Trump Protesters Are Hurting their Cause

SAN DIEGO -- Dear Trump protesters:

There are some things I've wanted to say to you for several months now, and I've decided to finally get them off my chest in this open letter.

The timing is right, given the chaos that erupted recently in Albuquerque and San Diego when activists like yourselves displayed opposition to Donald Trump's message, tone, candidacy and tactics by trying to disrupt campaign appearances by the presumptive Republican nominee.

Given how you've conducted yourselves, I have to ask: Are you secretly working for Trump? Seriously, are you trying to be an apprentice? Could it be that you're just putting on a good show, pretending to protest Trump when your actual goal is to ensure that he becomes the 45th president of the United States?

Because that's what you're doing, helping his campaign immeasurably with these unruly outbursts of civil disobedience that are anything but civil.

In Albuquerque, protesters scuffled with police in riot gear, pelting officers and their horses with what authorities say were rocks, bottles filled with urine, and incendiary devices resembling Molotov cocktails. Later, some of them broke glass, destroyed property and even fired gunshots. Six officers were injured, as was one of the police horses. Police have offered a reward, and are searching for suspects.

Many protesters also waved Mexican flags, a deliberately provocative gesture that -- when done at political protests on U.S. soil -- is always in bad taste. You don't demand respect from one country by showing allegiance to another. How about waving the American flag?

I'm sure you would probably claim that the troublemakers were a small minority. Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry has estimated that only about 30 people were responsible for the violence, out of 1,000 protesters.

But I have to ask: What did the peaceful protesters do to prevent the violent ones from contaminating the whole exercise?

A few days later, in San Diego, while several thousand people filed into the San Diego Convention Center to hear Trump speak, another group of about 1,000 protesters clashed in the streets with police and Trump supporters. Some of the anti-Trump activists acted like thugs. They heckled and insulted those attending the event, calling them "racists" and "bigots." They threw water bottles and other objects. One person managed to set on fire a red Trump cap with its signature motto of "Make America Great Again." Of course, there were more Mexican flags.

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