{"id":2106,"date":"2008-02-13T06:54:24","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T11:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2106"},"modified":"2008-02-13T10:58:23","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T15:58:23","slug":"about-those-thugs-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2106","title":{"rendered":"About Those Thugs Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask a Saint Paul DFLer about the potential for violent demonstrations at the Convention this fall, and most <\/em>of them will say “oh, they’re just a lunatic fringe.\u00a0 Mainstream Tics won’t stand for that kind of thing” (not to mention “the rioters are just a strawman”).
\nIf only it were true<\/a>.\u00a0 I got this from a Saint Paul politics discussion forum:<\/p>\n

When considering the feasibility and likelihood of unlawfulness and
\nproperty destruction at the RNC<\/span> this summer, a number of posters here have
\npresumed that riots are counter-productive to the interests of
\nprotesters, and that the Seattle experience was a failure for those protesting
\nthe WTO. Let’s look at the these presumptions again.<\/p>\n

Since the WTO debacle in Seattle<\/span>, there has not been single new
\nmultilateral trade agreement signed between North American or European powers and the Third World, and several attempts of advancing the WTO agenda through the Doha round of talks has failed. In view of this, the
\nSeattle protests, including the “brick-throwing” tactics, should be seen as
\nan unqualified success for the organizers of the protests, both lawful
\nand unlawful, not a failure.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the civil rights riots following the death of Martin Luther
\nKing are largely credited with providing Washington<\/span> with a sense of
\nurgency for reforming and funding the urban renewal and anti-poverty
\nprograms of the 1970’s, such as the Community Development Block Grants
\n(CDBG), a federal form of Minnesota’s LGA.<\/p>\n

Brick-throwing, under certain circumstances, does work, particularly
\nwhen employed by groups who have few other options for exercising
\npolitical power over a given policy question. In light of this, and the
\nunpopularity and powerlessness many feel regarding the war in Iraq, it seems
\npretty reasonable to expect that more radical forms of action will
\noccur than merely exercising one’s right to free expression.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, “they may be thugs, but they’re our <\/em>thugs”.<\/p>\n

I don’t know how representative the writer is of Tic opinion in Saint Paul – you be the judge,<\/a> but he appears to be a garden-variety lefty rather than a spittle-flecked radical.<\/p>\n

I think – and this is <\/em>just my opinion – that the majority of DFLers are opposed to the brick-throwers.\u00a0 But I think there are a few, like the writer, who can think of all sorts of obtuse rationalizations – and a bigger minority who’ll look at the convention like a hockey game or a NASCAR race or a Britney Spears appearance, looking for the spectacle.\u00a0 Perhaps they’re wistful for their lost youth forty years ago; perhaps they’re teenagers (literally or emotionally) who love drama.\u00a0 Whatever.\u00a0 A riot, to these people, might be counteproductive – but it’d sure be fun, woonit?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask a Saint Paul DFLer about the potential for violent demonstrations at the Convention this fall, and most of them will say “oh, they’re just a lunatic fringe.\u00a0 Mainstream Tics won’t stand for that kind of thing” (not to mention “the rioters are just a strawman”). If only it were true.\u00a0 I got this from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-convention-08","category-days-of-adolescent-rage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}