Thursday, March 06, 2008

THE RIGHT CRAVES A BLOODBATH. SORRY, GUYS, YOU AIN'T GONNA GET ONE.

This morning I told you that on ABC news last night Jake Tapper linked the possibility of a brokered Democratic convention to the possibility of riots in the streets -- all because 1968 had both violent unrest and a difficult nominating process, as if the two were linked. Now I see that the lunatic right has seized on this scenario -- and clearly hopes it comes to pass.

Here's Weekly Standard blogger Michael Goldfarb:

I wrote a little while ago about the plan of some protest groups to 'Recreate 68' at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this year. If there's a close delegate count and the convention is contested -- which is still unlikely, but possible -- that stands to raise the tension level for Democrats. If the anti-war base is dissatisfied with Congress' failure to bring the troops home -- a virtual certainty -- that could raise it as well. The pressure is on the DNC to ensure that despite the potential trouble, the nominating party goes smoothly.

Since writing previously, I've learned that the folks trying to screw up the liberalpalooza have their own website: Recreate 68.org. The site is set up to facilitate communications between protesters, and help them with planning....


Oh, my God! They have a Web site! The technologically advanced liberal-terrorist fiends!

Oh, give me a break. Goldfarb quotes a defense of property damage on the group's site (found in this PDF) and looks forward to mayhem, but come on -- some callow idiots always want to do that kind of thing, at every major-party election-year convention, and every large political gathering of any kind. That was true four years ago and eight years ago and twenty years ago, and it has nothing to do with the political party running the convention or the state of the nomination fight. It's utterly predictable and utterly boilerplate, and unless Denver completely falls down on the job, these people aren't going to get to do any real harm and things are going to go just fine.

Goldfarb adds:

The organizer of Recreate 68 ... is already sparring with the City of Denver over the permitting process for protests. It seems like there's real potential for this to get ugly.

Going to Goldfarb's link, we learn that the organizer in question is one Glenn Spagnuolo. So how "ugly" might this get? Well, a bit of Googling reveals that Spagnuolo was one of a group of protesters who held up Denver's Columbus Day parade last October. How ugly did that get? Well:

Police arrested 83 Columbus Day Parade protesters ... after fake blood and dismembered baby dolls were poured on the parade route Saturday....

The parade through downtown was delayed about an hour....


Plastic baby-doll IEDs and an hour's delay in the parade! Oh, the humanity! Except for the complete absence of violence or any significant impact on the social order, it's almost exactly like Chicago '68!

Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Goldfarb (and Ed Driscoll and Instapundit, who quote Goldfarb, approvingly and with hope in their hearts), but the bloodbath you so desperately crave isn't going to happen -- even if there's a brokered convention.

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