Million MAGA March Sparks Violence
The inevitable happened, as extremist organizations descended on DC.
President Trump held another political rally at the White House yesterday, dubbed the Million MAGA March. Like its presumptive namesake, Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March almost exactly a quarter-century ago, it drew considerably less than a million marchers. Unlike Farrakhan’s, it led to violence.
The local NBC station, in conjunction with the Associated Press, reported it (“Clashes Between Protest Groups Break Out After Thousands Rally for Trump in DC“) this way:
Violent clashes between supporters of President Donald Trump and counterprotesters erupted in the streets of downtown Washington, D.C., Saturday night after thousands of the president’s supporters rallied earlier in the day to protest election results they say are fraudulent.
One person was stabbed when a fight broke out between two large groups at 10th Street and New York Avenue NW about 8:30 p.m., a spokesperson for D.C. Fire and EMS said. Medics took the person with critical injuries to a trauma center, the spokesperson said.
Fire officials said the fight was related to the ongoing protests. Authorities have not given any information yet about a possible suspect in the stabbing.
Police arrested a total of 20 people since demonstrations began midday, and two police officers were injured, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said. The extent of their injuries is unclear at this time.
[…]
Trump weighed in on Twitter late in the evening, blaming the violence on “Antifa Scum.”
Ten of the arrests included four people arrested for firearms violations, two for simple assault, one person for assaulting a police officer, one person for “no permit” and two people for acting disorderly, the Metropolitan Police Department said. It’s unclear at this time if those arrested were Trump supporters or counterprotesters.
Police recovered seven guns during the pro-Trump rally, Bowser’s office said.
The march was largely peaceful during the day before turning tense at night, with multiple confrontations as small groups of Trump supporters attempted to enter the area around Black Lives Matter Plaza, about a block from the White House, where several hundred anti-Trump demonstrators had gathered.
In a pattern that kept repeating itself, those Trump supporters who approached the area were harassed, doused with water and saw their MAGA hats and pro-Trump flags snatched and burned, amid cheers. As night fell, multiple police lines kept the two sides apart.
[…]
Three Trump supporters were at a restaurant at 16th and K streets NW when someone set off fireworks in their direction, News4’s Shomari Stone reports. Video shows people covering their ears and jumping as the fireworks exploded right above them.
At one point, a group dressed in all black and carrying black umbrellas began approaching a group of Trump supporters who were standing outside the Capitol Hilton Hotel on 16th Street NW, Stone reports. Police then got between the Trump demonstrators and counter protesters and moved the counter protesters back.
The report makes it appear that peaceful pro-Trump demonstrators were attacked for exercising their First Amendment rights. The overseas press, which is answering the question “How would we report this if it were happening elsewhere?” puts it in a more nuanced context.
BBC‘s headline (“Million MAGA March: Thousands of pro-Trump protesters rally in Washington DC“) is more neutral but the reporting is still brutal:
Thousands of supporters of US President Donald Trump turned out in Washington DC to back his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the election.
Flag-carrying demonstrators were joined by members of far-right groups including the Proud Boys, some wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests.
The largely peaceful demonstration saw some violence later in the evening, as Trump supporters and counter-protesters clashed in several skirmishes.
Joe Biden won the 3 November election.
On Friday, he solidified his victory with a projected win in the state of Georgia – making him the first Democratic candidate to take the state since 1992.
He now has 306 votes in the electoral college – the system the US uses to choose its president – which far exceeds the 270 threshold to win.
However, Mr Trump has so far refused to concede. He has launched a flurry of legal challenges in key states and made unsubstantiated allegations of widespread electoral fraud – but his efforts have so far been unsuccessful.
Mr Trump’s supporters kicked off the demonstrations at about noon local time (17:00 GMT) on Saturday near Freedom Plaza, just east of the White House, and later headed towards the Supreme Court.
As well as more mainstream Trump supporters, members of the far-right Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia group were among the marchers. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones addressed the crowd.
