The Protest Movement And The Protest Government

On Jan. 11, President Biden delivered a civil rights speech in Georgia to kick-start a new one Federal Elections Act. There are, he said, “moments that are so powerful that they separate everything that came before from everything that followed… They tear the trivial from the essential. And they force us to confront hard truths about ourselves, about our institutions, and about our democracy.”

By juxtaposing names and issues, Biden further implied that the January 6 protesters were spiritual descendants of the Ku Klux Klan. In accordance with the media prophets describing this event as “Reichstag momentBiden also reiterated that the “fight for the soul of America is not over… We must stand strong and stand together to ensure that January 6th does not mark the end of democracy but a “renaissance”.

Most reports of the speech stood out for Biden’s characterization of his own radical shift in perspective: “I’ve had these quiet conversations with members of Congress for the past two months. I’m tired of being quiet!” And he ended with a challenge: “Do you want to be alongside Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be alongside John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be alongside Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”

The practical correlate of these statements is President Biden’s goal to overturn the Senate’s filibuster rule (if necessary) to ensure passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.

Majority sentiment in Congress is not much different. Democrats marked the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 riots with a program of inspirational speeches, policy briefings and musical performances, capped by a candlelight vigil and prayer. “I wasn’t looking for this fight,” Biden said in the Capitol, “but I won’t shy away from it either. I will stand in that breach.” Stand in this breach was a speechwriter’s garbled memory of Henry V (“Into the breach again”) and George HW Bush (“This will not stand”); but intent was what mattered, and the words certainly conveyed a sense of intent. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry opened the vigil on the Capitol steps with a prayer for God “to help all those who are traumatized,” and Chevel Shepherd closed the day’s special ceremonies with her performance of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” ‘ and ‘God Bless America.’

That would have done—as the Passover song goes—but Democrats don’t know when to cut it these days, and Shepherd was expected to have another musical interlude. Nancy Pelosi introduced Lin Manuel Miranda, who introduced the cast of Hamilton singing “Dear Theodosia” over Zoom. Theodosia was the daughter of Aaron Burr, according to the website genius.com helpfully explains, “Burr and Alexander Hamilton both had children very soon after the Revolutionary War. Here they take a moment to coo and recognize the human element of the country they are just beginning to build.” The song’s relevance may have been allegorical—the traitor Burr was the prototype of Trump—but the moment was such a mature example of kitsch mediat A customer warning is attached to the story: No parody.

During the business portion of the Jan. 6 anniversary, Democrats rolled out all of the new legislation they have drafted to prevent a repeat of Trump’s (or any successor in demagoguery’s) anti-Constitutional behavior. Adam Schiff spoke out in favor of the Protecting Our Democracy Act. Jerry Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, and Zoe Lofgren did the same for the No President Is Above the Law Act, the Inspector General Independence Act, and the Efficient Transition Act. John Yarmuth and Mary Gay Scanlon added some good-natured remarks. The general mood, however, was set by Kamala Harris, who said (with rehearsed earnestness), “Certain dates resonate throughout history… dates that not only hold a place on our calendar, but also a place in our collective memory.” She placed January 6, 2021 alongside December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001.

President Biden is now enjoying one, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Jan. 12 33 percent approval rating. But a more startling number is one that we’ve had to work with for a long time. The extreme mutual distrust that exists between the nearly 50 percent of voters who are commanded by Democrats at election time and the more than 40 percent of Republicans stems from a shared awareness of two recent episodes of popular protests and violence. The well-known Trumpian outburst occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. Most Republicans have refused to call it an attempted coup or an insurrection, and those are perhaps exaggerated terms, but treating it as some kind of picnic gone wrong is reckless ran .

The left eruption was more diffuse; it impressed by its duration and fertility. But for those who assembled the evidence without the assistance of the liberal corporate media, these attacks — week after week, city after city — were bound to stun viewers what country we lived in. The riots of 2020, taking place under the legitimate guise of citizens wearing masks, began as a protest against the killing of George Floyd and subsequent police shootings, but the acceleration in violence has been steady in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Kenosha and Atlanta observe , St. Louis and Chicago, and a consistent pattern emerged: from “mostly peaceful” BLM events during the day to vandalism, looting and arson at night. Total property destruction was estimated at 1-2 billion dollars. At least 25 dead have been implicated, but many left-liberals have not only successfully screened all knowledge of the riots; They’ve also denied their likely relationship to the subsequent rush for gun purchases and national surge in violent crime of 2020-2021 – a disaster they prefer to see instead an effect of Covid.

Yet no one familiar with right-wing media can doubt this anger at the 2020 riots fed the wilderness of the January 6 uprising. It was, as any sane person will recognize, a symbolically horrific episode without precedent or comparison. But saying so will not banish memories of 2020, which saw the worst public unrest in half a century. The small businesses in Minneapolis and Kenosha that closed or burned down this summer were often owned by Asians or blacks or whites with no history of racism. What may reinforce the split consciousness of 2020 and 2021 are the contradictory conclusions being drawn from current journal literature about the Democrats and the far right. Republicans are intrigued by the embarrassing revelations in one time Story of Molly Ball who reported admiringly – but also revealed their strategies – the bipartisan executives who aligned with left-wing masses should they be needed after Election Day. Meanwhile, Democrats are quoting the Atlantic Article by Barton Gellman that portends a sinister and growing insurgency composed of a new layer of Trump-backed state officials and a far-right citizen army.

The national Republican Party has been merciless with Trump since 2015. And with few exceptions, it has condoned the later anti-constitutional behavior of a president who was also its leader. This was a political dereliction that cannot go uncorrected if our constitutional regime is to survive. Democrats suffer from a less conspicuous vice – but one that is getting worse and is being coddled by the liberal corporate media: namely, their utter dishonesty that they now possess almost all of America’s extrapolitical culture –journalism, Higher Education, K-12 Public and Private Elite Education, medicine, Mental health, professional sports, Silicon Valley, Hollywood and, increasingly, the large sector of corporate life represented by interests as diverse as soft drink makers and manufacturers major airlines. This fact is recognized by the more than 40 percent; it will also be rejected, and the rejection will not go away if you tell the owner of a one-bedroom cabin in Kentucky or Ohio that he is the embodiment of white supremacy.

The Protest Movement and the Protest Government

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