I, for one, am glad the Republican National Committee chose Charlotte as the site of its 2020 convention. The selection says more about Charlotte than about who is attending the event. It shows that the Queen City did a stand up job when it hosted the Democratic National Convention in 2012. Charlotte has matured from a sleepy Southern city to a metropolis capable of handling large national and international events. That’s good for our state.
Protesters want to complain about the tenor of the GOP as being unwelcoming or some of the unsavory groups attracted to Donald Trump. Maybe Charlotte, a city now dominated by Democrats, can teach Republicans a thing or two about acceptance and hospitality. As for the white supremacists enamored with the Trump presidency, I have confidence the Charlotte police can keep them in check and feel certain that the RNC will work with them to make sure it happens. Republicans certainly don’t want their nominating convention to become a 2020 version of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.
And people from here who want to protest the convention should be glad they won’t have to travel so far. A lot of them can make day trips or stay with friends and relatives nearby. We’ve got the best protesters in the country right here in the Old North State. The seeds of the resistance started with the Moral Monday Movement. The GOP can showcase their nominee while the North Carolina Resistance can show off its organizing abilities.
Somebody is going to host that convention and it might as well be Charlotte. It helps North Carolina’s economy by putting hundreds of thousands of people in the state to leave us their hard earned money. We’ll even share it with South Carolina since the hotels for a twenty mile radius are sure to be full. We get to tell the world we’re ready to host. Bring on the Super Bowl, the Summer Olympics or any other large party you want to throw
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
The NC Left needn’t worry about white supremacists protesting at the GOP 2020 convention where the few that may show up would be rejected and ostracized by the convention delegates. You should instead be more concerned about the prospect of having Bully Barber and his band of anarchists, communist agitators, malcontents and other radical left riffraff parading through the streets of Charlotte. Now that could be a PR nightmare for Democrats reminiscent of Chicago in’68.
Ebrun: You are a liar and a racist, a perfect Trump Republican. The only Communists left in the world are making handbags for Ivanka and furniture for IKEA. The only traitors in America are in the Republican Party.
Playing the race card again, Jay? I guess that’s the best one can expect when your extremist ideology is challenged.
Maybe they should have it at one of the farms down east where Smithfield’s hog farmers can provide the appropriate ambiance. Since their base is mostly rural, wouldn’t that make more sense?
Then again, animal rights activists might find that too cruel for the hogs.
The Republicans should meet where their base is, where their support is concentrated and where their funding originates. St. Petersburg, Russia, would be the best choice of venue. It would be convenient for Putin and, hopefully, the television reception in this country will be terrible. The Russians in the Trump Administration will be able to visit friends and family more easily.
Charlotte, NC, is much too American for the Traitors’ Caucus.
I totally agree with Jay’s post. The GOP, once rock-ribbed against the Russians and the then Soviet Empire, has been turned into a party of Vichy Republicans, traitors to our country. I have been wrong about some political matters. But I have maintained for the past two years that Mr. Trump and his tribe represent an ongoing national emergency. I still believe that to be the case. More shoes are sure to fall.At this point, the country needs some courageous Republicans to oppose Trump’s treason.
Public service sometimes means that one must go against your political party. If it costs you the next election, then that is the price of political leadership. The GOP is long past that point. Where are its leaders to resist the Vichy Republicans and a treasonous president?
Yep! Moscow would have been a better choice.
GREAT!
I’m OK with the GOP convention being here, but I am taken aback by your seeming to equate the protestors at the Democratic convention in 1968 with the white supremacists likely to show up at the 2020 GOP convention. I hope that was simply an inadvertent wording.
I am uneasy about how the police will handle the protestors who object to the GOP. One can only hope.
Totally agree. But I’d also agree with the Charlotte mayor’s notion of possibly declining to welcome conventioneers. It would be a small act of protest, but would send the message that the GOP platform—and much of Trump’s presidency–is viewed as deeply anti-urban, anti-cosmopolitan, and anti-diversity.