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The Democratic Convention isn’t over yet but so far it really looks as if the wild protests we were all promised are not going to happen. There was a big protest on Monday but instead of being “mostly peaceful” this one was actually peaceful. There were some big creepy puppets and intemperate slogans but no seemed eager to smash the fash. But the real surprise was how few people turned out. Here’s how the AP reported it.
More protests were planned throughout the week. However, attendance at the main rally on Monday was far below estimates of organizers who had predicted more than 20,000 would show up.
Snelling said Monday’s crowd was around 3,500 people and that the vast majority of those protesters were peaceful.
Yesterday, we finally got a real progressive protest from the group Behind Enemy Lines. Their protest was called “Make it Great Like ’68” and they were encouraging conflict with the police and vowing to put their bodies on the line. Sure enough there was some shoving and a dozens of arrests but once again the headline may have been how few people turned out for this. It was a few hundred die hards instead of a few thousand.
Politico has a story up today noting the trend. Both inside and outside the venue, Democrats are toning down the anti-Israel activism.
Democrats are barely talking about Gaza on stage at their convention. The most prominent critics of Israel are backing Kamala Harris.
