With 65 days until the election, are the protests helping or hurting Democrats

[still_one]

40 votes, 3 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Helping
	4 (10%)
	Hurting
	25 (63%)
	Neither
	11 (28%)
	3 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Drunken Irishman]

1. No one can answer this question.

There's just not enough polling to tell, either way.

When the initial protests hit in June, a lot of people wondered if they'd help Trump but the polls clearly showed Biden getting a boost in support.

It's possible that happens again. It's also possible Trump gets a boost but no one can say for sure because there hasn't been much polling done to give us insight into the issue.

[Stallion]

2. Peaceful Protest Positive- Violence, Looting and Destruction of Property is a Negative

[kacekwl]

7. You said it 1st.

My thought exactly.

[LeftInTX]

33. Day in and day out, peaceful protests become stagnant

[StrictlyRockers]

3. Oh noes, the sky is falling! People are protesting!

I love it here.

[RDANGELO]

4. Until recently I don't think it made much difference.

Maybe within the last few days it didn't help Biden, but the way Trump is behaving now, I think he is digging his own hole. Just my own hunch.

[judeling]

10. Yes I agree

There is a bit of short term harm at the margins. But over the longer term Trump cannot help being Trump so it will play badly for most.

[RiverbendsJoe]

5. Are the Democrats helping or hurting the protesters?

[bottomofthehill]

6. The protesting is not hurting

The lawlessness on the shoulders is what is hurting.

[uponit7771]

52. +1, .... done by Trump supporters and assholes. Conflating the two plays into Trumps narrative

[standingtall]

8. I think they are hurting I don't know to what extant

I still think Biden will win, but it is certainly costing us something with older white voters who are either planning on voting for Biden or leaning that way. These protest are causing them a lot of anxiety and these protest of camping out and protesting 24/7 for months now has pretty much over stayed it's welcome with such voters.

[KentuckyWoman]

12. You put in more efficiently than I.

I'm and old lady that hangs out with a lot of old ladies, and I can say you are spot on.

[edhopper]

9. The ones that have spawned violence

whether it's the protesters or the police hurt us.
When people don't feel safe the vote GOP.
It's illogical and purely emotional.
But there it is.

[jimlup]

13. We are teetering on the edge of ...

well God help us, I don't even want to say.

All in for November 3rd!

[Raine]

14. Protests that have turned into rioting, looting, violence and shootings

are going to help Trump right back into the Whitehouse the way they did Nixon in 1968.

[still_one]

30. There is no question that the riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968 helped Nixon

[uponit7771]

51. ... and are being started by Trump supporters and stupid people. TOO much evidence of this and the

... narrative of the protesters doing such is bullshit.

99% of the protesting has been done by peaceful people the 1% of Trump supporter and assholes come screw everything up after the fact.

The narrative has to be two different groups protesters vs looters and not both conflated

[GemDigger]

15. What a screwed up question.

Do you want them to stop protesting the deaths of innocent people?

[still_one]

22. I setup a poll to see what people on DU are feeling about the protests, and you imply that I

Last edited Mon Aug 31, 2020, 02:36 AM - Edit history (1)

want them to stop protesting, because I setup this poll?

That is quite a leap Gem

[GemDigger]

40. No, I asked a question.

And apparently you won't answer it.

[still_one]

41. "do I want them to stop protesting"? NO. Is that clear enough for ya?

[GemDigger]

42. It is, thank you.

[still_one]

44. Ok, Thanks

[Bettie]

16. Who effing knows anymore?

It's probably both helping and hurting both sides for entirely different reasons.

[still_one]

31. I think that is a good analysis of the situation

[Vogon_Glory]

17. It galls me to say this, but the protests in Kenosha and Minneapolis are hurting

us. I don’t doubt that many of the stone-throwers and looters are white agents-provocateurs, but the optics are being used to alienate many potential voters and energize their latent racism.

Hillary barely lost Wisconsin and barely won Minnesota and the lawless punks are working to help Trump win both states.

[redstateblues]

18. Hate to say it but it's hurting

[intheflow]

19. This is the whitest poll I've ever seen.

Are Black people and their white allies scaring people by demanding their human rights and fair treatment under law? To say it's hurting a political party callously looks away from the trauma inflicted on BIPOC every single day in this country. Here's a suggestion for your next poll: Is treating the presidential election of the most powerful country like a horserace helping or hurting democracy?

[still_one]

20. I setup a poll to see how people feel on DU about the protests, and you seem to be imply that

I am a racist for posting this poll

Then by all means alert on me if that is what you think

[intheflow]

34. Not saying you're racist

but I do think systemic racism/whiteness plays a part here. Black people do not have the luxury of worrying about whether or not the protests help or hurt the overall cause. The protests are out of necessity. They aren't frivolous, and are at least 95% peaceful if you look beyond what the MSM reports. While Black people don't want violence, I'm sure the vast majority of Black folks would rather see some real change instead of white people switching the narrative up from "Black Lives Matter" to "the protests are hurting our chance to defeat a known racist from getting a second term."

[BlueLucy]

36. Maybe people should ask black folks in Portland OR.

I live in Portland and it seems to me, the black community has been largely left out of the conversation in Portland.

[intheflow]

38. It's true that Black voices have been shunted to the side.

That's exactly the point of my post. I was able to find this piece from about two weeks ago, from Oregon Public Broadcasting, where they talked with Black Portlanders. This quote jumped out at me:

“It happens so much that the things that we care about get hijacked and get put on the back burner. And that just gets put into a big barrel with everything else,” said Neil Anderson, a Black business owner. “We all want the same thing. But so often we get drowned out.”

