The Inaugural Parade route where I got stuck with Trump supporters
On Inauguration Day, I got trapped behind a barricade and ended up watching the parade with what few Trump supporters there were. This was a scary experience for me, and I think I learned some things that we all need to know. Here is the story of how I spent the Inauguration.
I got stuck behind an unexpected barrier.
My husband, sister-in-law and I went down to the ACTION Network’s protest which was at the Navy Memorial near 7th and Pennsylvania, right on the parade route. We got there much earlier than we needed, given the paucity of Trump supporters we saw.
About 10:15, I decided to stretch my legs and walked the parade route, which was completely open. I was surprised at the time by how few people there were. I later learned that walk-up tickets to The Mall were available for anyone who wanted one, so that’s where all the Trump supporters were.
I turned around to go back, and found that the parade route was closed at 6th Street. The only way to get back would have been to exit the secured area completely and then try to re-enter. I called my companions, and we agreed that it was less risky for me to stay where I was.
To give them credit, the Virginia police responsible for this part of the route were courteous, honest about what they knew, and sympathetic to our frustration at being cut off from our friends.
I was mostly alone for the ceremony.
Most of the people around me just decided to leave altogether. So at 12:01, I was completely alone except for a few other protesters who’d also been separated from the main group and of course, the lines of police and military. I’m the praying type, so I was praying the Rosary at the barricade and I managed to time it so that I was in the middle of “Hail Holy Queen” at the moment of handover: “To you, we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. . .”
Then we waited, and I talked to a man with Stage 3 cancer, insured by the ACA. If he loses it and has to discontinue his chemotherapy, he’s probably dead in a year. He told me he had been stockpiling drugs for suicide if he does get cut off. What could I say, except “I’m so sorry” and “Please make sure that your congressperson and your local news media knows your story.”
Then Trump’s supporters showed up.
After the ceremony was over, during the Congressional lunch, the Trump supporters moved from The Mall onto the parade route. Some didn’t stay - they just walked right on through and out. But others moved onto the parade route and I found myself in a clump of about twenty people with Trump paraphernalia. I was with them for maybe an hour before the parade started, and they assumed that I was one of them, so they talked pretty freely.
As a white woman with no identifying marks of my politics, I never felt afraid for my personal security in the moment, but the things they said chilled me to the bone. It was immediately clear that these people, probably the most “true believers” around, don’t get their information from any source I could recognize.
They believe Trump when he says that he’ll fix everything, that he’ll put America first. They don’t understand why the Putin connection is a big deal. As they warmed up they became more jubilant about “what was coming” for “illegals” and Muslims. Oh, and yes, they don’t trust mainstream media at all: “They all lie.” “They were all in Hillary’s pocket and we won anyway.” “I stopped watching them years ago.”
At one point, one of the women who was there by herself decided I was her new friend. It was a surreal conversation. Her: “There’s definitely going to be some big changes now.” Me: “Yes, probably.” Her: “We destroyed the Democrats.” Me: “Well, they’re still pretty strong in my state.”
After I was able to tell her who Chuck Schumer was and why he spoke during the ceremony (“I don’t know why they let him speak.”) She decided I was the “smart one” and asked me several more questions about Congress, that I answered with facts she’d never heard. I admit that was more than a little gratifying.
When the first reports came out about the lackluster attendance, they immediately assumed the media was lying: “We were packed in like sardines. I couldn’t even move” not realizing that yes, the organizers had packed people into the front sections so that they could get that one tight shot that showed a lot of people, and so that Trump saw crowds instead of emptiness. They couldn’t see the empty sections behind them that were so apparent on the aerial photographs. I’m sure they agreed with Trump that the media had lied, even though they could see with their own eyes that the parade route was empty.
I don’t know how we’re going to reach these people or even if it’s possible.
But as the parade got closer, the protest group down the street started chanting louder, so that we could hear them. That bothered the people around me - a lot. One guy tried to get our crowd to chant “Lock them up!” but there weren’t enough people joining in (or who could have joined in) so he gave up.
But as the chants continued, they began saying things that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up: “Why aren’t they arresting them (the protesters?)” At that point, I started saying things like, “They have a permit. They have the legal right to do this. Nobody there’s going to be arrested.”
“Why did they give them a permit?” “How disrespectful!” “If it’s not illegal it should be.” “Why doesn’t the police do anything?” At one point, police went by with sirens blaring, probably heading over to the trouble that was happening without a permit, a few blocks over and the chanting stopped for a few minutes. “Oh, I bet they’re going to get arrested now.” But then the chanting started up again. “WHY are they letting it go on?” “Is Trump going to have to see this?” “They should get rid of them so he doesn’t have to see them.”
The view behind me during this encounter with Trump supporters
Me: “That’s the idea.” “That’s why they’re on the parade route.” “As long as they’re peaceful the police can’t do anything.”
Them: “They’re not being peaceful!” “They’re being so disrespectful!” “They’re saying awful stuff that shouldn’t be allowed!” The good news is that the protesters seemed to ruin the parade for them because they COULD NOT LET IT GO.
The bad news is that these people are perfectly comfortable with the types of oppression that are more at home in 3rd world kleptocracies. They are not afraid of Putin’s influence over Trump - they embrace it. If Trump decided to overtake and close CNN at gunpoint, they’d cheer.
The irony of all of this: we were in front of the Newseum, which has the First Amendment engraved on the building.
They’ve come to believe that any dissent at all is civil disorder.
There was a small riot in DC, perpetrated by some stupid anarchists who don’t realize (or maybe realize all too well) that they just play into Trump’s hands when they destroy property and throw things at police. Of course the people around me conflated the peaceful protests along the parade route with the not-so-peaceful ones elsewhere. But I felt gratified every time I heard the chanting, knowing that the Trump supporters could see, as I could, that the police were professional and respectful to everyone.
Then on Saturday, we had the massive marches in DC, and in red and blue states alike. No one got arrested. If there were any provocateurs, they were ignored. It’s likely that some of the people I was with stayed over on Saturday to do some sightseeing - if so, there’s no way they could have avoided the hordes of pink pussy hats that were everywhere in DC. If not, they might have seen people in the airport as they left, or perhaps the protesters in their own home towns.
I’m quite sure they didn’t see pictures of the protests on the news sites that they follow, or if they did, that it was either downplayed or written up as a bunch of disorderly rioters. If their state legislators attempt to outlaw protests, they will cheer at the “renewal of respect.” If it was up to them, Trump would never have to see another protester again. So we can expect “free speech zones” that are in outer Siberia.
There is only one way to prevent this: we have to normalize peaceful protests.
We need small-scale peaceful protests every week, in as many places as we can. We need to understand what small-scale things we can do without a permit, and we need to make sure that there is a continuous stream of requests for permits for bigger stuff. We need an #IndivisibleTeam equivalent to organize regular opportunities for us to make our voices heard.
We need to make sure that these protests are safe for the newcomers amongst us with training and good security, that we reject any attempts to provoke violence or ineffective ad hoc civil disobedience, that we use these events to build relationships with people in city and state government who are supposed to be safeguarding our rights.
But mainly we need to follow the strategy that’s worked over and over again to move us forward: when it’s my sister, my mother, my aunt, my friend, my coworker who is out there holding a sign in front of the Federal Building, it’s much harder to think about putting that person in jail for just standing there with a sign.
Finally, a few people have pointed out that it’s likely that the police treated the mainly white Women’s March protesters differently than they would if it had been 500,000 African Americans or Muslims. That’s almost certainly true. And it seems to me like one way we white people can exercise our privilege for the good: use it to go out on the street and speak up for and alongside those who make easier targets.
