Blog comment

I posted earlier today about the (so far) peaceful collapse of the truckers protest at the Canadian border. Later today, Kevin Drum posted a take-down of an NYT editorial claiming that the truck protests are a threat to democracy. I stopped reading the Times years ago because it didn't repay the effort, and this was editorial hyperventilating. But I thought this comment on Kevin's comment thread was astute:

"At the end of the day, if the protesters do not convince people to join them, they haven’t made progress. Take the short term pain in the knowledge that brutal action is exactly what they want the government to do.

"Sure they can do their best to delegitimize the government and their democracy, but if these right wing groups are the disrupters themselves, how does that help them? If I’m a normal Canadian who doesn’t feel strongly one way or the other, then I’m put through a huge protest by a bunch of a-holes, their stock immediately drops in my mind. What they NEED is a response that garners sympathy and validates their core grievance that they are an politically oppressed group.

"Additionally, they are complaining about government overreach. How would a complacent, helpless government help their argument? They need an aggressor." https://jabberwocking.com/democracy-is-still-in-pretty-strong-shape/