Repub operatives and spin doctors could turn the tables on demonstrators.

[Cascadian]

I am still concerned with what might go down this week in New York. So far the demonstrations are peaceful but we still have a whole week of this. My biggest concern is that you could have really fringe groups of people like anarchists and extremists who could try to take advantage of all of this and create chaos. This will play into the hands of the Republicans who will attack the left and liberals as creating the violence thus setting back Kerry's campaign. What is more sinister is that you could have neocon operatives that could stir up trouble in the crowds. I am not going to put anything past those people.

I hope I am wrong but we have to be careful and all peaceful, well-meaning demonstrators must keep a vigilant eye out for such trouble makers.

John

[DrWeird]

1. Yeah, OK, Joe Lieberman.

This is just a continuation of the appeasement/spineless dems debate.

"OH! Let's not saying anything bad about republicans! They'll just spin it into us hating America! Let's stick our heads in our asses and hope everything gets better by itself! Wah wah wah wee wee wah wah!"

(Sorry. Nothing personal.)

[K-W]

3. Way to not understand a post.

The posters point, and it is a very good one, is that the media could pick up the actions of a very small minority of protestors who act in ways that almost all of America would see as inappropriate, and thus discredit the entire amazing protest effort. It will reinforce the wakko liberal stereotype and make people feel bad for the republicans, it would be a PR nightmare.

Regardless, nothing in that post had anything whatsoever to do with appeasement, or not saying something bad about the republicans. Unless of course you are defending the actions of groups that aim to do property damage as part of thier protests. If you do, fine, but I dont know that you should be so cavelier with your ridicule if you advocate that.

But im guessing you are just overreacting to the post. The big political message of this protest was the massive number of citizens who came out to express their opinions in protest. If a small group of people committed actions that could then be used by the media to completely overshadow that powerful message with one of extremist liberals, it would be an incredible shame.

[Cascadian]

5. Do you advocate violence?

If you advocate violence, then you will be defeating the movement to get rid of Bush. Look, I am hardly what you call a Lieberman type. In fact, I am as fiery and passionate about politics as the next guy or gal, but come on. I think you have missed the point of what I am talking about. Any trouble will set us back especially to those "Middle America" type voters. One incident and you know that the media whores are going to call the liberals and Democrats "radicals" and "fringe". Then you will have 4 more years of Chimp Boy. Is that what you want?

John

[bluestateguy]

2. If Sunday was any indication, the Republicans are in trouble

I agree that widespread or destructive violence could create a problem, but large peaceful protests* could hurt Republicans by diluting their convention's message. The leading stories on all news channels tonight was the protests, not the message of the convention. Mostly, they were covering the message of the protests, so the Republicans are forced to compete for the microphone and the message of the week. As long as the protests are large, but peaceful, we have reached a soft landing.

*in any protest with 250,000 people you are bound to have a few dozen arrests for peccadilloes. That does not count.

[krkaufman]

4. And peaceful protests, especially when this large,...

... will make it very difficult for the ROG to spin the left as "angry" or "hateful." (Not that they won't do it, anyway; it'll just make it more difficult to brainwash the targets.)

[gandalf]

6. Certainly protester groups are infiltrated by "law enforcement"

It is a documented fact that peace groups were infiltrated before the Iraq invasion, so we can assume the same now for the NY protesters.

Some of the infiltrators might be agents provocateurs who will provoke violence. This technique was used by German intelligence agencies in 1968 during the students protests. I think that can seriously damage the reputation of the protesters.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. UPJ march made a big impact

And were covered extensively. Can't see how that march, which was overwhelmingly peaceful despite attempts to cause a ruckus (I'm thinking of the burning of the green dragon)), can be called anything but what it was....about the only thing the Repukes can say is that it was "disrespectful" of the Emporer-er, President. And then if they looked at the sign that said "Bush Killed My Son", I doubt if even the most feeble minded freeper could face the woman holding the sign and say anything.

[jonnyblitz]

11. don't put it past a freeper to face a woman who lost a son

Apparently you haven't seen Fahrenheit 9-11 where a woman did just that very thing to Lila Lipscomb.

[Cascadian]

8. ONE BIG KICK!

[Cascadian]

9. kick

[kwolf68]

10. Anarchists

What I am confused is why would anyone suggests Anarchists are “in line” with your typical Democrat.

Anarchists are for the complete abolition of government right? Sounds almost like Libertarian (far right economic) talking points.