The radical-left spectacle that is the “Netroots Nation” conference made page A-10 of Sunday’s Washington Post. Democratic candidates Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders, running to the left of Hillary Clinton, merely by showing up to pander to these radicals, were silenced and pressed to agree wholeheartedly with “Black lives matter” activists who hijacked their appearances.
Washington Post reporter John Wagner (who covered O’Malley’s term as governor in Annapolis) spotlighted leftists who were unhappy they said anything upsetting to the nutroots. O’Malley messed up apparently by saying “All lives matter.”
Wagner began his story: “A forum featuring two of the most liberal candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination was disrupted and taken over Saturday by liberal activists seeking to showcase their concerns for the plight of African Americans.”
This is how the chaos unfolded:
Shortly into O’Malley’s allotted time, his discussion with a moderator was disrupted by more than 100 protesters that included members of Black Lives Matter, a group formed after teenager Trayvon Martin’s shooting in Florida, and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
As chanting protesters streamed to the front of the room, O’Malley looked stunned at first and then started clapping along.
Close to 10 minutes later, leaders of the protest were handed microphones and rattled off a number of their concerns, including deaths of African Americans in police custody, and demanded specific solutions from O’Malley.
“It’s not like we like shutting s--- down, but we have to,” Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matters, told the crowd, saying the group’s issues were an emergency.
“I think that all of us as Americans have a responsibility to recognize the pain and grief throughout our country from all of the lives that have been lost to violence, whether that’s violence at the hands of police, whether that’s violence at the hands of civilians,” he said.
“Stop trying to generalize this s---!” yelled Ashley Yates, a 30-year-old activist from Oakland, Calif.
Later, O’Malley drew boos as he said: “Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter.”
After his appearance, O’Malley addressed those comments on a radio show being recorded at the convention hall.
“When I said those other two phrases, I meant no disrespect,” O’Malley told the online radio show “This Week in Blackness.” “I did not mean to be insensitive in any way.”
....Lucas Hernon, 30, of Las Cruces, N.M., an undecided voter, said he thought O’Malley handled the situation well except for when he said white lives also matter. “As a white person, we don’t need to be reminded of that,” Hernon said.
The candidates were interviewed by amnesty activist Jose Antonio Vargas, and Wagner did take the step of telling the Post readers that Vargas was "an immigrant in the country illegally" and previously worked as a reporter for the Post.
Sanders was apparently less patient with the ruckus, which also upset the attendees:
Sanders made several comments addressing the protesters’ concerns, including: “In my view, maybe, just maybe, it’s time to invest in jobs and education, not in jails and in incarceration.”
That generated applause from a crowd where hundreds carried Sanders’s campaign signs.
[Activist Jose Antonio] Vargas decided to cut the forum about 15 minutes short of its allotted time.
“Unfortunately, we have to wrap it up,” he said.
“Okay, good,” Sanders replied, before rising to exit.
....Some in the audience suggested there could be fallout from the event for Sanders, whose challenges include expanding his appeal beyond liberal white voters.
Bethany Winkels, a 30-year-old activist from Minneapolis, said it was hypocritical for Sanders to call for more grass-roots organizing in one breath and then sound dismissive of the protesters in the next.
“It’s shameful, and he needs to do better,” Winkels said.
I wonder what would happen if leftist whites interrupted a Black Lives Matter event and shouted down their speaker and took over the microphone. Something tells me the black activists would consider it some kind of violence. This is the kind of story that makes you want to laugh at reporters who suggest the conservative base of the Republican Party are wild-eyed extremists are going to cost the party support with moderate voters. But the leftist extremes are never the same.
