Last weekend, Washington, D.C. was the locus of celebrations marking the transfer of presidential power from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. The traditional ceremonies—from the swearing-in and the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue to the plethora of balls and galas—coincided with events such as the “Deploraball,” organized by members of the racist, sexist, far-right coalition that calls itself the “alt-right” and that threw its wholehearted support behind Trump. Hats bearing the slogan “Make America Great Again” were a common sight throughout the city, as were blue scarves bearing the name “Trump” in white at each end.

In addition to those grim scenes, the city also played host to myriad protests running the gamut in terms of size, politics, and tactics. A few hundred people gathered to protest the Deploraball on Thursday night, lining up opposite police who used chemical spray on them throughout the evening. There was a sizeable anti-fascist contingent there and at protests the next day; more than a few “Antifaschistiche Aktion” flags, as well as those of various socialist and even communist organizations, could be seen rippling in the breeze throughout the weekend.

A sign at the protest outside the “Deploraball.”

One Trump supporter got into a skirmish with antifa protesters at the Deploraball, instantly drawing a huge crowd of cameras and reporters. It was a fitting prelude to the punch seen ‘round the world, when alt-right leader Richard Spencer—who, despite claiming not to be a neo-Nazi, supports a white ethno-state, has advocated forced sterilization and yelled “Hail Trump” at a conference in late 2016, leading several attendees to do the Nazi salute—was hit in the ear by a masked protester on Friday. Debates are now ongoing regarding the ethics of punching fascists, but if the goal is to stop them from feeling comfortable parading their ideology in public, it appears to have done its job.

On Inauguration Day, several groups, from Black Lives Matter to NoDAPL anti-pipeline activists, formed blockades at checkpoints along the inaugural parade’s route and attempted—in many cases successfully—to prevent Trump supporters from getting through. The anti-war and anti-racist ANSWER Coalition convened as early as 6 a.m. to get protesters onto the parade route. A number of marches converged at McPherson Square for a rally. A group of black bloc protesters engaged in limited property destruction of corporate windows, MAGA hats and, most memorably, an empty limousine; the response from police was aggressive. Flash-bang grenades and chemical irritants were deployed liberally. A group of 222 protesters, legal observers, journalists, and bystanders were kettled and detained, according to the National Lawyers Guild. They are being charged with felony riot, which carries a possible 10-year sentence.

Police line up around a group of detained protesters.

The Women’s March on Washington, the most-publicized protest, drew more than half a million people as well as huge crowds to “sister marches,” with a low estimate counting around 3.6 million in attendance globally on January 21. Easily the largest demonstration of the weekend, the women’s march was also the least overtly political. Many attendees seemed focused on general messages of gender equality and supporting women’s rights without necessarily having considered how best to do that, or what that might mean for women with various intersecting identities. Pink “pussy hats” were everywhere, as were signs that promoted a strictly cisnormative idea of womanhood, and messages from white women thanking police for keeping the peace at the protest pointed to a failure on their part to understand the antagonistic role police play in many women’s lives and in the protests that happened less than 24 hours prior.

It’s unclear if the oppositional energy on display will be effectively harnessed by organizations prepared to push legislators, elect their own candidates and provide alternative means for survival in the meantime, but there are promising signs. The Democratic Socialists of America, billed as the States’ largest socialist organization, has seen its membership skyrocket, and a call-in campaign early in the year led the Republican Party to reverse its decision to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics.

***

What can we in Canada take from the D.C. protests? Aside from the fuzzy feeling of attending one of the various women’s marches across our fair country, there must be something from this moment of great unrest we can apply to our own political circumstances.

At an event held by Jacobin magazine on January 20 in D.C. titled the “Anti-Inauguration,” journalist Anand Gopal stressed the importance of resisting not just Trump, but “the system that makes Trump possible.” In other words, the failed economic policies that have decimated unions, encouraged stratospheric wealth inequality, promoted corporate gluttony at the expense of the climate and of workers; a foreign policy that patrols other countries with unmanned execution robots, that spies on foreigners and citizens alike, that eats up trillions of dollars without making anyone in the world safer; domestic approaches to policing and housing that disproportionately affect racialized and particularly Black people; and a nightmarish immigration policy that sees families broken up or held in detention.

