Do the people with signs like "make America Mexico again"

[Press Virginia]

and similar signs about California being Mexican Territory, along with the large amount of Mexican flags/paraphanalia, help Trump?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/violence-breaks-trump-rally-san-jose-protesters-hurl/story?id=39576437

[reddread]

1. give it back

we trashed it. we dont deserve it.

[Duckhunter935]

2. Be careful

I was basically called an idiot and racist for bringing up the Mexican flag thing does not help our sides optics.

[Press Virginia]

3. I don't know why. The same criticism was levied against a protest over

undocumented immigrants a few years ago by Latinos. They thought the optics didn't help the case for granting amnesty.

[beachbum bob]

5. agree...not needed here

[840high]

36. You are right.

[upaloopa]

4. I think it gives xenophobes ammunition. But to me it doesn't matter because it will never happen.

I live on the Central Coast of California. All the land around here was at one time land grants from the Mexican government.

So much of our place names are Spanish. Our Streets in older cities are named after Spanish Families who developed the land in the early 1800's.

Mexican heritage is celebrated here with festivals and Mexican flag waving. I think those not from here may not like that but we enjoy the festivals.

Our home was once a part of Mexico. Monterey was the capital here in the 1830's. The native Americans and a few Spanish settlers lived here then. The missions were built from San Diego to Monterey. Americans from the east traded goods for hides they got from the missions.

The missions were very devastating to the native Americans.

So our history and culture is very colorful with good and bad. It is a mixture Mexican, European and Native America. With the influx of immigrants the Mexican influence is growing again.

We now respect the Native American culture more than ever yet those people are long gone their artifacts and history remain.

A good book to read about life here in the 1830's is "Two Years Before The Mast" by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

[NWCorona]

12. I went to DLIFLC while in the service and Monterey is beautiful.

[flamingdem]

57. Excellent post, never realized that I live in

California, Mexico!

I will check out that book, noticed other books by Dana online too.

[Tarc]

6. I don't care what it helps or hurts, really. Our Latino community is basically under siege

and I don't blame them a bit for going after Trump fanboy's vitriolic, xenophobic supporters.

[Press Virginia]

8. violently?

That's the part that feeds into his rhetoric

[Tarc]

9. Perhaps, yes

This isn't just simple political rhetoric, this is Mussolini-like on Trump's part.

[Press Virginia]

10. I don't believe the answer to speech one doesn't like is violence

or the destruction of property

[Tarc]

13. I would agree, if this were a simple matter of speech

It hyperbole to say that Trump is in Mussolini territory here.

[Press Virginia]

15. It IS speech

it's as offensive and divisive as anything some hate group would say at their rally but the answer isn't violence.

Protest, make noise. But assaulting people crosses a line.

[Tarc]

18. Sorry, I'm not going to bend on this

[Press Virginia]

20. when you start condoning violence as a response to words

people don't want to hear, the violence is only going to get worse.

someone is going to die at the hands of one of these mobs because of a hat or a t-shirt.

[Tarc]

23. Donald Trump is not the victim: The right’s laughable spin as violence breaks out in San Jose

In a functioning democracy, political violence should almost always be condemned. However, we must not forget that Donald Trump and his supporters are on the wrong side of history.

Trump is a political arsonist. He and his supporters have no moral high ground upon which to stand as they complain about being burned by the fires that they themselves have set in San Jose and elsewhere.

Thrown eggs are not bullets. Despite what Fox News and the right-wing media will suggest in the days and weeks to come, Donald Trump and his supporters are neither victims nor martyrs. They are bullies who delight in taunting the weak and the vulnerable. And like almost all bullies they summon up crocodile tears of victimhood and pain when someone is brave enough to confront them.

- Salon

[Press Virginia]

24. I'm sorry, assaulting people for attending a political event, no matter how abhorent

isn't how we are supposed to behave.
People are being beaten up for the T-shirt they're wearing.

it's going to escalate and someone is going to die.

[840high]

37. .that^

[Duckhunter935]

50. Agreed

Sad people are for violence

[jberryhill]

29. Okay, so you don't care if it helps, you just want to see violence

Do I read you correctly?

You think we should run things on the basis of whomever is best able to beat people up.

[Cheese Sandwich]

7. It's true. The USA stole half of Mexico. If the truth is offensive I guess deal with it.

[pinebox]

11. It depends I think

I am not awake and probably not coherent enough yet to speak my mind on this.
Mexican flag? That one is debatable but it is gasoline for the right, not as bad as say an Aztalan flag but yeah.....

[Press Virginia]

14. You've got a guy, calling mexican immigrants criminals

while, outside, you've got people with signs about CA being Mexico, waving the Mexican flag, burning the American Flag and engaging in criminal acts.
(SOME of them. Not all.) The crowd, itself, was not engaging in the assaults it was a few individuals

I just wonder if it plays into Trump's message.

[pinebox]

21. It's bizzaro world

You nailed the point and then you have Hillary who called for migrant children to be sent home and voted for a border fence.
It's all the same just different shades of the onion peel

[NorthCarolina]

16. Voters don't really want Trump (save for a few) but, unfortunately,

they don't want another Clinton even more so it appears.

[Marr]

17. Immensely. /nt

[jzodda]

19. Its such a fringe notion

That I don't think anybody, including Trump supporters take it seriously.

