Louisiana Voice

By Jerel Giarrusso (aka Earthmother), Guest Columnist

The enemy within:

Four years ago, at the close of the Obama administration, and after the shocking election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, a significant number of people, women in particular, were angry and rattled at the results of a free and fair election. The idea took hold of showing the world our disgust at the election of such an unfit and unqualified individual by gathering in Washington, DC the day after inauguration for a peaceful demonstration – the Women’s March on Washington. The moment we heard about the planned march on the news, I knew I had to go.  

Three of us decided to go together. One woman’s daughter, an attorney living in Washington, invited us to stay with her for the march. So, we three, ages 55, 65 and 75, flew to DC, and we joined with over a half million women, men and children, of all demographics, filling the streets with a sea of humanity that flowed down Independence Avenue and filled the National Mall.  Thousands wore pink “pussy hats” that were individually knitted, crocheted or sewn by hand, traditional womanly arts. The hats, designed to keep heads warm in the cold, have little kitty cat ears on the top corners, to defuse the nasty term trump had used in his infamous “grab them by the pussy” tape. We were right in the middle of it all, witness to the signs held aloft, the chants and songs, women pushing baby strollers, everyone looking out for one another in solidarity and peaceful protest.   

There were no arrests related to the march in Washington that day. Metro police were out in force, with police units parked along the route, and mounted police were present as well.  The cops engaged marchers in good natured conversation, and allowed people to pet their horses.  It was a beautiful example of women and men engaging in their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble, not to be forgotten.

Some observations:

#1. Midmorning on Inauguration Day, we went to visit Mount Vernon, home of George and Martha Washington.  The route, a raised highway, overlooked the site of the inauguration, which we could see clearly, and which, interestingly, was practically bare of people. Certainly not the horde that trump later insisted had witnessed his big day, one of the first of his big lies. We were there.  A big crowd for him was not.

#2.  Despite the claims by lots of trump-loving conservatives that George Soros, a wealthy donor to many liberal causes, paid for the Women’s March, I can state for the record that the three of us who attended paid our own way.  We’re all still waiting for that $2000 check from Soros.

Fast forward to January 2021, at the close of the disastrous trump administration, and after Joe Biden’s win in another free and fair election.  The young Washington lawyer who hosted us for the march four years ago is now an overworked, seasoned election law attorney who has helped to protect people’s right to vote by successfully arguing voter suppression cases all over the nation, and helped to win case after case brought by trump and his minions in efforts to overturn the presidential election. (See Louisiana Voice, December 6, 2020)  The Big Lie, that somehow a coalition of Democrats, Republican election officials and secretaries of state, THE MEDIA, and other unidentified villains, had colluded to “steal” the election from trump, was invented by trump and bought into by millions of deluded trump cultists and a significant number of Republicans in Congress.  The Big Lie has been debunked about 60 times in state and federal courts and the Supreme Court declined to give it oxygen. 

Despite a lack of any credible evidence, a significant number of Americans continue to believe the Big Lie.  At the invitation of the failed president, the idea for a protest in Washington, DC took hold, where another attempt to overturn the election would take place.  In contrast to the peaceful Women’s March, this time an apparently long-planned violent attempted coup d’etat took place, when a horde of men and women besieged the US Capitol where the joint houses of Congress were meeting for a formal count of electoral votes and declaration of Joe Biden as the next president.  The domestic terrorists attacked law enforcement officers, severely injuring many, and literally beat one officer to death. The lives of the sitting vice president and members of Congress were endangered by a howling mob, many wearing red caps mass produced in China, that signified allegiance to a lawless president.  The nation and the world were transfixed, watching the insurgents defile the halls of Congress on live TV.  It was a destructive and deadly attempt to impose the will of the minority on the country, so poorly thought out by trump and the leaders of the coup attempt, that they never considered the end game. They could have murdered the vice president and members of Congress and forced any survivors to declare trump president for another term, or for life, an unlawful declaration that would never stand.  The mob finally moseyed out of the Capitol, unhindered and un-arrested by law enforcement. 

And yet a significant number of Congress members are still supporting trump and the Big Lie, and have voted to overturn the election in a blatant act of sedition.

Reports are trickling out about fundraising efforts that some insurgents used to finance their travel.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/us/capitol-riot-funding.html?referringSource=articleShare   AmazonSmile and PayPal were used. Some use a Christian fundraising site called GiveSendGo. (Check it out online, GiveSendGo – : The #1 Free Christian Fundraising Site.  the site has raised $585,000 for the legal defense of Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with killing two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Read the comments praising him for killing people.)  Federal authorities are investigating a $522,000 bitcoin transfer originating in France that was funneled to several American alt-right groups and individuals. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/500k-bitcoin-sent-france-us-162934545.html#  In contrast to women paying our way, many of the insurgents had to beg for travel money.

US intelligence services and law enforcement are on high alert for a repeat performance by an armed mob on inauguration day. So instead of going to Washington to watch the legally elected president swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and our country, we will watch the event on tv. 

But the most shocking fact is that the nation’s capital is a city under siege. Washington, DC is practically on lockdown, with thousands of National Guard troops in the Capitol and on the streets. Barricades and tall fences and walls have been erected all over the capitol complex to prevent a mob from storming the seat of government once again.  Our beautiful capital city looks like a Third World city under siege by enemies.

But here’s the thing: the enemy threatening our democracy and the safety of our elected officials is not a malign foreign power.  The National Guard has been called in and defenses have been erected to defend against a cohort of our own people – American citizens who believe trump’s big lie, and who love violence, who have stockpiled weapons, and who think their wishes take precedence over the will of the majority.  People who think they can invalidate the votes and the wishes of other American citizens and impose their will by force. People who say they are angry (at what?) and want to be heard.  

The USA has always settled political differences at the ballot box, not at the point of a gun.  Until now.  We don’t lock up political dissidents in this country. At least, we never have in the past.  But what do we do with people who refuse to accept a legally elected president and promise sustained violence and unrest in order to have their way?  Some will be arrested, tried, convicted and jailed.  The US will have its first political prisoners, thanks to a malignant narcissist and his deluded, brainwashed followers, who have together laid waste to our government, destroyed confidence in our traditions and institutions and refuse to accept that trump is not a god-emperor. 

A lot of the trumpians are hoping for a second civil war.  Whether or not we end up with a sustained armed insurrection, the uncivil war has already begun.  People are lining up politically, drawing lines at who they will and will not tolerate and speak to, depending on who they support politically.  Though trump will leave the White House for good on January 20, his malignant stench will poison our land for some time to come.