These are aspects of the dominant agenda of both political parties in the U.S., and as the speakers last Friday night noted, this agenda has failed people to such a degree that they have by and large abandoned hope in the political process. In 2016, as barely half of all eligible American voters cast a ballot, just enough in the right states latched onto a destructive strongman whose promises to help are empty but whose threats to hurt are already being fulfilled.

That agenda exists in Canada as well. As with most comparisons between the two countries, it warrants saying that the situation here is less stark in most cases. Canada fought in Afghanistan but not Iraq; we are part of the Five Eyes spy alliance, but didn’t mastermind the NSA’s intrusion into lives all over the world. We have health care, and a social safety net, even if they’re underfunded. The wealthiest one percent of Canadians took in 10.3 percent of all income in 2013, according to Statistics Canada, while economist Emmanuel Saez calculates that the top one percent of American families took in 58 percent of all income from 2008 to 2014.

But Trudeau’s plans for the “middle class and those working hard to enter it,” his pet phrase for the Canadians deserving of the government’s help, are smoke and mirrors. His party appears to understand that people are unhappy with the existing political order, and are expressing such in the votes for Brexit and Trump, but so far they are unwilling to distance themselves from it in anything other than rhetoric.

We saw a huge presence in Canadian cities on January 21 to protest Trump’s inauguration, but there hasn’t been nearly the same response nationwide to the neoliberal agenda put forth in our country. It’s true that Trump presents a unique and immediate threat to the U.S. and the world, through embracing disastrous environmental practices and the fear of an international conflict instigated by his erratic and bombastic behaviour. He is a uniquely hideous figure in almost every possible understanding of the word. His long and storied history of sexual misconduct, which includes several allegations of assault and harassment and him bragging on tape about assaulting women, certainly provided a focus of protest for women who may not otherwise be drawn to politics.

Heeding Gopal’s words means understanding that the same conditions exist to create widespread malaise and dissatisfaction in Canada. They’re not as advanced, to be sure, but we already have a test of our liberal democratic values on the horizon: Kellie Leitch and her advisors have made the calculation that the best way to win the Conservative nomination is to adopt anti-immigrant xenophobia like Trump. Bizarrely, she’s even begun to tweet like him. Whether her attempt at rabble-rousing will succeed is another matter; it seems unlikely without at least a patina of economic populism and charm, both elements she’s lacking.

Canada is not yet at the point America reached before it elected Trump, but we would be wise to be aware of what might lie ahead. The tide appears to be turning in one country after another away from the neoliberal order, and at present, the far right is the only group in most countries offering anything remotely appealing to the average working person. Now is the time for the left to throw itself into resistance, organizing and offering a full and positive alternative to the politics of austerity and division. An alternative that includes the entire working class, that sees identity and class as a “both/and” rather than an “either/or” proposition. We are in a moment of flux, one in which Friedrich Engel’s call to “transition to socialism or [regress] into barbarism” rings truer than it has in decades. One advantage in Canada is that, if the left is able to rise to the occasion now, we might do so before electing our own barbarian.

[Editor’s note: Back in May, we ran another postcard from Washington, D.C., sent to us by Travis Boisvenue, who went to interview Tea Party supporters. Eve Tobolka made the trek this time to witness the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear.]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Glenn Beck was at Saturday’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Or at least if felt like he was. In August, the Fox News conservative commentator led a big religious themed rally aptly named “Restoring Honor,” where thousands flooded the Lincoln Memorial to hear Beck demonize socialism and preach ultraconservative ideals. It was obvious that not only was he being heard, but that people were listening and supporting.