Lets be real. If a state referendum were held what % would vote to join Mexico?

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Context matters

My epiphany came last Friday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027876901

[Bread and Circus]

25. So those people in the pictures protesting Trump are Hillary voters?

[Press Virginia]

26. who knows. I heard an interview, the other day,

young lady out protesting Trump was explaining why she was there.
Then, when asked who she was voting for, she says she's not a citizen

But these protestors ARE the ones we're hoping votes for our candidate...

[blm]

30. Utter horsepoo. And you know it.

.

[Press Virginia]

32. why?

[blm]

33. Because I've been reading your posts since you started here a few months ago -

and some of us older DUers have seen this act before.

[Press Virginia]

35. eh...whatever

[jberryhill]

47. You missed a tell

Notice how your correspondent suggested that non-citizens are people "we" want voting in November.

Cute one to slip in there, really.

[Press Virginia]

51. Uh, no I didn't. I was referring to the protesters in general

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. You mean like with prop 187

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027876901

Trust me when I tell you this has nada to do with your normal right-left paradigm

[BlueNoMatterWho]

52. I saw that video. Cringeworthy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. Neither Sanders or HRC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027876901

[Bread and Circus]

56. So they are Mexico or bust? They gotta be backing somebody right? It is election season.

[nadinbrzezinski]

58. They do not want Trump

but it is not as simple as saying they are for the Democrats either. If you think so, then you are looking at this from a very comfortable seat indeed. Though since I am registered at the registrar also as a latino, I just got a robo call from Loretta Sanches using the FEAR TRUMP card, a very different add than the ones running on my anglo TV.

That said, the issues for the Mexican American community are much older than 2016.This is politics happening OUTSIDE both parties. And trust me, that frustrates both parties to no end.

[One Black Sheep]

27. That, along with waving Mexican flags, is a gift to Trump

not to mention being violent and assaulting his supporters.

WTF are these protesters thinking? They are helping Trump by all this media coverage of their crazy and unlawful antics.

[840high]

38. They are proving Trump right.

[ILikeTurtles2]

46. I agree. I'm afraid Stump will now say, "See, that's why we need a wall. Vote for me."

If no protesters showed up for his rallies, there would be less media coverage.
Everyone should just ignore him and never speak his name.
Then maybe he will fade away.

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. C.- context matters

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027876901

[blm]

28. Who do you think are the ones whose campaign actually paid for those signs?

GOP operatives showed up on the campaign trail posing as college students and burning flags in cities right before GHWBush appearances in 1988. GOP operatives used to show up with signs that read Communists for Kerry in order to create RW buzz to smear Kerry. Pretty sure that's what is happening here, too, and working right alongside with the anarchist crowd eager for any commotion, too.

Perhaps that is not what you want to hear, though, eh? That some of us really do GET how GOP operatives work at rallies and on the internet?

You certainly do show a lot of concern in your posts that rely on believing the GOP operations are real.

[Press Virginia]

34. It may be GOP operatives

The LA Times brought the subject up.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-anti-trump-protests-mexican-flag-20160429-story.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. And they gave you the right context

Protesters chose to bring out the Mexican flag to demonstrate their culture and not their nationality,” Villanueva said. “In this election year, I find the fact that people are waving Mexican flags more important than people waving American flags because of the diversity within our own American culture.”

[Press Virginia]

43. Yeah but how many yokels are going to care

about why they chose the Mexican flag and burned the US flag?

[nadinbrzezinski]

45. It is my job to educate you

Not my job to change your views. This is part of a long tradition. This goes back to actually almost 1848.

[Press Virginia]

48. I'm aware of the history. My question is based

On the videos highlighting the violence, which is all a lot of people are going to see.

[nadinbrzezinski]

49. American racsism is like apple pie

I have said it in the past, Trump can get the full enchilada, but this is not the actual reason why This is a symptom.

In the meantime we have idiots on this site stating that these people are republican plants, nope, they are not. Or that they are bernie supporters, nope, or HRC supporters, NOPE. Politics is happening outside the parties.

And yes last night we had several idiots here going over how much Bernie is behind this. Incidentally that is a talking point started by Trump. And in my opinion the US gets the rulers and lacks of policies that help everybody becuase they allow it. This is a perfect example of that, textbook in fact.

[ShrimpPoboy]

31. Yes

They confirm the charicature of the left that the right wants people to believe.

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. I know people do not want to believe this

But politics is occurring outside the left right paradigm you are used to

[Agnosticsherbet]

53. Open support of Trump by the KKK and Neonazis, and dictators like Kim Jong Un and Putin

are of more concern to me than protestors with a few flags and signs.

The people with those signs and flags are offended by a racist who has sworn to round up their relatives and friends and ship them off to Mexico. We should all be waving Mexican flags in support of them.

[blm]

54. ^^^^^^^

.

[DesMoinesDem]

55. You're going to see these images and videos in a bunch of Trump ads

Trump will say we need to build a wall. And to prove it they'll show video of protestors waving Mexican flags, holding signs that say Make America Mexico Again, burning American flags, and violently attacking Trump supporters. And all the independents that see the ads will say he's right. And then he'll be President.

[nadinbrzezinski]

59. Exactly the same way that this went with the protests over 187

and incidentally the reason why I applied for citizenship. So what is new?