Lack of political support for US protests shapes the 2024 presidential election | DW News

President Biden has said he doesn’t want to deploy the National Guard to us campuses where students have been protesting Israel’s war in Gaza and the results in humanitarian crisis there Biden said demonstrators have the right to peacefully protest but not to cause chaos Crews have been cleaning up at UCLA hours after police removed barricades and began dismantling a pro Palestinian camp in the early hours of Thursday morning officers arrested dozens of demonstrators in the pre-dawn raid after protesters defied orders to leave let’s get across to DW’s William glucoft for more on this story William we’ve seen police shut down several campus protests across the United States can you please give us an update on where things stand at this point does it feel like these protests have peaked or do you expect that we’ll be seeing more of them in the days and weeks to come we’re seeing really a whacka Claire like police go into one place shut something down protesters pop up another place it’s it’s really quite a typical kind of police action protest cycle that we see in many incidents like this the thing is though is a matter of timing it’s a simple matter of timeline we’re in may now a university semesters University calendar years are coming to an end there will be final exams there will be uh commencement um events and then students will go home for the summer so the question is do these continue into the summer as kids go back home all around the country and really all around the world and take these protests into the street as we’ve already seen Street protests against um Israel’s actions in Gaza or do they fizzle out or do they come back in the fall when they when school is back in session these are and of course the fall dovetailing with the presidential election these are all big open questions uh but at least for now with the semester coming to a close we might start to see these protests Peter out at least in the short run now many are drawing comparisons between these protests and the major student protest in the United States that we saw in the late 1960s where would you situate these in relation there’s a lot of similarities there’s also a few key differences I was speaking to an American Professor based in Boston just last night who’s seen his share of protests over the decades and in fact teaches a lot about the history of protest uh in the US especially when it comes to the anti-war movement in Vietnam uh and the civil rights movement in the 1960s as as you referenced uh there were major massive campus protests against the war and for civil rights uh back in the 1960s that led to major political division ISS um and we’re seeing a lot of that a lot of these parallels today the big difference though is even back then there was a corresponding strong establishment political response uh to what students and people on campuses were saying about ending the war in Vietnam and giving more rights to Black Americans and now you don’t see that they’re both Republicans especially Republicans but also Democrats are not really speaking up in favor of these protest tors yes generally right to free speech but no one as we heard Biden is not saying he’s going to change his policies in any way shape or form and Biden has as you’ve alluded to finally broken his silence on these saying that these protests across the country have not changed his position toward the region but you’ve mentioned also us elections coming up in November what kind of political effect have these protests had well we talked about the 1960s we can also talk about 2020 where the summer leading into the 2020 the fall elections was uh black lives matter movement where there are protests all around the country incredibly tense time in the US and had an impact on the election result for between Donald Trump and Joe Biden maybe gave Joe Biden a bit of an edge as Democrats stood up for the black lives uh matter black lives matter movement even going as far as sometimes saying as defund the police well four years later a lot of those same Democrats are in favor of the police going in and breaking up these protests that they’re seeing in favor of Palestinians and Palestinian rights obviously not in the US but in Gaza as it relates to Israel Joe Biden’s playing a dangerous game he needs the young vote uh and young people are really turned off by especially by uh Biden’s positioning and the incredible Crackdown and many young people are saying well if this is what we have if this is the kind of situation we have in terms of protest in terms of free speech under a Biden and Democratic kind of administration does it really matter if Donald Trump is President this is the calculus that a lot of Voters are going to be um thinking about going into the fall it’s not a matter of whether they’ll vote for Donald Trump they might just not vote at all and that could be enough to tip the balance away from Joe Biden and towards Donald Trump that’s the risk that he and Democrats Joe Biden Democrats are are facing William thank you that is DW’s William glucoft

US President Biden has said demonstrators have the right to peacefully protest, but not to cause chaos. Biden stated that he doesn’t want to deploy the National Guard to US campuses, where students have been protesting Israel’s war in Gaza and the resulting humanitarian crisis. DW’s William Glucroft sheds light on the similarities and differences between recent US pro-Palestinian student protests and the 1968 protests against the war in Vietnam.

#usprotests #studentprotest #gaza

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26 comments

  3. There is a difference between "young people" and the "few privileged elitists" who are desperate to show their detachment from the rest of us.

  7. Question. Do you realize that when there is a "lack of political support" for protestors that vote. There is no voter support for those politicians on election day? Politicians work for us and will be fired just like any other employee.

  20. It’s not just the young people who strongly oppose the government’s position; it’s all generations. The commentator was correct when he says that Biden is playing a dangerous game. Undoubtedly at play here is also foreign money in politics; stop allowing it. Period.

  24. Glucroft's analysis is excellent. I only wish he had analyzed why the protests in the 60s had an impact on government's policy whereas Biden has turned a deaf ear to the protests. Biden has lost the votes of people under 30, and he won't get them back. And many people hate Trump but won't vote for Genocide Joe, including key constituents in Michigan. How will all this play out?

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