Democ­rats expect­ing mas­sive show of force from pro­test­ers at DNC

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty is brac­ing for mas­sive protests dur­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee con­ven­tion in Chica­go in August, rem­i­nis­cent of the chaos of the 1968 con­ven­tion.
Fears of a repeat of the infa­mous con­ven­tion, which saw hun­dreds arrest­ed, have been thrown around as the Israel-Hamas war con­tin­ues and as mas­sive cam­pus protests that have par­a­lyzed sev­er­al uni­ver­si­ties have fur­ther illus­trat­ed what may be in store for the Chica­go DNC con­ven­tion in August.

Pro-Pales­tini­ans pro­test­ers clash with counter-pro­test­ers at the encamp­ment in the quad at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go on the South Side, Fri­day, May 3, 2024. (Ash­lee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

“This last week has tak­en the demon­stra­tions to a dif­fer­ent lev­el,” for­mer Pres­i­dent Barack Obama’s chief of staff William Daley told the Wash­ing­ton Post. “It por­tends that you have the poten­tial for big demon­stra­tions. Whether they get vio­lent — that’s more imag­in­able today than it was a year ago.”
Despite his con­cerns, he was hos­tile to mere sug­ges­tions that August could see a repeat of 1968.
“To analo­gize what’s going on in the coun­try today with 1968 is ridicu­lous,” Daley, who attend­ed the con­ven­tion, said. “Only peo­ple who weren’t alive in ’68 have that idi­ot­ic per­cep­tion.”
The DNC is stak­ing its hopes on ward­ing off chaos through an elab­o­rate secu­ri­ty arrange­ment coor­di­nat­ed with the Secret Ser­vice.
“Peace­ful protest is fun­da­men­tal to Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy, and has been a fix­ture of polit­i­cal con­ven­tions for decades,” DNC spokesman Matt Hill told the out­let in a state­ment. “While Don­ald Trump and MAGA Repub­li­cans stoke polit­i­cal vio­lence, we sup­port the ongo­ing secu­ri­ty coor­di­na­tion at all lev­els of gov­ern­ment to keep our con­ven­tion safe.”
“When the coun­try looks to Chica­go this August, the uni­ty and excite­ment of Democ­rats will stand in stark con­trast to the chaos and extrem­ism stew­ing in the GOP,” he added.
Despite the attempt to deflect the image of chaos onto Trump and the Repub­li­cans, strate­gists are increas­ing­ly con­cerned that protests at the con­ven­tion could ren­der the argu­ment moot. The White Hosue has strug­gled to find an approach to the War in Gaza that would sat­is­fy its tra­di­tion­al pro-Israeli cadres while also pla­cat­ing …