DENVER — What will the streets of Cleveland look like during the Republican National Convention? Perhaps the Western Conservative Summit has given us a taste.
Last year’s summit, a major gathering of conservative activists organized by Colorado’s Centennial Institute, was a relatively quiet affair in terms of protests as far as big political events go. Not so this year.
On Friday there were hundreds of protesters throughout Denver and some of them still lingered Saturday. There fights between demonstrators and attendees, with organizers at one point advising participants to remain indoors.
SWAT teams descended on the protests. Several were arrested. What was the big difference from last year? Donald Trump.
Trump spoke to the gathering Friday morning and has been the case at many of his rallies, there have been vocal and demonstrative protesters making their opinions known.
“We are here fighting fascism,” a demonstrator identified himself only as Jason told the Washington Examiner. Clad in a black T-shirt, he said he had been active in the Occupy Wall Street movement from a few years ago.
The summit wasn’t disrupted, Trump’s talk went off without a hitch and a lot of the brawls and near-brawls occurred only when the businessman’s equally vocal supporters engaged the protesters.
But major party national conventions are always the scene of major protests, even in normal years. This isn’t a normal year and Trump is a particularly inviting target.
Some of what was on display in Denver can be expected in Cleveland. There was a Trump piñata that was pummeled and ultimately set on fire. There was a replica of the wall that Trump has said he will build on the Mexican border. There were signs mocking Trump’s most controversial pronouncements.
Trump is a showman and at his rallies he has frequently made hecklers and disruptors part of the show. He addresses them from the podium, yells for security to remove them (“Get ’em out!”) and contrasts himself favorably with other candidates who have allowed themselves to be shouted down.
But there were full-blown riots after Trump spoke to supporters in San Jose, Calif. A planned rally in Chicago had to be scrapped due to security concerns.
Authorities in Cleveland have repeatedly maintained they are prepared to keep the peace. Many are mindful of the violence that unfolded on national television after the antiwar protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which contributed to an image of a party that had lost control.
Movements from Occupy to Black Lives Matter have develop a large number of experienced demonstrators, who will also be ready for Cleveland. If nothing else, it is a good opportunity to get their placards and their broader message broadcast into millions of people’s living rooms throughout the country.
Denver was just a small sample of what might greet a Trump nomination later this month.