Mr Trump’s motorcade passed the gathering demonstrators on Saturday morning and did a circuit of nearby Freedom Plaza, but he carried on to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia without addressing the crowds.
[…]
A gradual stream of pro-Trump supporters made its way towards Freedom Plaza, adorned with T-shirts and carrying placards which read “Stop the Steal” and “Trump 2020”.
The demonstrators were also identifiable by their lack of face-masks as many participants rejected measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.
In that regard alone, this pro-Trump rally was seen by its critics as reckless and irresponsible. It took place with the United States grappling with some of its worst Covid-19 infection rates since the pandemic began, with more than 180,000 new cases and 1,400 deaths recorded in the country over the past 24 hours.
None of that appeared to matter much to the participants who excitedly greeted President Trump’s motorcade as it made an impromptu pass around the plaza. They are desperate to see this election result overturned and fully back his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and his refusal to concede.
Still, although they may deny it, there is a growing sense of a fight losing its energy and that – like it or not – these supporters will see President-elect Joe Biden in the White House in January.
So, look, Trump supporters have every right to rally to express their unfounded beliefs that the election was stole. After all, Hillary Clinton supporters showed up in droves around the Trump inauguration to declare themselves “The Resistance” and protest the very fact that the winner of the election was taking office.
But, while the crowd was mainly just ordinary Americans who voted for a man most of us find reprehensible, the fact of the matter is that it also attracted a large number of white supremacists and conspiracists. While there may be nuanced differences between being dressed in Proud Boys regalia rather than a Klan hood, they’re likely lost on the largely Black population of DC. Adding in the disregard for the social contract of mask wearing, and it’s not unreasonable to anticipate violence.
The Jerusalem Post report (“Proud Boys clash violently with Antifa at Trump rally“) largely repackages the AP reporting but in a much clearer way:
Supporters of US President Donald Trump, including the far-right group Proud Boys, rallied together in Washington on Saturday, backing his claims of a “stolen election,” but the situation quickly devolved into violence as night fell when Trump supporters clashed with counter-protesters, The Associated Press reported.
According to videos uploaded to social media, left-wing counter-protesters including Antifa members fought with Trump supporters in fistfights, along with throwing projectiles. According to AP, police arrested at least 20 people at the protests, with one stabbing reported and several firearms confiscated.
CNN reported that a wide range of Trump supporter groups banded together to make their voices heard at the rally. Notably present were the Proud Boys, as well as the Three Percenters, another far-right group. A Proud Boys leader recently made headlines by attempting to redefine the group as positively antisemitic.
The Oath Keepers, one of the few anti-government groups, were also at the rally, in addition to various Republican members of Congress and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Promoted on social media as the Million MAGA March, the protests come as Trump still insists he won the election, despite widespread consensus giving victory to Democratic rival and now President-elect Joe Biden.
Trump is largely responsible for this. He has spent months—arguably five years—ginning up hatred. His claims of election fraud has needlessly ratcheted up tensions. And his embrace of the Proud Boys, QAnon, and other crazies has rather obviously emboldened them.
Another filter for this is that the Antifa v. Proud Boys et.al., is that these are two street gangs who will look for any excuse to justify fighting. This is the Bloods v. Crips, Hell’s Angels v. Diablos. They add nothing to their cause.
I noticed the “Back the Blue” flag in your picture.
Shot of some vendors selling it:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EmzmrS4VQAAnFDD?format=jpg&name=small
@Sleeping Dog:
Just because a few troublemakers call themselves Antifa does not mean everyone using that idea are that.
@charon:
Not just violent people fly the blue line flag, but the the houses I have seen fly it fly Trump flags or have Trump yard signs also, it’s another version of “all lives matter”.
Because he feeds on it, the “lock her up” etc. chants at his rallies energize him, and that energy is the source of his appeal, it’s necessary to his success.
