amendment right give me the right to prevent you from speaking by talking over you?

When I am part of a protest, I would like to have a few messages get out

1. we are here
2. we are many
3. we object

If the group gets out of hand, it sends another message loud and clear -

4. we are obnoxious, destructive a$$holes.

[world wide wally]

16. And if you do show up for confrontation, carry Ted Cruz signs

Ben Carson?

[jpak]

17. Good and Helpful

Just say no to fascism.

yup

[backscatter712]

18. Silence is consent.

Protest is absolutely necessary, in the only way that will get media attention, by disruption.

Look a few years back into the fight that resulted in the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the end of the Defense of Marriage Act. It took Lt. Dan Choi and lots of other protesters handcuffing themselves to the White House fence to draw enough attention to compel Obama, Congress and the courts to end those vile laws permanently.

You have to disrupt, or you get ignored. The media's not going to cover they folks out on the sidewalk with signs, waving at cars. They cover the guys interrupting Trump.

Sorry if it's rude, but there's no other way. Trump must be stopped, and if it takes fucking with his Nuremberg rallies to do it, so be it.

[karynnj]

20. It depends what the protesters do -- Burlington VT reacted well when the alien Trump monster came

Trump, to make a point, made an appearance in Burlington VT. He booked the town's live theatre venue, the Flynn Center, which has about 1,400 seats and proceeded to give out over 20,000 seats. His security people extracted promises from people they allowed in that they were already committed to Trump. Many Republicans who came from other areas --and even across Lake Champlain from NY, waited in line for about 4 hours when they heard the number of "tickets" given on Trump's web site, and were rejected at the door if they said they were undecided.

The protests consisted on many many people, some from groups, some by themselves showed up at City Hall Park across the street. Many carried signs with things like "Take your hate out of our state". The city itself silently backed the protesters by putting papers with giant letters up in the third (top) floor windows that read "we welcome refugees" and left the lights on.

A different kind of protester were people who lied to get into the Flynn and at different points booed things that Trump said. They then left when security ushered them out - some almost dancing when they came out the door into the town. Here, everything was peaceful - though Trump had created a seriously dangerous situation in so drastically giving out too many tickets.

Now, clearly the protesters, in their own city, in the part with candles and signs - sometimes singing songs, sometimes chanting clearly is not a problem. They were exercising their free speech. The protesters in the Flynn is a bit different, but they all left peacefully when asked. I would guess (I do not know anyone who did this) their motive was to prevent Trump from going unchallenged in their town. It was totally in your face that Trump even came there. However, it is true that he paid for the venue and he had a right to speak.

I wish that ALL the protesters had stayed outside with their peaceful signs targeting the real ugliness Trump represented. However, the media covered the entire Trump rally inside - as they seem to do all Trump rallies. The reality is that the media would not have given much coverage to the rallies outside - just the Trump rally. Given that, you might argue that people from the town were using their freedom of speech to say that Burlington did not agree with Trump. However, the truth is that few would agree if a regular performance of anything were disrupted.

[maxrandb]

21. I wish the protests could be redirected

to the local wingnut Hate Radio stations that have created Trump and the modern Republican Party.

[flamingdem]

22. I say protest, the protesters are not coming off badly, he is

And they're learning how to do it, very good experience to have.

Someone has to put their body on the line or it's just talk.

That said they need to have a plan and avoid physical entanglement
with Trump goons or the police.

[Eleanors38]

23. You may be onto something. On the whole, BIG demos are needed...

I prefer outside his fightclub warehouses where the MSM and tRumpers can create, as Malcolm X said, a "controlled show".

Outnumber them, get close, tell the trumpers what you think.

[Stinky The Clown]

24. That's my feeling too.

Inside the venues, they have little or no 1st Amendment rights to free speech. Presumably, Drumpf paid for the use of the venue. That makes it private. On the outside, no such prohibition exists.

Inside the venues, the protesters become targets. If you watch him today, he gets to strut around the stage yelling to get them out. His moron army gets to yell and scream. The media shows the protesters in a bad light.

Outside the venues, the protesters are free to do whatever they wish, except to violate laws (which in some cases means they have to stay some set distance from venue exits). They can then yell, picket, taunt at will. Surround an entire venue after his moron army goes in. Then come out of the shadows and march around the venue in a continuous circle. Keep moving. In that way you violate no laws and make a strong point. If you get as many people outside as in, that's powerful.

I understand the power of getting into the events, but consider, too, that you become his personified "enemy", his scapegoated "other". It seems to me better to take that power away from him.

[Monk06]

43. Trump pays for the venue but so does every other candidate The event itself is open to the public

so by definition is a public event

This notion by right wingers that protesters are breaking the law by interfering with an event where someone with Secret Service protection is present is the latest right wing fiction, instigated by Trump who is now suggesting that protesters be arrest and charged

Can't wait to see that happen and what charges are used

[Stinky The Clown]

44. Respectfully, you're wrong.

The events are private.

[Monk06]

47. You mean they send out invitations or charge admission? Seems private function in the context

of a political rally is a legal grey area

Love to see it test though

[Donald Ian Rankin]

26. Bad. It's fine to protest outside other people's rallies; it's not OK to shut them down.

And the "he was the one who made the final decision not to hold it" comeback is pure sophistry - the responsibility lies on the head of the people who made that decision necessary.

