Summary: Campaign 2016 has taken a surprising turn for the worse. The Left has failed to crush Trump by declaring him illegitimate (“fascist Hitler racist”) so they suppress his events (free speech for we, but not for thee). At best it’s likely to backfire on them. Worse, the Right might reply in kind, further degrading US politics — potentially leading to widespread violence as a standard feature of US campaigns.
Eroding away free speech in America & degrading its politics
Example #1 — near Phoenix on Saturday
Shouting “Get this clown out of my town.”
CNN: “Protesters block road outside Trump Arizona event”
“…The protesters in Arizona parked vehicles sideways on Shea Boulevard, blocking both lanes of traffic into Fountain Hills, where Trump held a rally Saturday afternoon, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Joaquin Enriquez told CNN.
“Enriquez described Shea Boulevard as the main artery into the area and the protesters’ actions were causing motorists to drive into oncoming traffic as they tried to get around them. Traffic was backed up for miles due to the blockage. ‘This is causing huge issues for us,’ Enriquez told CNN. He added, ‘We obviously have to get this road open.’
“…As he made his remarks, Trump was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, some of whom engaged in physical altercations with supporters. Behind Trump, a standoff between security and about two dozen demonstrators in the bleachers took place.
“At one point, Trump turned around at the podium as he watched protesters escorted out of the venue. ‘These are not good people folks,’ Trump said, adding, ‘They’re not really protesters, they’re agitators.’
“…Enriquez later told CNN that 3 protesters were arrested and 2 cars were towed from the boulevard. The deputy emphasized that the arrests were due to protesters blocking the roadway, not because of the protest itself.
“Protests at Trump rallies increasingly have become more contentious in recent days. Friday night, protesters outside a Trump rally in Salt Lake City, Utah, tried to breach the venue’s doors, causing police officers and Secret Service officers to abruptly shut them as Trump was speaking. And last week, scuffles between protesters and supporters in Chicago led Trump to cancel a rally there. …”
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Example #2: It started at Chicago
The plan was straightforward. Once Trump began speaking, Lewis would begin sending messages to the groups around the hall — and, so prompted, they would each stand up, chanting, and disrupt the speech.
…They had begun four days earlier with nothing. They had hoped that morning just to get inside the arena, maybe just a few of them, and maybe make a dent in the side of Trump’s candidacy. And they had started the afternoon with a list of printed, approved chants that Rojas had folded up in his pocket—chants they had come up with the night before. But in the dark, beneath the streetlights after the rally that wasn’t, they went off script, chanting something else. “We stopped Trump! We stopped Trump!” {From Politico.}
Example #3: At Trump’s event in Salt Lake City they shout “Shut it down!”
BREAKING: ugly scene as trump protesters tear down security tent. Officers forcefully pushed back pic.twitter.com/VLEebqVUZA
— Peter Doocy (@pdoocy) March 19, 2016
If the Right does similar protests, how will the Left describe them?
The Left conflates not listening with suppressing others’ speech
This XKCD cartoon is correct, but is weirdly cited to justify disrupting opponent’s political events — the opposite of what it describes.
Conclusions: Eroding away free speech & degrading our politics
Even for the Left, long preferring to declare opponents illegitimate (“racist!”, “denier!”, “sexist”) than debate issues, this is a mad response to the resurgence of populism. First, disrupting opponents’ events is an inherently illegitimate tactic in America — likely to diminish the Left’s already small support. Free speech is something we give it other. The government can take it away, and so can we.
Worse, this is a game both sides can play. Tit for tat is among the most effective and morally justifiable tactics. What happens to American politics when the Right does the same to the Left’s events? It’s bad enough today, but can easily become much worse.
For More Information
Please like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter. See all posts about freedom of speech, about Trump and the New Populism, especially these…
- What the press won’t tell you about Trump and populism — See Walter Russell Mead’s famous essay about Jackson.
- Why the Left is missing the rising populist movement.
- Liberals look at Trump and populism, but see only their prejudices.
- Why they lose: the Left tells us that Trump is like Hitler.
- The Left calls Trump an ‘authoritarian’, a false & futile attempt to suppress populism.
- The Left disrupts Trump’s rally. More of this might put him in the WH.
Re: XKCD comic: None are so blind as those who have judged their motives justify the means and will not see otherwise.
Unfortunately, at the moment of the disruption, the leftist protestors have more in common with an ISIS terrorist cell than they do with the history of Western Civilization. Every disruption helps Trump a lot more than it does the leftist cause.
Which, I am sure, is why he has such a “bring it” attitude towards the protestors. They’ve flunked Pro Wrestling 101.
Pluto,
You point out one of the great oddities in the modern US Left: so much of what they do is obviously self-defeating. But then that’s true of the Right as well. Perhaps that is just as well for us.