What does that hand signal signify? Just copying Trump since he does that?
Steve
Sorry James, Ordinary Americans that vote for Trump weren’t their. These WERE the conspiracy theorists. I wont say they are all white supremacist racists…but they are absolutely all prejudice as all get out…including the black and brown ones there.
And yes, some of the most prejudiced people against black and brown people…are other black and brown people…and its usually the ones that come from poorer backgrounds. Like Clarence Thomas, they believe with their core that, if only we would do things more like white people, we’d have a better future in America.
At any rate, it they are willing to get their skulls rocked for a guy that only waved on his way to the golf course, sorry not sorry. ♂️
@charon:
This is why, while the GOP may adopt Trumpism as their policies, they will have a hard time finding another malignant narcissist like him to run, to lead. They can’t just find some dude to imitate Trump, redos generally fail. Think of redoing “Jaws” or “Psycho,” audiences typically see no point.
As far as I know, Trump didn’t hold this rally–he spent the day golfing in Loudon County. And that, in itself, should tell his supporters something.
@charon:
I don’t know, it sure seems like Tom Cotton had been taking a lot of notes.
I suspect that this was just a typo, but if so it was an inspired one.
Antifa were idiots to show up, this was obviously a trap, a risk with no reward. There was nothing for them to accomplish, all they could do was draw focus to themselves, undercutting the story of a failed ‘million MAGA march.’
The world’s fruede has been thoroughly schadened.
ETA: Oooopps, forgot the link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/15/patrick-gathara-donald-trump-us-election-joe-biden-twitter-thread
@mattbernius:
What I said about remakes of classics like “Psycho.” Like Lloyd Bentsen told Dan Quayle – you’re not JFK.
The number of arrests and level of violence strike me as rather small for a protest of that size and one intended to be provocative.
Yeah, James, your closing is the bigger story. The headline should be that approximately 20,000 people found it worth their while to travel to DC from all around the country and stand in solidarity with QAnon, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and other alt-right factions. All these people were comfortable marching unmasked – no masks to protect each other from the coronavirus and no masks to conceal their identities – waving seditious flags and chanting for the overturning of our election. Then, the President of the United States thought it would be a good idea to drive by and show his support.
The Klan wore hoods, but there no shame or fear of consequence with this crowd flaunting their deplorable beliefs. They’ve got nearly half the country willing to be associated with them.
That’s the story and it’s horror story.
@Michael Reynolds: Antifa were idiots when they showed up in Portland and Minneapolis as well. Typically, the core protesters don’t want them there as their objective is always provocation and agitation.
Antifa hurts more than they help as a rule.
Who picked up the Branch Davidian cult after Koresh died? Who continued Stalin’s cult of personality? Who was der sequel to der Führer?
You cannot simply replace the personality in a cult of personality. After Stalin, Khrushchev. After Castro, faceless thugs and bureaucrats. After Reagan, one-term George. After Steve Jobs, Tim Cook. Kims in North Korea are like cloned sheep – each generation weaker than the one before. Talk of Tom Cotton replacing Trump is like talk of Lil Wayne replacing Kanye.
The guy you get to replace a cult leader is a faithful toady, he’s not a new cult leader because a cult leader who can be replaced is by definition not much of a cult leader. Who picked up after Jesus? Paul, an excellent organizer, but he wasn’t turning water into wine.
Pence is the kind of guy you follow Trump with – an acolyte, not a leader. The ‘movement’ continues but does not advance. It stalls out, turns to sterile worship, grows dusty and irrelevant.
@charon:
If R party leadership adopts Trumpism, they are painting themselves further into the corner of being a (shrinking) minority party and even more beholden to anti-democratic measures to remain in power. Because of Dem down ballot failures, Rs will again have opportunity to gerrymander congressional and legislative districts next year in many states and that will keep them relevant, but only for so long.