Pretty much what I'm saying. Black voices and concerns are not considered in a poll about "protests." The protests are about something near and dear to the literal lives of millions of Americans. This entire subthread could have been avoided by asking if the violence at the protests hurt or help. The protests themselves are not the problem, and wording the question that way shifts the conversation away from both the human and Constitutional rights violations that BLM seeks to raise up. It literally recenters the BLM protests on white people getting shot.

[still_one]

37. Thanks for the clarification.. Systemic racism has been with us since the inception of the country,

but it has taken an even a more alarming turn especially under trump, because it is becoming more legitimized as evidenced by the number of people that support him


https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/busted-trump-campaign-has-knowingly-accepted-dozens-of-donations-from-notorious-neo-nazi/

The election is everything right now, because if we lose this election, the country is over, and if we think the police abuses are bad now, we will be transitioning to a police state If that occurs

[LeftInTX]

24. The guy who shot the guy yesterday was white.

He was antifa, history of dui and unlawful firearm....

We don't need this...Who are they advocating for...BLM does not want this and they have been vocal about it.

https://heavy.com/news/2020/08/michael-reinoehl/

[still_one]

29. Yes, the BLM movement has made that very clear, not only that it isn't welcomed, but that they

are not part of the BLM movement

[intheflow]

35. Are Black people saying they don't want protests,

or that they don't want violence? Because that's the difference.

[LeftInTX]

46. I think they want to own the protests

When you have protests day in and day out, is there any structure or leadership? Are there any goals? Or is it just someone on social media who is saying, "Let's protest!". Lack of structure can lead to chaos.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

43. YEP.

[uponit7771]

50. Right ?! This plays Trumps narrative and is another Buttery Males 2.0 !!!

[JonLP24]

57. +1000

You summed up my feelings on this exactly.

[LeftInTX]

21. No!!

Yesterday's shooter was Antifa - with history of unlawful firearm and DUI

https://heavy.com/news/2020/08/michael-reinoehl/



Michael Reinoehl, a self-declared anti-fascist who attended Black Lives Matter demonstrations and railed against Donald Trump and the police, was named by a major Oregon newspaper as the man under investigation in the shooting death of Aaron Danielson, the man who was shot and killed in Portland, Oregon, after a pro-Trump caravan broke down. The victim was affiliated with a conservative group called Patriot Prayer.

[still_one]

23. I don't think there is any question that right wing groups, so-called militia types, and

outside groups are infiltrating into the protests with an objective to cause chaos

The question is that information getting out?

[LeftInTX]

26. I don't think this guy was right wing...

He's more or less a left wing anarchist.

Portland is known for anarchists.

Very few blacks have been involved with their protests.

[still_one]

28. I understand TX. Whenever the WTO met in Oregon, the anarchists were always there

However, I think it would be remiss to ignore that a lot of extreme right wing groups are also immersing themselves in these protests. That was very evident in Wisconsin, and from video and other witnesses in Kenosha, the police seemed to be encouraging the right wing vigilantes

[LeftInTX]

32. Yeah in Wisconsin they really don't have anarachists, so whites would be either BLM supporters

or right wing groups.

The west coast is a bit weirder and that is why Trump has targeted Portland.

[radius777]

54. But he has nothing to do w/Dems,

who have denounced all forms of violence. Trump is the one who thrives on mayhem and encourages it with his tweets and words.

The RW caravan went looking for trouble and we don't know if this guy acted in self defense. The authorities need to investigate more for the facts to come out, whatever they may be.

[LeftInTX]

58. Absolutely..it has nothing to do with Democrats

It's just that he is "left wing"...if you want to apply label. I just call them anarchists. Because they have absolutely NO GOALS at all. They do not care about voting. They only want disruption.
The Democratic Party has no connection to antifa or any of these groups.

[JI7]

25. The actual protestors are ok. The problem is they are being infiltrated by Opportunists

[still_one]

27. I agree, but I doubt that is getting much coverage

[uponit7771]

49. +1, this !! and instead of the police protecting the protesters they allow the oppurtinist to rip

... neighborhoods apart.

[appalachiablue]

53. +1 And black people should be in discussions about

any potential changes and wind down.

[ecstatic]

39. I don't know. I think it gives trump a cover story that our naive media

can and will run with. If trump steals it again, they won't focus on the crippling of the USPS or massive GOP voter suppression efforts. They won't ask why trump and the GOP refused to secure our elections.

They'll simply accept the results without any questions and blame everything on BLM. There will be many gullible Democrats (of all backgrounds) willing to believe that narrative as well.

Anyone who's been paying attention knows that trump is an inept criminal and that we're in danger every second that he remains in charge. The question is, will racism outweigh concerns for the safety of our nation as a whole? Right now, trump doesn't seem to think so, hence the open destruction of our national postal service.

[uponit7771]

48. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾 This is Buttery Males 2.0 !!! Instead of the left declaring Trump is stoking ...

... violence we go after protesters who have nothing to do with Trumps white supremacist anarchy.

[uponit7771]

47. DAMN !!! Not another "buttery males" topic for everyone to latch on to !! Trump defined the topic

... as either protest or support killing black people and the left goes against the protesters !!

[radius777]

56. +1. We must reject RW framing.

This is about the killing of blacks/browns by RW cops; violence/mayhem perpertrated by RW agitators; cheered on by a RW president.

Dems/Biden has rejected all forms of violence and support peaceful protests.

[mentalsolstice]

55. Hurting, however....

They present an opportunity for local Democratic leaders to go in and talk to protesters about diverting their energy to GOTV.