The Days After: Joyful Defiance

1. Joyful Defiance

Asheville, North Carolina: Getty photo

I haven't seen a reliable overview of Sunday newspaper coverage of the Saturday June 14 protests, but I'd have to believe a lot of local papers had photo spreads.  More photos were on the Internet (Talking Points Memo for one collected many from readers) and presumably on social media.

By Monday the media consensus had formed, that the protests overshadowed and shamed the Boss Chaos birthday tank parade.  Some of the organizing groups said that more than 5 million Americans participated in more than 2100 communities, and news media mostly went with those numbers.  A crowd-sourcing effort, not yet complete, suggests a range of 4 to 6 million.  The Crowdsourcing Consortium had estimated the 2017 Women's March at between 3.3 and 5.6 million, so it's likely that Saturday was the largest in history--certainly in the number of communities participating.  (This consortium also estimates that there have been over 15,000 other resistance protests since January.)

Austin, Texas

Some additional numbers got into the mix.  Organizers in Philadelphia, St. Paul and San Diego claimed there were over or near 100,000. Boston media claimed one million there. As an example of breadth, there were 50 protesting communities in Wisconsin alone. 

Boston,MA  

I continue to be amazed at the wit, the buoyancy and relentlessness of these protests. And the courage, given the lawlessness of the Chaos and Chaos-inspired people. Maybe it was Rachel who characterized the day's mood as "joyful defiance." The diversity of participants is implied by the kinds of places where the protests occurred.   The photos show a lot of white people, who look a lot like the stereotypical Chaos voter.  They may be having a good time, but they aren't out there to party.  And they know why they are there.

There are many differences but some similarities to the 1960s protests of my experience.  The mood of the March on Washington was solemn and even reverent.  Anti-war protests ran the gamut from grimly defiant to very angry, but we had fun, too. But we always felt apart from the mainstream.  I don't think these protestors do.  And poll numbers suggest they are right. 

Chattanooga, Tennessee

What might be the same is the disbelief that the media didn't immediately give them their true significance, often with insultingly low estimates of the numbers participating.  And the high that participating brings, and the letdown afterwards when nothing has changed.

But networking with people you met and maintaining some sort of cohesion should be easier with faster and easier communication media.  The question of what comes next is a real one. 

Oakland, CA

On Monday there was a police report of a gun death at a protest in Utah, in which someone used a handgun to shoot at someone pointing a rifle at marchers.  He hit the gunman but killed someone else--a marcher or a bystander.  On Tuesday it was also revealed that one person was killed as a result of the Washington military parade, run down by a truck carrying a tank. 

There were a couple of known attempts of drivers trying to mow down marchers, and another TPM article reports increased agitation for violence against protesters, especially official violence in Red states and communities, where such acts are no longer severely penalized.  

 2.  The Military Parade

It turned out to be Army vs. Boss Chaos, and Army won.  

The US Army and its career professional leadership has made some significant missteps since January.  Censoring the West Point Library, cooperating with the Chaos political show at Fort Bragg are prominent among them.  But they've also proven adroit at seemingly cooperating with Chaos in Chief while subtly undermining him.  They did as ordered and restored the old names to some bases previously named after Confederate generals.  But they officially named the bases after US Army officers and enlisted heroes who just happen to have the same last names as the generals the US Army fought against in the Civil War. 

 

Forth Worth, TX

And they followed orders and organized a parade in Washington, which Chaos publicly denied was in honor of his birthday and his presidency, but was honoring the 250th anniversary of the Army.  Then the Army did something vitally subversive: they took him at his lying public word.

So the parade really was an historical pageant and a celebration, with soldiers decked out in period uniforms rented from Hollywood.  The hardware was at a minimum.  Chaos insisted on tanks, and there were tanks of several eras--which is fitting, since tanks are largely obsolete these days, except to scare citizens opposing their dear leader.  Instead the soldiers manning the tanks smiled at the crowd and made hearts with their hands, while their compatriot foot soldiers strolled rather than marched by in lockstep, waving.  According to biographer Michael Wolff, Trump was furious that the parade wasn't more menacing, and blamed his Secretary of Defense. 

There was of course still no excuse for the $25 million to $45 million spent on it.  But Chaos owns that.

Paris, France

Meanwhile by Monday the news media consensus was that attendance at the parade was "sparse" and entirely overshadowed by the national--really international-- protests.  Even though there was to be no "official" No Kings protest in Washington itself, there were several anti-Chaos marches and demonstrations earlier in the day with significant attendance.

But Boss Chaos always wants control, insisting on being the center of attention.  This time his diversion of choice may be to involve the country in yet another war in the Middle East.  He didn't get his jollies with a menacing parade. He may opt for the push-button power of immense military violence.  His policies are already killing hundreds of thousands of children from starvation and disease that USAID would have otherwise prevented.  Soon he may feed his need with more graphic death and destruction, with high danger of protracted consequences.