I love Portland and all that it affords those of us living here!
I understand peoples fears and will always support peaceful protests. But a line must be drawn at destroying other’s property. Like most protests the good protesters soon find their efforts co-opted by hangers-on joining in just for a little thrill of the moment. It’s not their fault and little they can do to prevent irresponsible thrill seekers who could care less about their cause from leeching themselves onto their marches.
It’s my hope that these protests will, over time, go from the streets to other productive actions that the n00bs cannot taint or affect. Keep the anger alive and burning and channel it into positive action ahead of 2018 and 2020.
Keep the faith.
Completely agree. I certainly understand the anger and fear, but blocking freeways so people have a two-hour commute does not make allies. Nor does smashing windows. And, I can’t help but notice the dominance of the violence by young, white males, the people with the least to fear from the Drumpf administration. A lot of it is led by the usual Portland demo-goers, the dudes in masks posing as “anarchists”.
Folks need to calm down. I lived the transition from Carter to Reagan and from Clinton to Bush. We had many of the same fears then, but Reagan and Bush left at the ends of their terms.
If people really want to have an impact on America, they will organize and elect progressives in suburban and rural states.Start local, move statewide and then national. Give Republicans something to think about. Stop bunkering down in the urban cores. Take the protest energy and channel it through democracy. We have another election in 2 years.
I guess our local media will be the only source for the news that protesters and their allies spent Friday cleaning up the damage, painting and white washing. And have created a gofundme site that has so far generated about $40,000 to assist property owners and business’s damaged by Thursday night.
Forget about local media. They belong to entertainment companies just like the national media. They are the part of the enemy. Organize using social media. Build internet media groups promoting real journalism. Make the stories real. Get word out via the internet. I am sick of I Heart Radio propaganda, aren’t you?
Can’t say, I’ve never listened to it. My family works hard to believe what we’ve experienced instead of what we’ve been told. So we discount much of what the media sends our way.
There is a difference between a peaceful protest and standing in a major highway backing up traffic for 5 miles. This is wrong.
It’s certainly inconvenient. And as @jrw notes it doesn’t make allies. On the other hand, how else do they convey the depth of their fear and anger. Freeways aren’t going to be blocked forever. If Mr. Quirico (and more importantly, the powers that are-to-be in DC) get the message and tread cautiously it will be worth the inconvenience. Of course, that’s easy for me to say – I wasn’t caught in the blockades of I-395 and CA-101.
I doubt that Trump, Ryan and McConnell are capable of getting the message and I don’t expect them to tread cautiously. I heard McConnell yesterday on NPR saying that the people had spoken and now it’s time for some serious change. (I’m paraphrasing.) He obviously wasn’t paying attention to how the popular vote divided up in both the presidential and Congressional elections. Though you aren’t listening, Mitch, hear the news: Overall, Democratic candidates got more votes in House races, in the Presidential race, and I suspect, (I haven’t seen the numbers yet) in the Senate races.
Your majority is gerrymandered and an artifact of the Electoral College. States don’t vote. Congressional districts don’t vote. People vote, and people protest.
I suspect a lot of those protesters didn’t bother to vote.
Now, in spirit I am with them but ya hafta VOTE if yer gonna be bitching about the outcome. Skin in the game so to speak.
I’d like to see peaceful protests grow for the next 90 days. Donnie’s inauguration would be a police state TV show.
The Inauguration is in 69 days
edit
any injury or blood should be on Trump’s hands.
“I don’t want to live in a country where my friends aren’t included, and my friends are fearful, and my children are going to grow up in a world that’s frightening, and my granddaughters can look forward to being excluded from jobs and politics and fulfilling their potential, so I’m here for them,” she said.
They should be protesting in the swing states, especially Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Dem voters did not show up to vote or voted for Trump.
Actually, I’m a Portlander, and our local media has done a pretty good job pointing out that the vast majority of these protests and protesters have been peaceful and that the violence is from a very small group. Likely the gun shot was from a Trumper. I live just across the river from downtown and last night there were young white males driving around shouting “Trump” from their car windows, looking for a fight.
Let’s remember that there IS great media. You just have to look for it.
Great site! And another one.
The Quirico fellow seems to be the one who is out of touch… The protesters have grasped the reality of “that person’s” election; that’s why they are in the streets!
These were riots.
I wonder how many of the traffic-blockers in Portland even bothered to actually vote, or voted third party? At least anecdotally, from reports I’ve seen about similar traffic-blocking efforts in Chicago and New York, many of these folks didn’t even vote for Hillary, so I have no idea why they’re complaining – those folks got exactly what they wanted. And seriously – blocking traffic in liberal strongholds like Chicago, New York, and Portland? How do they think that helps the cause? That’s like blocking BLM headquarters to protest police violence.
I’m sure most of the violence was caused by"anarchists" of which, unfortunately, Oregon has quite a number. We see them on May Day here in Seattle. Quite a creepy group.