The PR of Protests

What are the PR of protest? I am TJ Walker, this is the Communiverse. So right now, as I speak, they are protests going on in downtown Los Angeles. It is completely dominating a lot of U. S. News coverage right now. We'll take a look. This has been going on for several days. President Donald Trump has called in politics the National Guard. There's tremendous amount of conflict with the governor of California. So who's winning, who's losing from a communications standpoint? Now, protests, protests in the United States can cut in a lot of different ways. I'm here to give you the honest, unbiased assessment from a communications perspective. That's what we do here at the Communiverse. I use my background as a communications trainer, media trainer for decades, working with political figures, with top business leaders, CEOs around the world on how to communicate effectively. So there's nothing more compelling when it comes to television images than fight conflict protest in the United States in the last 60 years, this has often helped the political party that's most associated itself with law and order. So in 1968, for example, the protest in the streets at the Chicago Democratic Convention is perceived to have helped Richard Nixon, the Republican running for president that year, who did go on to win a very substantial majority of the vote or plurality of the vote in that election because of this sense that so many people had, that there was out of control chaos in the streets of America. And what was needed was someone with a strong fist. Now, this plays to a lot of political strengths that Donald Trump has. The whole idea, the whole issue of immigration has helped. Illegal immigration has helped Donald Trump tremendously in his political campaigns. So many observers suspect this is exactly what he wanted. In fact, Governor Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, is that this is Trump just playing to the cameras. This is him wanting to act tough, wanting to create a showdown, want, wanting to create something much bigger than it actually should have been. So who wins, who loses? As I mentioned, traditionally in the United States, the Republican Party positioned itself as law and order. But for many Americans too young to remember, way back in 1968, what they most remember is the 2001 chaos, the storming of the United States Congress. And that was in fact, egged on by President Trump and was committed by his supporters, his fans, his. His allies. And they saw chaos much deadlier than this because, in fact, someone did. Police officer did die the next day after January 6, 2021. No one, no police officer died that day. Others certainly were injured. And there was a lot of chaos. So that happened right after an election. So it's a bit murky to really figure out who did that help the most in 2022. Yes, the Republicans gained some in the House, but didn't do nearly as well as were expected to do in the Senate in the immediate election after that conflict in 2021. So how does this play out? It is dominating the airwaves right now as I speak. My gut instinct tells me this helps two people. It does, in fact, shore up strength and support among Donald Trump's supporters because they want him actively cracking down, actively doing something that seems like it's standing up to immigrants, to migrants, to foreigners. It also bolsters the image of California Governor Newsom, who is widely expected to run for president and is getting a tremendous amount of media coverage on this and is able to send his message out that here's an example of Donald Trump of the modern Republican Party, really embracing authoritarianism, really embracing fascist techniques of trying to stifle dissent, trying to stifle protests. So it is further, yet again, galvanizing and polarizing the American public. This particular state, you have to say it's helping both Newsom and Trump. That's the honest analysis. I'm T.J. walker. This is the Communiverse.