[madamesilverspurs]

27. Trump and his minions

are as legitimate as Westboro Baptist Church and should be regarded accordingly.


That said, I still have a niggling suspicion that some of those 'protesters' are hired by Trump to rile up his crowd for the airtime.

[peace13]

28. OK, you know...they were kicking people of color out for no reason.

Are you suggesting that be ignored. I'm sorry, if Obama had kicked the white people out of his rallies there would have been a real riot! Trump and his folks are sick, sick individuals kidnapping our election process. That should not be permitted!

[KentuckyWoman]

30. Protest is good. Interruption is not.

Standing quietly in a hijab or with a sign or shirt or whatever either inside or outside is fine. Causing a scene, throwing things, yelling, or otherwise creating an interruption is wrong in my opinion.

I have a member of my family who is actually planning to vote for Trump but is extremely unhappy with Trump's stance on immigration. He's been at 5 different Trump rallies that are within a drive handing out informational pamphlets to other Trump supporters hoping to get supporters to push Trump in a more tolerant direction. My cousin doesn't seem to understand the whole point of the rhetoric is to get media attention so it's not likely to change.

[Macattack1]

31. not a good look

protesters come off as dangerous,(charging the stage was really stupid), and "free-speech haters", and they scare middle Americans...not a wise tactic, probably gave trump another 5 points in the polls...

[TM99]

32. The inconvenient truth is that

one of the largest groups of these activists disrupting Trump's rallies are BLM.

So many here supported their 'disruptions' last year from NN15 to Seattle to Mall of America to wealthy Clinton fundraisers.

I supported them then as long as there was no violence, which unfortunately did occur in Seattle. I support them now and their allies at MoveOn and various other minority groups as long as their is no violence.

Those on the Trump side who are full of rage to the point of violence will find targets even if one is not presented to them.

It is not a matter of hurting or helping. It is a matter of standing up to some of the vile stuff that is coming out of the mouths of some of Trumps supporters.

Personally I wish Trump would disavow it and ratchet it down. I do not think he will because he garnishes him support and feeds his narcissistic ego.

[davidn3600]

33. Protesters who interrupt come off not looking all that good in the end

It's free speech, but it's not very effective speech. When you stand up in a rally and start screaming and shouting....
1. Many probably can't understand what you are saying.
2. It's like being an obnoxious Yankee fan at Fenway. Boston fans don't care what you have to say. No one there is going to change their mind and become a fan of your team.

Trump is also getting all this free publicity. It's all anyone is talking about. Even if you stand up to him, you are bringing attention to him. And this is a guy who just soaks that attention right up. It strokes his ego. And his supporters will only double down because you represent everything they hate about the other side.

[Hekate]

34. Could help. Just remember the Civil Rights protesters who faced ugly mobs & police dogs...

I'm not saying it would be a safe enterprise, but I am sufficiently alarmed to believe it is past time to protest and disrupt this would-be tinpot dictator.

[Hekate]

35. Thanks Flat Baroque for the Chas Pierce article. Okay, here's the plan...

Pierce just says it so much better than I.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a42984/message-to-trump-protesters/

In terms of tangible political gain, the disruption of Trump's rally was a failure, which was obvious if you watched the coverage of his subsequent rallies in Missouri and Ohio. He feeds on this stuff, and so do his crowds.

My suggestion? Create a wave of non-violent protest outside the arenas. Close the streets. Fill the jails, if you must. Force the media coverage, which shouldn't be all that hard at this point. But stay out of the buildings because you can do no good in there. It gives aid and comfort to the forces you are trying to defeat, and it gives a timorous elite political press an excuse to look the other way, and it gives the other candidates from a party that long ago descended into madness one more hallucination to justify why it's eating bugs in public.

Stay out of the buildings. Decline to audition for a part in the freak show. Silent witness can be the most powerful kind there is.

[Stinky The Clown]

36. I've heard that line of reasoning before, actually.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027682211#post24

[Hekate]

37. Well there you have it. Two wise men in accord.

[kwassa]

38. I think the media would ignore silent, peaceful protest.

Rule one in television broadcasting: if it bleeds, it leads.

[Hekate]

39. Media wouldn't be able to ignore 10,000+ people...

...turning up outside every Trump event. Not necessarily silent, either. There's always songs and chants. I think picket signs should be specific to Trump and not to any other candidates, so as to maintain focus on Trump.

[mnhtnbb]

42. Baloney. The media ignored 100's of thousands of people in the streets protesting an Iraq War.

They will easily ignore people in the streets only outside an event.

I think silent, peaceful protest INSIDE the event--backed up by MORE protesters outside in the streets--is necessary.

[NobodyHere]

40. I'm not for them

It almost makes me embarrassed as a Bernie Voter to watch them.

[Mira]

45. When I caught on to exactly

what was happening and how he chose to react and participate ---
then I knew (from my fingers to God's ears) that this is finally what would take Trump down.

Now my only worry is Cruz.

[romanic]

48. Protest outside in force.

Protesting and interrupting Trump only embolden and feed into his frenzied fanbase. Not only that, it adds more supporters to Trump in order to spite Bernie, Democrats, MoveOn, BLM, whoever is causing the protests in the first place. Going on like this gives Trump more power.