"Reject the Coverup" protest held after GOP Senate "acquits" Trump
Video clip: Protesters chant "Trump is Guilty" 8 sec
On the 5th of February, protesters rallied outside the US Capitol after the Senate refused to remove Donald Trump from office. While the GOP says Trump was "acquitted" in actuality there was no witnesses and no evidence, thus no real trial. This is rather like someone committing a major felony, then ensuring members of their own crew are both judge and jury, blocking any conviction.
Two different sets of protesters were on the scene: Refuse Fascism had started their protest at 4PM as Senators voted, and the "Reject the Coverup" protest by liberal and Democrat aligned groups started at 5:30PM. They were joined by the still-present Refuse Fascism activists for what amounted to a combined rally. Several speakers pointed out that the Senate has in effect given Trump a green light to commit further offenses of the same type. Allowing a sitting President to solicit the aid of other nation's intelligence services to interfere in an election that could remove him from power was in turn compared to a vote to give Trump absolute power.
Trump's blatant disregard for the "operating system" rules of the US government themselves were not the only subject demostrators excoriated him for. The demolition of health care, efforts to cut social services, and Trump's vicious, brutal anti-migrant pogroms were all condemned from the podium and in chants. More than once he was called out for his worst offense of all, sending children to concentration camps. The word "fascist" was heard more than once from inside the crowd, and it is an accurate description of what kind of ruler Trump wants to become. One speaker warned of just how bad things would get if he ever managed to truly consolidate power.
The vote itself was on party lines except for Mitt Romney's refusal to drink the MAGA Kool-aid. It is about party, with the Repuginicans agreeing to stay by their Fuhrer's side no matter what he does, and no matter what the consequences. Both parties in turn are supported vociferously by different parts of the US and different populations, which in turn hate each other. One Washington Post survey in 2017 found three out of four white men who were registered to vote had registered as GOP, and about 1/3ed of them expressed support for at least one of a set of white nationalist statements.
On the other hand, support for Trump and the GOP among people of color hovers in the single digits for obvious reason. The big coastal cities abhor Trump, and the presence of a single person in a MAGA hat can start a fight. Thus, there is one key difference between the politics of Germany in the 1930's and the US in the 2020's: Trump cannot sieze absolute power and rule by the gun alone without starting an instant civil war(some way we're already in a cold civil war), and no "enabling act" rammed through a GOP Congress can ever change that. Fuhrer Trump would find the big cities where one MAGA hat can start a fight to be utterly ungovernable
It was in big cities in Summer 2019 that Trumps "family operation" pogrom to round of thousands of migrants was shut down. This was a clear example of Trump's inability to impose his agenda on densely populated cities and a prototype for future resistance.
Trumps "Family Operation" was not stopped by a bill passed in the House of Representatives and then by the Senate. It was not stopped by the US Supreme Court. Instead of people "speaking truth to power" to beg for one of these outcomes, people "spoke power to oppression" and directly fought ICE's roundups by whatever means they found necessary. Patrols of activists with cameras and communications gear roamed the streets searching for signs of ICE vehicles when reports came in deportations were to be attempted in any city. Few ICE vehicles were ever found, the fury after Trump publicly announced his plans to round up thousands of migrant familes instead seemed to drive ICE off the streets. Churches opened their doors to migrants needing sanctuary from ICE's racial purity police, while demonstrators marched in the streets and snarled shopping traffic. Week after week the roundups were delayed. As this went on, ICE agents were doxxed and the public vented their fury at Trump's Gestapo agents in person. Finally Van Spronson launched his pre-emptive strike against a single ICE detention facility's fleet of busses, sacrificing his life but halting the roundups for the final time. The people of the big cities have proven they can take on Trump's fascist agenda head-to-head and win. Impeachment may have failed, but so did Trump's family deportation plan. Things are going to get rough in 2020, but we've already proven we can win!
