No one is quite sure why Chicago is called the Windy City. Some blame it on the windy politicians primarily for bragging about Chicago. One would note that there is a lot less bragging now. Others blame it on the wind caused by the high buildings. Even on calm days there are some places where downtown Chicago is still pretty windy. Anyone familiar with baseball understands the significance when the wind is blowing out at Wrigley.
Chicago is also famous for demonstrations and riots. This is now exactly new. Fort Dearborn was constructed on what is now the corner of Michigan and Wacker. The fort was built to tell the Indians who was now in charge. In 1812 Fort Dearborn was abandoned and the Indians responded by killing many of the evacuees in the Ft. Dearborn Massacre. There have been other events, like the Haymarket protest. Most of us are familiar with the protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic convention. It should be no surprise to anyone that Donald Trump ran into significant protests in Chicago. It is what they do. Chicago is famous for protests. The Chicago police are famous for handling protests.
The primary blame belongs to the people who organized the protests. Freedom of speech is not just confined to liberals. These protests were orchestrated by the far left. That is why you never see such crap at a Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton campaign. They get protestors, but it is typically one or two people. In Chicago this was a well-organized effort that successfully shut down a major event.
The sad truth is that Donald Trump poured fuel on the fire. His primary strategy has been to ignore political correctness and insult almost everyone. While it is refreshing with regard to some of the political correctness insanity, Donald Trump crossed the line on numerous occasions. He did encourage people in his crowd to get physical with protestors. Contrast that with George W. Bush who always responded to protestors by saying he was glad to live in a country that honored free speech.
These protests may even help Trump, for a while. But eventually people will grow weary of the nonsense. It is really unfortunately that Trump cancelled that rally in Chicago because now the protestors think they have won. We can expect more and more of this in the future. If Trump wins the nomination, it will be a long, hot and very ugly summer.
In the short run, this is likely to help Trump. That is the problem with Trump. Everything seems to help him in the short run. In the long run, the country is likely to have a world class case of buyer’s remorse. The only question is when? If we are lucky it will be before the Republican nomination is sewn up. If we are unlikely it will be during the general election. We better all hope this doesn’t happen after we elect Donald Trump to be President of the United States.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day. There are no accurate polls, since most of them are based on surveys taken before the debate and he Chicago protests. Trump should win everywhere, but that is what people predicted before Super Tuesday. So far all the predictions have been predictably unpredictable.
TDM