The Fascist Mob at the Capitol … and the World of Horrors They Are Fighting For

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On Wednesday, January 6, Donald Trump fomented a fascist coup attempt. He called on a mob to come to DC to protest on the day that Biden was officially to be certified by Congress as the next president. He stirred up that mob for over an hour, telling them to march to the Capitol where Congress was meeting. Waving their Confederate, American and Trump flags, some of them armed, they climbed over the walls, broke windows, and rampaged almost untouched through the halls, terrorizing legislators and vandalizing offices. Their demand: that Donald Trump, who lost the election by a big margin, must be illegally put into power for four more years. The images on this page give a sense of what this mob and the whole fascist movement, with Trump in the lead, stand for and the ugly world of horrors they want: open white supremacy … Christian fascism and theocracy (rule by religion) … total subjugation of women in the name of “traditional morality” … violent suppression of dissent … unquestioned “America First” domination over the rest of the world … reactionary conspiracy theories and total disregard for truth.

A giant noose was set up in front of the Capitol during the assault. This was a reference to an event in the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries called the “day of the rope,” when the fascists lynch Black people and anyone they see as their “enemy,” including mainstream “politicians.” In other words, this was an open threat of bloodthirsty violence and murder against all those opposing the fascists.

Seen among the fascist mob were Confederate flags--symbols of the South that fought in the Civil War to defend slavery. As revolutionary leader Bob Avakian points out, “There is a direct line from the Confederacy to the fascists of today…” The fascists want to reverse even the modest reforms toward equality in the last few decades in America and bring back open white supremacy.

Members of the fascist group Proud Boys raise a giant cross during the assault. At the core of the fascist movement in the U.S. is Christian fascism. This is not the kind of Christianity that seeks to reconcile religious beliefs with science and interprets the message of Jesus as one of peace, justice, and standing with the poor and oppressed. It is an extreme, cruel, anti-scientific religious fanaticism that is fully on board with Trump’s crude white supremacy, male supremacy, aggressive American chauvinism, and xenophobia (hatred of immigrants) and aims to impose this, by force if needed, on the whole society.

Photo: Ryan Garza

The mob included many, like this man, spouting QAnon conspiracy theories. QAnon is a shadowy internet super-spreader of fascist lunacy—including that the election was “stolen” from Trump. Such belief in “alternative facts” and complete unhinging from actual reality is a key part of the overall fascist movement.

Photo: AP

Among the mob at the Capitol were members and ex-members of the military and police forces. As Bob Avakian has analyzed, the fascist movement in the U.S. has been growing for decades, and this took a leap with the Trump/Pence regime. This growth of fascism includes sections of the military, and police forces and sheriffs' departments across the country, with a majority of those pigs supporting Trump over the past four years.

Screen grab: Twitter

 

 

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