RealClearPolitics: Will Democratic Convention Protests Live Up to Hype?

welcome back to Real Clear Politics on SiriusXM I'm Andrew Walworth and we're coming to you live from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago I've got Tom bevon with me I've got Carl Cannon with me and joining us for this segment is Alex McKenzie Walworth happens to be my wife Chicago native and a producer at Grace Creek Media so Alex welcome to the program the better half has arrived thank you very much and uh uh Tom let's start with the protests uh we have really two Brands it seems to me we have the pro Palestinian protesters out there and then we have these sort of pro um what would you call them um Pro vasectomy pro proor pro abortion uh and so uh what do you make protest uh well I mean we'll see what happens with the the pro Palestinian pramas anti-israel whatever we're going to call them uh you know they had said there were going to be 100,000 year I don't think that's true I think that was over stated from what I've seen um but they are here there are there are a lot of them I don't know what the actual number is but they are trying to uh you know and this has been a fight that's been ongoing for for weeks and months with the city trying to figure out you know they were filing petitions and and applications that they could be somewhere near the United Center within sight and and sound of the United Center initially I think they were placed over by the McCormack place which is three miles away so um they're definitely here they're close and I think they've even as as some people were saying broken through like the initial perimeter so uh we'll see how much attention they get the other stuff the you know the pro-choice pro-abortion like marching through the streets with a as as abortion P Megan K Kelly Ken said Megan Kelly said 18 foot high uterus IUD an IUD Carl an IUD outside is there a van a van where they were performing giv giving yes that was the one earlier today so if you haven't made it there you've probably missed your your opportunity AE one bookmobile where you get a free back I haven't missed my chance this is Chicago this is where the Blues Brothers film was made and if there's a vasectomy like a bookmobile vasectomy they just better hope John balushi doesn't run into it in a car while you're having a vasectomy that would not be good well that would be news if John balushi showed up I guess he's long gone God bless him so Aon France press reported that this current um Palestinian slash everything else demonstration Drew about less than 10,000 people today they were expecting up to 100,000 people so maybe it's a thing that will grow as the convention goes on but today I would caution people when they're reading about and looking at these demonstrations because often they can make it seem a lot bigger and more powerful than it is I'm not saying it isn't but right now this coalition to march on the DNC is Reproductive Rights free Palestine Black Liberation immigrants rights so it's kind of like a salad bowl of different causes and I will be very interested to see what messaging breaks through Alex let me ask you a question about that because a week ago or or so K Harris was giving a speech and was heckled by some of these anti-israel types and she just cut them off said you know what you want keep talking you get if you want Trump elected yes otherwise be quiet and let me talk right I I wonder if that if that message has gone through into the precincts of the left because it's a pretty pretty blunt Point well I think it could be that partly they're saying go do these demonstrations go to me I grew up in Chicago I saw I was very young during the 68 riots but that was so organic I mean that was just rage in the streets and a lot of by the police what well right but what I feel what I'm seeing here it just feels very performative so I'm kind of wondering if they're go ahead have your performance get the message out but we're really not changing anything yeah and to that point um Alex and I we we arrived uh uh couple days ago and we were downtown Michigan Avenue uh and the police presence was amazing we were walking down and there was like a block and a half of tightly packed policemen and when you got to the end of it you saw the protest that they were prepared for the protest was Tiny it Rel like a quarter of a block of people yeah and yet I saw the some of the photographs from that today and of course this is just something people probably know but they should be aware of that the photographs made it look like it was a much bigger protest then well not only that we were talking about this earlier cuz you know I live in Evon which is 30 minutes away to the north and we were getting alerts on our phones about you know the the security and the rolling you know security going on on Michigan Avenue for these protests and it made it seem like if you just looked at this Alert on your phone oh my gosh there's these massive protests that are happening so yeah it's a you know I think that it was a little bit of clickbait and the media often falls into that trap right they'll Elevate the the you know squeakiest wheel or the smallest minority of voices because it allows them to sort of you know portray it as a bigger deal and and therefore get more views and clicks and whatever there are um stores that are boarded up however I mean there are and like I said the police pre presence uh that we've seen so far has been pretty pretty impressive un unscientifically at least for this protest that we saw was 3 to one police to protesters and it was a very impressive show by the police it was it was really something so Alex let me ask