Rachel Maddow on Convention Protests ~ 5/18/16 show transcript (HRC GP)

[Her Sister]

I remember Rachel Maddow tackling the possibility of unrest at both Republican and Democratic Conventions this year almost a month ago. So thought I'd find it and post some excerpts. If I find the video I'll post it too.

Democrats will hold their convention this summer in Philadelphia. You may
remember the last national political convention was held in Philadelphia
was in the year 2000. You may also remember that nearly 400 people were
arrested at really big protests in the streets of Philadelphia that year.

Four years later, at the Republican convention in New York City, it wasn`t
400 people who got arrested. It was more like 2,000 people who got
arrested, protesting in the streets, just massive, massive uprising against
that political convention.

Four years after that, the Ron Paul movement within the Republican Party
convened 10,000 people for not just a protest, but for an entire shadow
convention run in parallel with the Republican Party`s convention. The
Republican Party convention was in St. Paul. The Ron Paul parallel shadow
convention was just across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, 10,000
people not just demonstrating their differences with the Republican Party,
but basically declaring themselves a schismatic offshoot of the party, one
that could probably never be reconciled with these decisions by the party
elite and the party establishment that they disagreed with so strongly.

Street protests, breakaway movements, demonstrations of different kinds,
they are the American way. They are cathartic. They are occasionally
interesting. They are occasionally violent. They are sometimes fun, but
they happen.

They`re almost part of the process now. We expect them. In the news
media, we cover them. In politics, they get covered, they get noticed,
they sometimes get in the way, and then we move on.

AND:

The other thing to keep in mind about the Democratic anxiety today
concerning Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is that at this point in the
primary process, it`s always like this. There is always acrimony and upset
between remaining candidates at this part of the race.

Parties just do this. It is to be expected. It`s very, very rarely fatal.

more in link: http://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/rachel-maddow-show/2016-05-18