The people who attended the "Stop the Steal" rally were cheerleaders and validators of the insurrection that followed.
“The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”
Mitch McConnell
Parental guidance:
This post will display below two photographs of the thousands that are available of crowds at lynchings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The photos are unpleasant to see.
The photo records of lynchings are available because photography was available and lynchings were community events people wanted recorded. The people in the crowds posed for the camera. Here we are, at a lynching!
People at the "Stop the Steal" rally and subsequent invasion of the Capitol did the same thing. They took selfies and recorded themselves and others, and posted them. A local professional man who attended the rally communicated to me how thrilled he was to have been there to support the president.
In the weeks ahead Americans will be parsing out degrees of guilt. Was Trump guilty of insurrection by inciting a crowd? He certainly intentionally gathered it, in tweets and speeches urging Proud Boys and other Americans to show up, to be strong, to be courageous, and to stop the horrendous thing that was happening right then at the Capitol.
Was Giuliani guilty of incitement? He told the crowd that something terrible was happening and they could stop it and it would be trial by combat.
What about Steve Bannon in his January 5 podcast? Was he inciting or just matter-of-factly sharing the common knowledge that the next day's event would be about storming the Capitol:Just understand this: All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. . . . So many people said, ‘Man, if I was in revolution, I would be in Washington.’ Well, this is your time in history. . . . It’s all converging, and now we’re on the point of attack tomorrow. And all I can say is: Strap in. You have made this happen, and tomorrow it’s game day.
January 6 was game day. The crowds came and many brought weapons.
Some of them succeeded in doing what Trump urged. They stormed the Capitol. Some people recorded themselves going through desks, breaking things, carrying weapons. They are all easy to accuse of wrongdoing. They were actively and by force carrying out Trump's stated effort, disrupting, as McConnell put it, "a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government." It was criminal, possibly sedition or treason. They took arms against the country.
What about the crowds at the rally? Weren't they simply and innocently exercising their First Amendment right peaceably to assemble and their First Amendment free speech right to cheer Trump, including when he urged the crowd to intimidate Congress into overturning the election? And don't their large numbers demonstrate that they are expressing a sentiment too widespread to be criminal?
Some readers will consider it a stretch to think crowd members at the January 6 rally, ones who did not themselves enter the Capitol, were aiding or abetting the insurrection or that they share any guilt whatever.
What about people in these crowds below?
Or these people?
Very few of the people who came to watch the lynching and then stuck around for photos would themselves have handled the rope or bound the victims' hands and feet. They did not, personally, kill someone. They there to watch an extra-legal act, and be part of a crowd of affirmation and validation. They knew what the gathering was about--a lynching. This was not a birthday party that got out of hand by a few ruffians, who unknown to them decided to lynch someone. It was "game day."
The crowd's presence demonstrated something to the people who did carry out the act, and to the wider community of officeholders, friends, and potential future victims: The lynchings were OK by them. The community approved. Atta-boy.
Had those large crowds assembled in opposition, shouting "Shame! Stop!" the lynchings would not have taken place. The crowds validated illegality.
We look at those photos and we know we are looking at something that should not have happened. It is shameful. Still, we realize the people in the crowds are not ashamed of themselves at the moment. They are posing and they brought their children to the event. Like them, people on January 6 posed for photos and a few brought children. It was OK by them that the president called to use fear and violence to stop Congress from doing its work.
The one person I have spoken with directly regarding his participation in the rally has an explanation for his presence that shows a sense of guilt. He does not admit to cheering Trump, only attending, and he says that the people who did illegal things were in fact Democrats. That's right. That is what he says. Ignore those Trump flags and MAGA hats and what so many people said on video. It was all a false flag to make Trump supporters look bad.
This is ridiculous on its face, but it is progress. He is in denial. Hypocrisy and dishonesty are understood to be the tribute vice pays to virtue.
Dishonesty is one notch better for America's future than if Trump supporters were proudly to say they support the violent overthrow of the government. At least they know what Americans who pledge allegiance to the flag should say and think.
If crowd members in the lynching photos had come to regret they were there, and failed in later years to mention it to their grandchildren, that would have been progress. And if the people in the lynching crowds, however improbably, later blamed the lynchings on Black activists who were trying to make the White community look bad by killing one of their own to blame on Whites, that, too, would be progress. The hypocrisy and deflection would show they don't want to own what they did. It shows shame.
Perhaps in time Trump supporters will re-think the wisdom choosing Trump over loyalty to the republic, and maybe they will decide that overthrowing elections sets a dangerous precedent. Hypocrisy and deflection are a start.
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| January 6, prior to the march on the Capitol |
3 comments:
It may be of value to note that the crowds in those horrific pictures were not shown in the media of the day as it was happening. Those events happened locally, no one knew about them, at least not for a while, and it makes one wonder if more people had seen them would there have been a response. It certainly is true that the TV coverage of the civil rights demonstrations in the 60s showing the abuse by racist police and others helped to move public opinion. Now cell phones, cable news, and the internet insure no one will miss events.
When you are directly confronted with evidence that tests your morality it's harder to be "in denial", though Republicans have shown that they are extremely capable as long as it serves their interest.
What's really horrifying is that the mob at the Capital thought they were doing something noble...that irrationality is jaw dropping.
As long as Republican senators believe that they can acquit Trump in the impeachment trial, and still be able to get campaign contributions from wealthy donors, and find lucrative K Street lobbying jobs for themselves and their families, chances of a conviction are quite slim.
I am reluctant to agree that your informant's claim that it was Democrats who stormed the Capitol is a step toward change. Isn't it of a piece with his being at the rally? That is, isn't he still committed to lying to himself about such matters? People cannot change if they willfully delude themselves. What such people require is to experience the consequences of self-deception. Those who have been charged and will be prosecuted for their part in the insurrection won't be able to say that it was Democrats or antifa who are to blame. They will have to face the truth. Would that all of those who tell self-serving lies were brought to the bar. Short of that, don't look for their willingness to reform.
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