@steve:
The “okay” symbol is used in this context to signify white power. The three fingers are the “w” in white” and the circle made by the thumb and forefinger is the top of the “p” in “power” (the arm being the rest of the “p”.
@mattbernius: Tom Cotton would be to Trump what Andrew Gillum was compared to the real Obama
@Michael Reynolds: In general I agree with you, with the exception of the inclusion of Tim Cook. That would be the scary one. He replaced the cult of personality leader, and continued the practices but in a less public way and with equal or greater effectiveness
Adding on to my thought above, until Trump, no one replaced Reagan in the mindless devotion of the Republicans, but they nonetheless spread their rot through the country.
@Steven L. Taylor:
You’re kidding right? Just about everyone I know uses the okay sign. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Obama use it as well. If some group is trying to co-opt it for white supremacy then they should be ignored — if everyone keeps using it they way they always have the supremacists will get bored and move on to other things.
There’s a kind of cultural imperialism in letting people co-opt signs. You sometimes read about Hindu’s and Buddhists putting the swastika over their doors and getting grief from people who think they’re promoting Nazism, though the Hindu’s and Buddhists used it millennia before the Nazi’s started using it.
James: “After all, Hillary Clinton supporters showed up in droves around the Trump inauguration to declare themselves “The Resistance” and protest the very fact that the winner of the election was taking office.”
I don’t remember that at all. Kind of desperate effort at both-siderism?
@MarkedMan:
Tim Cook is a manager, he makes money, but he’s not the equal of the Jobs-Woz-Ive Holy Trinity. Apple lost its cool a while back and now it’s something people like me are just trapped in from sheer laziness. The watch is a useless toy and other than that it’s just rehashes of the same old stuff.
@Not the IT Dept.:
There was the Women’s March on January 21, 2017.
This is, indeed, a pretty terrible mischaracterization.
@Jim Brown 32:
“Like Clarence Thomas, they believe with their core that, if only we would do things more like white people, we’d have a better future in America.”
I’ve read a biography of Clarence Thomas and still have no idea what he believes. I do know from those hearings all those years ago that he is a cynical angry duplicitous liar who at that time at least had some very naive and immature sexual obsessions. He married a far right white woman. He is seriously psychologically damaged, but I don’t know exactly how or why.
@steve: @Steven L. Taylor: Also, I believe, a III% thing.
Yes, Antifa or whoever shouldn’t accept the invitations to violence. I believe there’s literature to the effect that protest can work, but only non-violent protest. Which requires dedication, organization, training, and raw courage. On the other hand there are days it’s hard to not think the only way to deal with some of these people is to beat the living spit out of them.
@mattbernius: “it sure seems like Tom Cotton had been taking a lot of notes.”
Yeah, but Tom Cotton is boring. Trump you can’t tear your eyes away; Cotton you can’t keep them open.
@Northerner:
Like the random letters seen as code by the QAnon folks, the okay sign with the 3 finger W prominent is read by those in the know as Steven describes.
There are two side benefits from appropriating such a common gesture. First, you’ve got plausible deniability if you’ve been caught making the gesture in a photo somewhere while there are potential customers out there who don’t want to employ a white supremacist as their electrician. Second, the truly deluded can convince themselves that there are many fellow travelers secretly signaling membership in a vast, mass movement just waiting to right the wrongs of a country lost to liberal malfeasance.
@Scott F.: Third, it makes people pointing it out seem insane.
It’s a dog-whistle meant for those in the know, particularly the libs, as it’s all about triggering the libs.
Similar to Pepe the Frog, who was a fine frog before the alt-right found him.
That clear anything up, @Northerner?
@gVOR08:
I believe the United Mine Workers of America would like to explain some West Virginia history to you.
To me, the fact that West Virginia is now deep red is the most mind-boggling aspect of the whole Trumpism phenomenon. I can only attribute it to really effective propaganda and deliberate sabotage of the educational system.
