This wasn't a protest, it was a political rally. You want to try telling a group of people armed with assault weapons to move? I don't think "protestors" should be carrying weapons. That makes them very dangerous.
What would police do if armed masked black men descended on the state capitol like this? Answer: not say this: Lt. Darren Green of the Michigan State Police traffic was backed up for more than a mile around the Capitol in several directions. “They’re doing a pretty good job of maintaining social distance," Green said. "They’re being respectful and not causing any issues at all.”
Woman at far left of this photo from Ohio protest is melissa ackiinson, a candidate for state senate...
I do sympathize with the people protesting as there is real economic and social pain from this but turning these into free floating Trump and open carry rallies are not helping their cause. They are doing exactly what many have criticized protests for things like the Climate Change and stopping gun violence by turning them into political rallies and muddying them with other issues.
I have no doubt that the Trump campaign is playing a deliberate role in these "protests". I will say it again they are hurting their own cause. There are many who don't like the shutdown but associating them with Trump and gun rights is going to drive many who might agree on opening up away.
His campaign probably is overly compensating for that 'authority is total' comment because that was ad objectively as bad of a look as a subjective take can be that even die hard Trump supporters were like "you shouldn't say your authority is total". But they dismiss it as a gaff. The more center GOP voters are the ones who might need to be convinced again so now the administration is trying to create a narrative that Democrats want to install a socialist state by shutting down the economy.
The right wingers are trying to repeat the whole very successful Tea Party caper which was initially financed by folks like the Kochs and maybe even the Devos family. I have to assume Fox and they hope the other networks will pick up this stupidity as something interesting. They hope to direct people's anger and fury as well as humiliation to see our country perform so dreadfully in the Pandemic. They are afraid that the anger will be against Trump and the bailouts just done that give 80% of all the money to the rich. They know that the Pandemic is the beginning of the end of the road for a lot of their crap. For instance. As tens of millions lose their jobs and hence their private health insurance they will add to the majority wanting a single payer health care system. Many of those laid off will never find a job with good corporate health insurance. If you are say 50 or over in IT good luck at not descending to the gig economy.. If you work for a small company good luck as the company will not be able to afford to carry you on their insurance. There are estimates that premiums will need to go up as much as 40% so that the companies can make up for lost profits due to the Covid 19 virus. It also turns out that hundreds more hospitals are going broke as they cannot do the famous elective surgeries with the $100 per pill aspirin and all the scams that give them money to support the rest of their operation and help with the next quarter projections required by Wall Street.
Yes if it was a group of black men who didn't support Trump and wave confederate flags, they'd have their brains blown out in 5 secs. Dems need to hit back on these rallies with ads calling out Trump and his minions for funding rallies during a national emergency.