Last weekend, Comedy Central satirists Stephen Colbert and John Stewart held a rally of their own, Stewart and sanity vs. Colbert and fear. The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was like a big politically themed Halloween party, and everyone got the message. However, the target wasn’t a political party nor was there mention to support any one in particular. It was “the country’s 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator,” said Stewart, “did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder.”

When Stewart said this at the end of the rally and on a more serious note, I couldn’t hear him. Well over 200,000 people showed up and only 1/3 could hear and see the show in its entirety. Sure, I would have loved not having to whisper to my neighbour for additional commentary to avoid being politely (and understandably) shushed, but it didn’t bother me, or the people further back. Rallygoers seemed to understand that just being there en masse showed the rest of the country and the world that there could be other voices than those who support Beck. “Your presence is what I wanted,” Stewart stated simply. The rally would be judged by its “size and colour.”

Today, Americans are voting in their midterm elections, and after this weekend, there’s slightly more hope that people are looking beyond Fox News sensationalism. Maybe.

Photo Gallery

All photos by Eve Tobolka

“I’m Canadian.”

This became my opening for every interview at the tax day Tea Party rally at the Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC.

It seemed like the best way to distance myself from the camera crews and journalists who were swarming the interesting or outrageous among the two-to-three thousand ralliers.

“I’m Canadian and I just want to know what’s happening today,” I would explain. And It was true. I went to the rally because I really don’t understand what’s happening in the United States today. I read blogs, watch the news, and catch Daily Show highlights like anyone else, but it doesn’t capture the sometimes hopeful, sometimes intimidating, always ethereal sense of change happening in America.

I went to the Tea Party not to judge anyone or enforce misconceptions, but to try to figure out what is mobilizing people from across the country to take part in an undeniably influential grassroots movement.

What I learned first was that most of these people were skeptical of the media. They eyed me, recorder and camera in hand, with suspicion. Those who were talkative often used the interview as a platform to expose whatever bias they thought I had.

Those who were interested in talking talked a lot. Tom, for example, approached me and the people I was with seemingly out of the blue, and took a great interest in whether or not we were Jewish.

Once Rick and Sharon started talking, they had a lot to say. They commandeered the interview to interrogate me about the quality of Canadian health care.

Carolyn and Ryan, two of the few students at the rally, seemed reasonable, even if our politics don’t match up. And like the few young people I spoke with, stressed that there were a lot of young people present

Another important lesson I learned was that the “Fair Tax” movement is not the same as “Tea Party” movement. Fair Tax might organize Tea Party events, but, as Jabari explained, the two aren’t synonymous.

I tried to be as non-judgmental as possible and to allow the interviewees to speak for themselves. The question I most wanted an answer to was, “why are you here?” Here are some of their answers:

Caroline

Caroline from Arlington, Virginia

What brings you out here today?

I’m a conservative. I once was a Democrat, but the Democratic party was once conservative, too. It was once pro-life. And then I was a Reagan Democrat for years, and worked for Pat Buchanan–he’s a great conservative. I believe in following the constitution; small government; and right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–life number one. That is our most troubling issue. Three thousand, one hundred children will be killed today by abortion. Today. More than died on 9/11, died of abortion in the United States. That is such a huge problem. And the Democratic party is supporting it. It’s disgraceful. So that’s my number-one issue.

And I also believe in subsidiarity, distributes, small government. If it can be done in the family, it should be done in the family. If it can be done in the county level or the city level, do it there. If it needs to go to the state–and some things do–there. And the federal government is supposed to have a military to defend us, and not a whole heck-of-a-lot more. And we’ve just gone farther, and farther, and farther, and of course we have this terrific debt. And I’m upset that George Bush was involved in spending more money than he should have, although he has so much in the plus column. So supportive of the pro-life community. So you see how I got where I am.

And you look around here and you see authentic people. You see hand-made signs that tear your heart out. And you look at the protestors [that protest the Tea Party supporters] going by, I see them–I pray at Planned Parenthood five days a week–I see them at Capital Hill demonstrating. But they have signs that somebody handed them, and then they all leave at the same time because they’re all told to go. Their bosses told them to go, “You must go to the demonstration.”

