FOR those who long to see President Donald Trump in the White House, violent protests outside some recent Trump rallies, often in cities with big immigrant populations, prove that their hero cannot take power soon enough. For everyone else, such violence is a cause for alarm. Not only is it wrong, as a point of principle, for protesters to sucker-punch Trump supporters on live television. From a narrowly political perspective, history suggests that demagogues gain votes when unrest grips the streets. Sure enough, Mr Trump has carefully blamed trouble outside his rallies on “thugs” and “agitators…sent by the Democratic Party”. Mr Trump also takes pains to point out when protesters wave the Mexican flag, a gesture that feeds his habit of questioning the loyalty of American Hispanics (including Gonzalo Curiel, an Indiana-born federal judge whom Mr Trump, disgracefully, dubs a biased “Mexican” and who is hearing a lawsuit against him).
Still the protests keep coming. Recent weeks have seen violence outside Trump rallies in such west-coast cities as Costa Mesa and San Jose and, farther inland, in Albuquerque. Never mind that Mr Trump has in his...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1tkkIOs
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