BLM vs MAGA
As best as I can tell:
BLM
- The grievance: the police brutality as exposed by the George Floyd video.
- There were lootings and property destruction.
- Black leadership decried the looting and destruction and said that violence is not the answer. Protests need to be peaceful.
- Most protests were peaceful; there were videos showing that some protesters were trying to stop the destruction.
- There were no reported weapons.
- No noose or gallows or any such lynching equipment were reported.
- No images of zipties or weapons were reported.
- As far as I know, no news reported any intent to kill anybody.
MAGA
- The grievance: the supposed election fraud.
- There were lootings, property destruction and a halt to Congressional proceedings.
- Democrats, a few independents and even some Republicans decried the insurrection.
- The news haven’t reported this but I would imagine that quite a few, if not a large number, of the protesters were actually there to protest and may not have entered the Capitol. I’m giving them a benefit of the doubt here.
- Weapons, including bombs, were brought to the riot.
- A noose and gallows were found.
- News showed images of a rioter holding zipties, implying hostage taking.
- News reported that some rioters were looking for Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, with the implication that the intent was to execute them.
There is no comparison.
The MAGA protest was a much more serious event with graver consequences. The supposed “law and order” side (MAGA) was violent and was a sedition, not a protest. There is really no comparison between the two “protests”.
There are supposed to be more “protests” in the coming days before the inauguration. For those of you who abhors the violence that transpired on January 6 but believes the election was fraudulent: don’t even consider protesting the inauguration or protesting at any of the state capitols. These protests may end up violent and you could get inadvertently wrapped up in the events. Stay away. You don’t want to be identified with the bad actors. The chatter on the internet is that the bad actors will be bringing guns. Stay away. The penalty for insurrection is 20 years, or so I’ve read.
This is not a 1776 situation. Back in 1776, we didn’t even have the right to choose our leaders – we had a king, whether we liked it or not, and that was it. Tough luck. Eventually, we had a revolution to determine how to conduct our life, and the signers of the declaration of independence created a type of government where we, the people, could decide who would be our leaders for a short period of time.
Today we get to vote and the person voted in gets to be our leader for 2, 4, 6, or however long and then we get to decide whether he did a good enough job that we vote him in again or we oust him. The position is not a life-time position, it is not an inherited position and it is certainly not bestowed by God. We decide and there are rules for these elections and there is a non-violent system to handle any election arguments.
Over the past two centuries, our court system has been built up to adjudicate political arguments in our public sphere, as well as criminal and civil matters. We use the court system as our sphere for battles. There are rules that have been developed that are designed to get at the truth of the matter. One of the rules is that there must be evidence for your assertions, whether it is a robbery, murder, or election fraud. You don’t want someone to just say, “He murdered my son!” with you being the “he”, the accused. You don’t want someone falsely accusing you; the requirement of evidence is what protects you.
Same thing with election fraud: there has to be evidence of fraud before the courts will rule that there has been fraud. Out of 60 court cases, the Trump team has failed to provide sufficient proof of fraud, even in the courts of Trump appointed judges. As a matter of fact, in at least one court case, Rudy Giuliani told the judge that he was “not asserting fraud”. Let me say that again: he was not claiming fraud!
So ignoring the court findings of “lack of evidence” and indulging in riots like that of January 6th is tantamount to a big “F*U” to the courts, a system designed to protect you from baseless assertions. Throw away the court system and you’re not protected anymore.
Stay home!