Did anybody tell these people to go? No. This is not an engineered crowd. And a lot of us are saying, “Where do we meet? Is it 11? Is it six?” We’re trying to find out where to go, when.

Where do you get that kind of information?

Well, I got some in the Washington Times yesterday. And then on Fox news this morning they talked about [it].

It’s so authentic. It’s so real. It’s so American. These people here. [A man walks by, one of the many vendors selling flags an buttons, Caroline points at him] Now, he’s selling flags. He’s in business. He’s a small business man, God love him. So he’s here trying to earn money today, and that’s good. That’s good. That’s good. We love that!

We’re authentic. We’re for real.

Do you agree with everything the tea party believes in?

We don’t have a list of things we believe in. There is no membership card, there are no dues. It’s just people getting together. If I came down here and I saw something and I heard something I don’t like, I’d just leave. You look around and people are saying, “God bless you, I love you. What’s your first name? Where are you from?”

This is authentic. These are real people. They’re precious! And you’re precious. And I love you, and God loves you […] look around. Look around. This didn’t happen by a big bang or by accident. There was a cause, that always was, and always will be. And most of us call that cause God, call it whatever you like. But it’s… It’s… God. God love you, sweetheart.

Jabari and Marilyn

Jabari Zakiya, Washington, DC
Marilyn Rickert, Oak Forest, IL

A lot of people are talking about “authentic Americans” here today. Do you think the people here are “authentic Americans”?

Marilyn: Yeah, we’re all volunteers, we all pay our own way, nobody gets a salary, we have basically a nation-wide grassroots organization and there is maybe a handful of people that actually collect any kind of a salary at all.

Jabari: Well, you have to define. If authentic means “real”, then yeah, they’re real, but there is all levels of real. I mean, I don’t consider myself a tea party person, but there are elements of their concerns I agree with. I don’t agree with 100% of the political stuff. But one of the things that makes America America is that we can have all kinds of diversity in thought, but we can come together around a lot of common interests. I mean, the most right-wing person and I can cheer for the same sports teams, you know? And in the same way, that’s what our movement is about. We have a lot of different people from a lot of different movements with a lot of different ideologies, but we all agree on the fair tax. Even the tea party people that don’t agree 100% that the fair tax is the way, we’re trying to convince them that the reform is the fair tax.

Carolyn and Ryan

Carolyn Bolls from Washington, DC and Ryan Gilroy

Why are you here today?

Carolyn: Well, basically we’re sick of our government spending our money. We’re spending more to save more, that doesn’t make sense to us. We’re protesting this big government control of our country. We don’t want to end up with the government controlling every sector of our lives. It’s not just about taxes, it’s about government control of our personal lives.

Ryan: We’re tired of watching government spend, spend, spend. Honestly, both parties are spending so much money, they don’t realize that they’re stealing jobs away, they’re stealing our generation’s wealth. They’re robbing Peter, who isn’t even born yet, to pay Paul now.

Do you think anything like that was happening with the last generation?

Carolyn: I think it’s cyclical. I mean, we have elections, that’s why we have a democratic republic, we will be able to voice our opinions on November 2nd. That’s when we get to change, and I hope that’s the change that our country needs.

Ryan: It seems like we need it more than ever. The Republicans had control from 2000-2006 with a Republican congress, a Republican senate, and a Republican President. You figure taxes would go down. But no, it got ratcheted up even higher. That’s the problem: people want to be in power, so they try to get votes. They pass projects and say, “Hey look! If you help me get my vote, I’ll get your vote.”

Carolyn: Even with the last administration, with the George Bush administration, he spent–you know, No Child Left Behind, you had all these federal programs, the bailouts towards the end of his term as President. I don’t support that either. You know, I call myself a Republican, but I’m a Conservative first, and Conservative also insures fiscal responsibility.