@Michael Allen: Growing up black in these podunk towns in the deep South isn’t for the weak minded. Especially during Jim Crow.
I’ve read his story and his immediate family life was unstable and hard with the only bit of stability provide was his grandfather and the Catholic Church. Black men like Clarence Thomas aren’t uncommon and they typically come from these extremely impoverished environments where literally everything associated with Blackness is subpar. It does something to the psyche. I remember a news article I read where they interviewed some Black wet nurses around Birmingham, AL about civil rights and the gist of their take was that civil rights for them really didn’t matter. If God had wanted them to have Civil Rights–they would have been born White. This article wasn’t written in 1860–it was written in the 1960s when Clarence Thomas would have been an adolescent. Thomas grew up in a period when the Black community really needed songs like “Im Black and Im Proud” and marching signs like I AM A MAN. These were internal messages to ourselves as well as external messaging to others.
People that are deeply psychologically impacted in these environments either take the Rebel route as—say the Nation of Islam or the Black Panthers–or they go the Stockholm route like Clarence Thomas. If given the opportunity, they adopt everything White they can…values, religion, spouse, habits, etc. Clarence ended up in the latter bucket. I have relatives that ended up in the former.
Either way–I myself was never particularly susceptible to these influences despite coming up in similar environment (not as impoverished however) because my nuclear and extended family was littered with men and women like Thomas’s grandfather. They yielded zero to white people in intellectual abilities, class, ingenuity, and the like. White people only had more money and status. Ive met and worked with/for Senior Military Officials (some of whose names have been regularly featured in the news) and to this day not one of them I feel have surpassed either of my grandfathers in terms of leadership presence and community respect. The point is–I never ever saw Black as a negative in the way Thomas did/does so I have no interest in disassociating myself with it or wanting my community to completely chuck its uniqueness and richness to imitate the people that screwed us over (and over and over).
My beef with Thomas isn’t necessarily his conservative bent but rather his lack of a demonstration of intellectualism or eloquence. This guy replaced Thurgood Marshall? Thank God we had 8 years of Obama for Black boys to aspire to and idolize. As a representative of the Black Community…which he is whether he wants to be or not–he is embarrassing. He is to be pitied more than anything Jim Crow was a terrible drug.
@Scott F.:
@Gustopher:
Okay, that makes sense, I can see why they might try to co-opt a sign. Does it make any sense to take them seriously, and so give them the sign? I mean, to give them attention by referring to the sign as anything but an okay sign. For instance, if the Nazi’s start using say the word “hello” as some sort of dog whistle to trigger liberals (its got “hell” in it, so it should be easy to co-opt), does that mean non-Nazi’s should stop saying hello (believe it or not, a quick Google brings up articles in serious papers like the Washington Post suggesting people stop using the OK sign — or even more amusing, one of the articles said the alt-right is also claiming that milk is one of their in-signs).
@Northerner: one difference between drinking milk or saying hello and the OK sign is that lots of people regularly say hello or drink milk, while making the ok sign is not a routine way that most people communicate. Since it is relatively rare, it is noteworthy to see and can be co-opted more easily because the original meaning, or lack thereof in the case of milk, is not constantly reenforced.
Context also matters when communicating of course. Making the OK gesture in front of the stars and bars can certainly mean something different than when even the same person makes the gesture to his dive buddy upon reaching the agreed depth to start a dive.
@gVOR08:
@DrDaveT:
Violent protest can work.
But only in certain circumstances.
Generally, a demoralised and incompetent regime; or one trying to rule on the cheap.
(Sign up for my Comparative History of Successful and Abortive Revolutions!)
🙂
@Northerner:
You should hear some Hindus of my acquaintance who are extremely peeved re. the Nazi appropriation of the swastika.
More generally, the “alt-right” tend to think they are being very clever and witty re. memetics/symbology/discourses yadda yadda.
Meh.
Perhaps even more annoying than the Tankies?
Sometimes in politics, pain is the best teacher.
