Protest in the 2020s

The tens of millions of people that voted for Trump and the equally large group that attended his rallies are used to togetherness at events, and even anger. But protest is alien to most of the group. And even expressing what they felt was difficult. When they heard "the election was stolen," that was easy enough to repeat to reporters. Conspiracy phrases were also popular. They would remember phrases from Tucker Carlson as well. In fact Tucker was probably the needed fuel to get Trump going in 2016. He convinced them the "liberal elites" and unelected bureaucrats should not be running the country.

I'm reading some books on the 1968 Chicago convention, Vietnam war and the 70s popular trends.
It struck me how different the protest is from the left and the right. We had the truckers protesting the Covid lock downs, but other than that, the protest from the MAGA folks was at Trump rallies. There were some major events with armed Proud Boys and so on, but the majority of the events were in the safe confines of some building or outdoor event center. There was parking! Vietnam protesters did not need cars or parking.

The same restrained attitude to protest came up with the BLM protests. The black people protesting were all "looters and criminals" according to MAGA.

It's all sanitized to give a safe family type of protest for them. No thought involved, even the signs they held ups were printed by Trump. Jordan Klepper was able to get something more out of the Trump supporters on the grounds of the events, but the issues still tended to fall in the conspiracy theories and the stolen election.

The people in the Trump rallies would discuss the conspiracies, election denial and other Trump claims, but not anything serious as far as politics, mainly things they were taught to be outraged about. If you would ask them about what sort of things government is necessary for, how do we spend tax money, and that sort of thing, they would not have much to say. Or they would come right out and say "government is spending on minorities." Obama tried to explain how most government programs benefit us all. But this benefit of government is quite vague in the minds of MAGA republicans. You could only demonstrate the benefit by cutting it off for a few years. Much of spending is also long term planning and support, so the systems supported might run ten years or more before much deterioration. The Cincinnati bridge is an example.

The political scientists would say that the questions need to be more anonymous. I would say that the majority of Trump voters still believe in "deep state" and the elites running everything. But they only need to hint at this and not say it directly. They are racists, and this includes Jews as a target. Just a few words leak out, like "Jewish space lasers" and the crowd will know who to blame. The establishment.

A Jewish journalist comments: Apparently, according to Greene, “Rothschild Inc” started the fires using a space laser, and its goal was to clear the way for a high-speed rail project.

You can read the entire bonkers tirade on Media Matters. 

The violence did appear but those were basically young men with nothing to do, libertarians, not the white working class that Trump captured.

Separate from the MAGA protests, the anti-abortion movement has always been public.