Ryan: And also, you realize Medicare Part D is the tip of the iceberg. Then you got Obama and healthcare, which is putting another thing on top of another thing, and realizing […] it’s bi-partisan. Most people would hate to say, “oh, it’s the Democrats”. No, it’s both parties [that] like to spend a lot.

Are you proud to be representing young people with your politics? Do you think there should be more young people here today?

Ryan: I think there’s a lot of young people here. Look around you. there’s plenty of young people behind you. I think it’s a good mixture of everything, young, old, everything in between.

Carolyn: I agree, but I think those that care the most are the ones who are paying taxes, and so that will generally attract an older population. I’m definitely proud to be here. My generation has to stand up and speak for ourselves otherwise we’ll be in debt for the rest of our lives, and for the lives our children, and children after that.

Tom

Tom Wallin from Springfield, Illinois.

What religion are you?

I was baptized Anglican.

I’m just curious. I thought you might have been Jewish, and if you were I was wondering: do you support Obama or the people here?

Well, I can’t vote here—

I mean, but who would you support?

I don’t know, I don’t have all the information. I don’t live here.

Do you have a point of view on this event today?

I’m here because I’m asking people about their points of view.

Well I want to know who you are first, because you might distort what I have to say. I rode here 800 miles on my motorcycle to be part of it.

What kind of motorcycle?

A Yamaha FJR 1300. Yup.

Very nice.

It is. I hit a construction barrel coming in the other day, and it went off my bike like a ping pong, or a bowling pin.

Holy cow. So why are you here today?

I’m here because I think the government is out of control. I think it’s taking our tax money. And I think a lot of the stuff it’s doing is unconstitutional. I think they are ruining our medical system by changing something that was probably the best. [In the] the country there’s just a small number of people that needed to be insured. And they didn’t do things that would really cut costs.

I think president Bush–I love president Bush for many things that he did–but he was trying to befriend liberals, and he spent way too much money, and I think that made his government a toss up on whether he should go on Mount Rushmore or not. I think what he did to fight enemies of ours country, I think he should be respected like a Mr. Rushmore president. I mean, for eight years he fought against people trying to make him look bad. From the very, very beginning, the people that were trying to take over tried to make him look bad. And he didn’t have the courage to say “no” to the big spenders. But I think he’s a good, honest man, and I loved him for what he was, and I think the people who say he was dumb were just absolutely wrong. He was a very smart man. He’s countrified a little bit like I am, but that doesn’t mean he was dumb, that means that he didn’t appear to people like we used to establish-mentize.

What would you say to someone who wants to understand what’s happening in America right now?

It’s kind of like if you want to ask a motorcycle rider why he likes to ride a motorcycle. If you have to ask, you won’t figure it out.

I mean, this is the greatest country on Earth, and what they’re doing is just going to take it away. You know, you how to ruin a great country? You spend it to death. You know, people like Saul Alinsky, people that Obama likes to quote, all of his crowd, I mean–look at his friends. I don’t know who these young men were that were with you, but they were nice respectful guys. I don’t know what they do in their personal lives, but if they were anything like Obama’s friends, you would run for the hills, buddy. You would run for the hills, because his friends are evil. Reverend Knight, I mean, there’s the catholic priest…

What did you think of us when you saw us? You seemed really eager to talk to us.

I wanted to talk to you because, I wanted to ask—and I love Jews, Jewish country, Israel, I just totally respect [Benjamin] Netanyahu and everything he stands for—I wanted to ask you a question: how could you support Obama if you were Jewish? Because, 95% of American jews support Obama, and that’s one of the greatest things I don’t understand about this country.

Richard and Sharon

Richard and Sharon from Michigan

Richard: Do you like your healthcare up there? Have you ever used it?

Yeah.

Richard: Have you ever used it?

Yeah, of course. I mean, I’ve never had trouble with it. I’ve never been seriously ill, so I’m very thankful for that.

