By Brooke Lynch
Over the past few weeks, the country and world have seen the extent to which the supporters of our former commander in chief will go to voice their support. We all watched in horror on January 6th as the president, along with others such as Rudy Guliani, and his son, Donald Trump Jr, egged on a mob of Trump supporters to storm the United States capitol. And they did. With little to no resistance, the supporters of our former president stormed the capitol, took what they wanted, vandalized the building, and threatened the lives of both the senators and our systems. Our democracy was threatened, people lost their lives, and fascists were emboldened.
While some have seen the consequences of their actions, such as losing their jobs or being arrested, many have not. This is in stark contrast to the hundreds or even thousands of BIPOC who either lost their lives or were arrested after protesting the unlawful and unchecked killings of BIPOC by the police forces this summer. But the protests have not been limited to our nation’s capital.
According to The Olympian, on the same day, Trump supporters stormed into the Washington State Capital and broke down the gates of the governor’s mansion. The group was there supposedly to force the Washington State Legislators to reject the counted ballots of the United States Presidential Election that was held back in early November. As the day went on, the crowd got more and more aggressive, with chants of “Open Up!” being heard. This led to the group pushing through and breaking down the gate to the Governor’s Mansion around 3:00. But their protest across the gate did not last long, as by 3:30 the crowd had been moved back behind the gate. According to State Patrol Sergeant Darren Wright, instead of using the “non lethal” munitions, such as tear gas, that had been used on peaceful BLM protests throughout the last year, the Trump supporters were merely talked into leaving the premises. Multiple rallies had been planned for the day such as the “Operation Occupy the Capital/MAGA Rally at the Capitol,” which had been planned in not only Olympia but across the nation. Others were branded with names like “Stop the Steal” and “Speak Truth,” the latter of which was branded as a response to Trump’s call to action. One of these protests had Joey Gibson as a speaker, a leader of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, who rallied the group around false claims of election fraud and pandemic restrictions. This led one member of the crowd to yell, “This is war!” It was hard to tell if the crowd agreed or disagreed.
This wasn’t the only far right protest that Olympia has seen recently, as the following Sunday, the 10th, more pro-Trump protestors gathered in Olympia to protest various issues such as vaccines, the closing of the legislature, or just to show their support of former president Donald Trump. An armed protest organized by Tyler Miller of the far-right group Hazardous Liberty had been planned but was canceled Wednesday. Miller made a post on Facebook: “Due to our Political leaders being non-responsive and the 100% likelihood that our event will be hijacked by people with ulterior motives, we have decided to cancel the Legislative Lockout event.” He did however voice his support for other rallies saying, “Please support the other rallies that are happening in and around Olympia this weekend and coming week.” The meeting was reportedly non-violent, with people leaving around 3PM, the same time at which the protest on the 6th reportedly got violent. Earlier in the week, the Governor had authorized the use of 750 members of the National Guard along with the Olympia police to protect the State Legislature, which started the next day.
Some would point out the disparities between the way the Washington politicians have responded to the far-right rallies in contrast to the way they responded to the Black Lives Matter protests of the last year; the way it took days after the groups broke past barriers for extensive police forces to be called in, even when armed demonstrations were both planned and occurred. The Governor has denounced these protests, but some may wonder if he is doing enough. Actions speak louder than words, how can we fight for social justice if we have a Governor who says he supports us but does less to fight off fascists than he does to suppress the voices of minorities?
