No Matter What Happens Now, The Right Won on the Sixth
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On 6 January 2020, right wing extremists gathered, at the President’s request, in the US capitol for a political rally. After the President’s lawyer and “America’s mayor” said that the election, which he called fraudulent, should be solved by trial by combat, and a GOP politician quoted Hitler in a speech on stage, the day quickly unfolded into one that I don’t believe we as a country will recover from, at least for a long, long time.
Right wing extremists pushed an incredibly passive and undermanned police force back, receiving a paltry few salvos of pepper balls and pushes compared to the rampant violence unleashed by the same police force last summer during the BLM riots. Eventually, they arrived at the capitol, where the certification of the 2020 election results was taking place. With conservative Christian extremist hate preachers blaring cherry-picked bible verses over their megaphones, the crowd pushed the police back even more, eventually meeting a police line that seemed to willingly let them past.
They had reached the doors then, and the seemingly unthinkable happened: extremists donning concentration camp memorabilia and carrying Confederate flags broke into the capitol. Once inside, they ransacked politicians’ offices, taking pictures of hastily abandoned, still-unlocked computer screens, stealing documents, and leaving damage, disarray and disaster in their path. The chamber was locked with congress and press still inside, and before long protesters arrived at the chamber as politicians and press alike were evacuating. Guns drawn and doors barricaded, law enforcement officers in the literal last layer of defense aimed handguns at the door as protesters battered their way inside. They occupied the chamber for some time, one extremist taking the dais occupied by Vice President Pence just moments before to proclaim “Trump won that election!”
Elsewhere, law enforcement officers discharged their firearms in a hallway away from the chamber, killing an extremist who was attempting to climb through a broken window. By the end of the day, three more people would die of health-related injuries during the protest. According to capitol police, 60 officers were injured during the storming of the capitol. The casualties could have been far worse, as a number of improvised explosive devices were found strewn across the capitol, as well as a cooler full of molotovs. One extremist was photographed within the chamber, gun on hip, mask and hat hiding their face as they carried zip ties presumably to be used to take hostages during the assault.
The police eventually cleared the capitol in a re-taking that appeared gentle compared to the beserkers of the same agency that assaulted press and protester alike just months ago during an uprising in support of police accountability, transparency, defunding and abolition. In the aftermath of the destruction, after the capitol was cleared, 6 congressmen and women maintained their objection to the results of the election: Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Roger Marshall of Kansas and John Kennedy of Louisiana. Notably, 100 Republican representatives opposed the results of the election as well. The election was certified in a ceremony that was supposed to have been a ceremonial and dry affair.
Beginning on the 6th, murmurs of invoking the 25th or otherwise removing the President from office in the 14 days before Joe Biden’s election turned into a roar. A myriad of cabinet members and high officials have offered their resignation in the background of conversations beginning the formal calls for impeachment. During the storming and brief occupation of the capitol, Donald Trump released a video on social media essentially praising the supporters while almost humorously calling for peace in what can only be called a dog whistle or an attempt at appeasement of his detractors. This video lead to his suspension from Twitter for 12 hours and an indefinite suspension from Facebook and Instagram as well as YouTube.
I personally don’t have much faith in the current ruling class to meaningfully act, even as their lives were at stake just a day ago. It frankly doesn’t matter, though. Either way, the right won a massive battle on the sixth.
Frankly, they have won quite a few battles over the last 5 years. Right wing extremism is at an all-time high in the US, with the FBI and hate watch groups all warning of the rise of the white nationalism and right wing extremism in the West and the US specifically. They have entered cities at will, firing upon protesters with chemical weapons, beating protesters with wooden and metal weaponry and planting proverbial and literal flags in their wake. In many instances, the only thing standing between the violent right wing invaders and an outright occupation were brave and thankfully experienced antifascist activists and organizers who battled it out in the streets, often outmanned and always outgunned. These protests have had a death toll of their own and have resulted in countless serious injuries. Antifascist activists were often arrested, beaten and gassed after the right wing extremists left without a finger lifted to arrest or otherwise prevent it. Notably, the FBI itself has rung the alarm concerning right wing infiltration of law enforcement, and the passivity of the police on the invasion of the 6th compared to the brutality brought upon BLM and antifascist activists last summer certainly raises concerns.
While planting flags across the United States in cities like Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, DC, Minneapolis, Miami and elsewhere, recruitment was at an all-time high. Right wing hate group and street brawlers named the Proud Boys have initiated many new members as they toured the country beating and gassing indiscriminately even as the President called for them to “stand back and stand by” during the election. Right wing forums popped up like hate-spewing grift markets, to include Parler and thedonald(.)win, seemingly faster than administrators of Facebook and Reddit could take them down. Millions flooded right wing conspiracy groups to follow the latest words of Q as indoctrination in the form of anti-semitic, pro-Trump propaganda tied the red noose tighter and tighter around their throats. After a brief stagnation following the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, recruitment for the far right has new faces and new branding, with the Proud Boys donning black and yellow polos and caps and red hats with white writing taking the place of red bands with a white circle and a black swastika.
On January 6th, we saw the Confederate flag flown inside the nation’s capitol. We saw men wearing holocaust glorification memorabilia occupying the center of political power in the nation. We saw the police bend, break and, in some cases, seemingly support the extremists that flooded the capitol, very likely the same police who beat and gassed protesters for doing far less just months ago. We saw men bent on taking leaders hostage by armed force enter the chamber of our capitol. Though they may have left, they planted their flags on January 6th. They won. The whole nation and the whole world watched the mob invited by the President take the capitol. It was every extremist recruiter’s wet dream, to see hate on display on international television in a glorious and valiant victory.
While the ceremonies of our democracy are still at play, while Biden is, as of now, set to enter office on January 20th, our freedom and democracy are in dire peril after the events on the 6th. Our enemy won a serious battle yesterday, one comparable only to Donald Trump’s election 4 years ago, and we very well may pay a dire price for that defeat yesterday.
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I write relatively extensively on the far-right and will be continuing to publish my research and findings on this blog. Watch this space for more research.
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