In June 2020, sixteen hundred National Guard troops were called to Washington, D.C., to assist with crowd control during demonstrations that had turned violent with fires set at AFL-CIO Headquarters and St. John’s Episcopal Church. Businesses suffered property damage. Protesters blocked vehicle access to the White House, and pushed against Secret Service agents trying to maintain control.
Peaceful protest around the White House was shattered along with the windshield of a D.C. police cruiser. The Mayor of Washington joined demonstrations, and forced National Guard troops to leave their hotel without anyone paying the bills. She criticized the National Guard presence in the city and, along with CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and the Washington Post, alleged serious law enforcement misconduct; no protesters or rioters died. The troops were sent home. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) wrote an editorial in the New York Times opining that riots will not stop until they are met with significant force. The Editorial page editor was fired for allowing this to happen.
In January 2021, twenty-five thousand National Guard troops were deployed to Washington, D.C., to prevent violence. Miles of seven-foot-high fence were set up. On television, the city appeared to be under military occupation. The same Mayor of D.C. had no problem with this. Only about a thousand people were allowed to attend the inauguration of President Biden. As Senator Cotton had recommended, violence was short-circuited with significant force. The Times’ Editorial page editor remains fired.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) collected information about 12,045 incidents of U.S. civil unrest from May 26, 2020 (the day after George Floyd’s death in police custody) to Sept. 5, 2020. Black Lives Matter activists were involved in 95 percent of the declared riots for which there is information about the perpetrators’ affiliation. About $2 billion in insured losses occurred from arson, vandalism and looting. Most of the businesses damaged across the country were black-owned, first-generation family enterprises, which often cannot afford insurance coverage. There were 47 fatalities.
A major demand of the protesters was to defund law enforcement. Seattle and New York City did so, and then had to limit officers permitted to retire to maintain a minimum force. Violent crime skyrocketed, up 74% in Seattle, where rioters assumed control of a section of downtown and seceded from the U.S. The Mayor called the destruction, rape and murder a “block party” before cutting police officers’ salaries. Chicago, up 55%, Boston up 54%, New York up 40%. The Mayor of New York City attributed the rise to the pandemic. Separately, murder rose to rates not seen since the last century.
On January 6, 2021, an undetermined number (measured in dozens) of people entered the open U.S. Capitol building, did some property damage, and stole some items. The incursion was mostly-peaceful, as the summer riots were largely described. One protester was fatally shot by a police officer when she was climbing through a window, one police officer was beaten and later died. This followed remarks to a much larger crowd by President Trump, who urged people to go to the Capitol “Peacefully and patriotically to let their voices be heard … to stand strong for legally-elected electors and stand strong for America … “ The words “peaceful” or “peacefully” were heard repeatedly in that speech.
The speech was labeled “incitement to sedition” by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House passed a resolution asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office. Pence declined, noting that the 25th Amendment was never intended as a substitute for impeachment, but rather existed to remove a President unable to perform his duties due to infirmity. The House then proceeded to impeach the President.
That led to most major social media platforms acting in lockstep to prevent the President from communicating his positions, and major institutions blackballing not only the President but all conservatives and Republicans. Republicans who voted against certifying the electoral votes of several states were called terrorists; Democrats who had objected in 1969, 2001, 2005 and 2017 were called patriots. Simultaneously Senator Ted Cruz, who asked for a ten-day audit of questioned electoral votes, was described as a traitor. A viable competitor to Twitter, Parler, which did not do ideological moderation of users’ posts, was destroyed by Facebook, Apple and Google all acting in concert. Every technology vendor to Parler was forced to break ties, as were all payment platforms. The allegation was that Parler did not moderate calls for violence quickly enough, thus served as the platform for planning the Capitol Hill riot.
In retrospect, the planning was done almost entirely on Facebook and Youtube. And, as the event was pre-planned, it couldn’t have been incited by Trump. The inconsistency does not appear to be recognized widely. The broadcast and print news outlets claim, in near-unanimity, that the riot was caused by the President and was conducted by white supremacists. Race had nothing to do with it. Public figures are calling for re-education camps for children of conservatives, of denying employment to anyone who voted for or expressed support for Trump. This happens in dictatorships, not in the United States. In response to the rhetorical question, “What are we to do with these people?” I reply, “Embrace them as your fellow Americans.”
I have never voted for Trump and have never been a Republican. I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative because I recognize that social liberalism can only be afforded by those who are fiscally conservative. I did not vote in the 2016 election, and voted for a Third-Party candidate in 2020. What reveals the authoritarian bent behind trying to destroy those who dissent is that none of this was ever necessary. It was never possible to overturn electoral slates in disputed states because there was insufficient time to do so between the election and inauguration. All challenges were dismissed on procedural grounds. The gathering of evidence and its questioning and cross-examination would take too much time. I didn’t vote for him in 2016, but I accepted Trump as my President. I didn’t vote for him in 2020, but I accept Biden as my President.
This is not a defense of Trump, Republicans or conservatism. This is a defense of liberty against authoritarianism.