To those of us who are Baby Boomers, this sounds like the kinds of demonstrations we witnessed (no matter what side we were on) during the 1960s, during the Vietnam War:
— Supporters and opponents of Mitt Romney faced off outside of the Republican nominee’s rally here in an at-times-violent confrontation.
As hundreds of Romney supporters lined the sidewalk outside the Ringling Museum of Art, a group of more than 20 protestors carrying an effigy of Romney marched in and confronted them as both sides chanted.
One of the men leading the protest, organized by Occupy and Move-On according to demonstrators, repeatedly cut into the Romney line — drawing pushing and shoving.
“Get a job, I worked my 50 years,” shouted one Romney supporter at the demonstrators.
One man, wearing a yellow Manatee County Tea Party t-shirt squeezed the back of the protest-leader’s neck, as other Romney supporters surrounded him.After 20 minutes, the protest leader laid out a red carpet over several protesters and the man in the Romney costume walked over them. The leader then crowned “Romney” as the “King of the 1%,” commanding the Romney supporters to bow before their leader.
“We don’t get paid to support out candidate,” shouted one woman.“I’m proud to be one percent. I built everything I have,” said the man next to her, also jeering the protest.
The epitomize of polarization.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.