@Jim Brown 32:
Something that has struck me about Thomas, is that he appears to go out of his way to punish blacks as individuals in a way that it hurts the community.
@Jim Brown 32: very thoughtful analysis of what makes Thomas click.
@Erik: Last year, some kids in middle school were doing a full scale human body drawing for the systems of the body–circulatory, respiratory, and digestive–and a team of Hispanic boys had drawn their body with hands making the okay symbol. They assured me that the symbol didn’t mean anything at all when I asked them “are you sure that’s what you want to advertise about who you are?”
But when I came back later, I noticed that their body was now wearing black mittens. We do what we can.
@wr:
Dan Crenshaw.
I don’t know why people are so concerned with Tom Cotton. He has no charisma; he won’t succeed. Dan Crenshaw is the dangerous one.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: I love that you left it up to them to decide what to do about the drawing. In my experience even kind thoughtful middle schoolers frequently fail to put what they find funny in a wider context. Helping them practice seeing that wider context is a tremendous boost toward maturity for them
No, he’s not. Ketchup. 😉
@Not the IT Dept.: I think James is conflating the first Women’s March with the inauguration.
You have a short memory.
@Erik: I work as a substitute teacher now that I’m retired, so the fact that I am nobody there’s parent triples in consequence. As I note to my high school students on occasion, I see my role as assisting them it achieving their goals, noting that if they are ambivalent about passing the class and graduating, they are fortunate because they now have the day off and have only the responsibility of making sure that they don’t keep classmates from achieving their goals.
I’ve been substituting in that district for about 4 years now, so the kids are also used to having me in their classrooms–which helps add some gravitas and street cred.
The 1995 Million Man March drew more than 1 million. The National Parks Service admitted their count was low (https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/21/us/federal-parks-chief-calls-million-man-count-low.html) However, you are correct, there was no violence or arrests at the 1995 march. In fact, Sam Jordan, D.C.’s acting director of the city’s Office for Emergency Preparedness, said the mall was cleaner when the marchers left than when they arrived. Do your homework. When you are not the lame street media, accuracy matters. Lest you find yourself lying and acting no better than them.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
If the symbol didn’t mean anything to them (other than presumably the same “okay” that 99% of the population would think of when they saw that sign), then what were they advertising themselves as? Do a Google of the okay sign, you get such noted white supremacists as Obama, Kapernick, Hillary Clinton using it. Are you suggesting that because a handful of idiots use the sign to signify something else, its meaning changed? Do you really want to give those idiots that much power?
@Erik:
Maybe it varies by locale, but I’d say roughly a quarter of the people I know use the okay sign to mean okay (and most of them are indigenous peoples not given to white supremacy for obvious reasons). And I’d guess that 99% of the people I know would interpret the sign as meaning okay — probably a higher percent than the percentage of them that drink milk.
@JohnSF:
I had a co-worker (I’m an engineer) from India who had a swastika in his office. When people complained he’d point out that it was facing left and not on a diagonal, and had been in his family long before Hitler had been born) — that explanation was more than enough to satisfy the rest of us. It probably would have made a lot more problems if he’d been in marketing though.
@Robert: We were definitely a million strong on Saturday. I’m sure our nation’s capital afforded your MMM rally bathrooms and Trash cans at least. DC bitch mayor shut it down. Yet, patriots prevailed, we held our bladders and brought our trash with us. Even people with animals picked up dog waste. Thus, a true testament to perseverance. We were told to stay home that there would be a problem… many did. The author of the article said, “Mr. Trump” planned this rally. Beg to differ. I joined Million MAGA March when there were only 700 people in their group. It was a grass-root event. Most Americans know this was a greasy election. That’s why disheartened people went. No one should stand for voting fraud after the shit show democrats put onto President Trump. As for Million MAN March, why would there have been ANY opposition to your March, except by your women? Your Identity politics excluded the Queens of your nuclear family from participating.