Richard: Well that’s a good thing.

We were in England in October. I came down with a kidney infection. And I got into their health system. And if Canadian health system is anything like English, you don’t want it.

I went into the emergency room, and the guy says, “oh I got some drugs that will do away with this.” Because we wrote on the little slip that I was passing blood in my urine. [He] never checked me one bit. Just read that little note that I wrote, or she wrote, on my admit.

Sharon: Didn’t check his vitals.

Richard: And he went to get the drugs and he came back and said, “It’s going to be a couple of minutes.” I said, “Well what about my fever?” And he says, “I’ll go see about the drugs.” Then he came back, to check my [temperature].

As soon as he checked that, he said, “Oh everything changed.” And they put me in the hospital. But he was going to let me go home, with a 100, 102 temperature without giving me anything for it.

Sharon: And he was supposed to be drinking water. They told him he was supposed to drink a whole lot of water while he was there. And the nurses would say they’d bring it when he’d ask them, and they never brought it. I’d have to go get it for him. That’s our only experience with government health care. That’s why we’re not happy.

Is that the reason you guys are here today?

Sharon: Well, we don’t like the spending.

Richard: We’re from Michigan. We don’t like the spending. We’re both—I’m retired, she never worked—

Sharon: [laughs] Well, thank you!

Richard: —well, outside, you know.

We have two kids. No grandkids. And we sit here, thankful, that we don’t have grandkids. Because of the debt that we’re putting onto our grandkids.

Do you think previous generations have left that kind of legacy?

Sharon: I think each generation has done better for a while now.

Richard: I think that after the war, we had such a baby boom that we could take care of our folks. But there’s too many of us now to put that debt onto our kids, you know? This year there’s less money coming in for social security than going out.

Do you think this will change things? The people here today?

Richard: Let’s hope.

Sharon: Well I think you gotta speak up and try. That’s why we’re here.

Richard: You got to try to stop it. I mean, look how much the government spent this year already, and last year.

Sharon: We’ve written to our congressman and the like. You know, doing what you can. There’s only so much you can do.

Has any other issue brought you to rally like this?

Sharon: a lot of the people here, it’s the same thing. They haven’t done this kind of thing before.

Richard: Back years ago we was too busy making a living. You know, going to work five, six days a week. Didn’t have time to do this kind of stuff.

Sharon: This is the fifth one we’ve been to. We went to two in Jackson, two in Lansing, and this one.

Where do you get information about the rallies?

Sharon: They have some information online. A lot of it is from there. TV.

What kind of TV do you watch? Which networks?

Richard: We watch Fox, because the other ones are so biased. I mean, we watch the other ones, I mean, I have CNN, and MSNBC. I look at all them, but they don’t bring up–like Brian Williams, you know, on NBC. He don’t bring up the tea parties. He just shows you what they want you to see.

Fox, you get mad at Fox because they don’t–they might spend too much time saying how great something is, but you don’t think it’s worth a damn. But they’re the best of the networks.

What would you say to someone who doesn’t understand this and just wants to know more?

Richard: I guess they could sit at the Ambassador bridge and watch the ambulance coming from over there to bring people to the hospital over here. They say there’s 40 to 60 ambulances bringing people from Canada over to here, because the health care is better here than there, you know.

Pronoblem

Pronoblem, from another dimension.

Why are you here?

That’s a pretty deep question, man.

Yeah, it is pretty deep. What do you think?

I don’t know. I try to do good, raise good kids. Be fair and honest.

What do you represent?

When people asked me that before, you know what I told them?

No, what did you say?

That I was Canadian.

Why did you come out here today?

I heard there was some good Ethiopian food in town.

What does your button say?

I bought that here.

Do you believe in the message?

Oh, no. not really. What does it say?

It says “Welcome to Obamunism”.

Okay, so that means Obama has a philosophy.

I guess that’s not too hard to believe. Is this an average day for you?

Actually, yeah.

With files from Ryan Briggs