The wanton destruction of property and violence against police on Inauguration Day wasn’t just a protest against Donald Trump. Rather, last Friday’s rioting represented a vote of no confidence by young liberals in America’s democratic institutions, regardless of the election result.
While dumpster fires still burned just a few blocks from the White House, a little anarchist troupe caught a Metro to catch a bus back home and out of the city. Riding on D.C.’s red line last Friday night, the five of them fleshed out what protestors really meant while chanting “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.” And between Metro Center and Union Station, they told me why they riot.
First off, it’s more institutional than personal. “We have all these systems that are quantifiably unsustainable,” says Drew, 27, who is apparently a veteran of unrest, at least judging by his battle-scarred bullhorn. “Trump is just a slap in the face, the incarnation of all the things that have been a problem and people have been complaining about.”
In other words, the president is an easy placeholder for a broader feeling of outrage. He’s a stand-in for the racism, bigotry, and sexism supposedly perpetuated by America’s underlying socioeconomic systems.
The demonstration, Drew explains, was about “challenging the basic paradigm that people must work in order to be worthwhile, or that to survive you have to toil.” So when protestors were smashing store windows and chucking rocks at cops, they were really trying to fight systemic inequality.
Maybe violence against persons and property is not the most nuanced way to make an argument, but they can’t think of a better way to fight the power. After the Democratic National Committee sold out Bernie Sanders for Hillary Clinton, they’re just not super-jazzed about affecting change through political parties.
A quick whip count of the Metro car shows that four of the five voted for Sanders. Except for Veronica, 34, who tells me she “just doesn’t believe in voting anymore.” And each insists that if the election was reversed, they’d still protest Clinton.
“It’s just an emperor-has-no-clothes situation, like with both of them,” says Mike, 33. “They’re huge liars, there’s no point in putting our trust in them. It’s all nonsense.”
Confronted with an unacceptable Republican Party and unwelcoming Democratic elite, they feel adrift. That’s why they riot.
And the destruction of businesses and subsequent clash with police wasn’t needless violence, in their estimation. Less than a week after Martin Luther King Day, these five white millennials all agree that an “aggressive militancy” is absolutely necessary.
“Certainly throughout history, we’ve always had successful movements that have a little bit of both,” Dillon says. “You had Malcom X and Martin Luther King out there at the same time.”
Their binary is simple. Like a megaphone, rioting will amplify a parallel and more peaceful protest. And until politicians start accepting the demands of that group, they insist they’ll keep the pressure up. But before the final stop, they try downplaying everything. “Look what happens when a city wins a Super Bowl or something,” Mike says, “Well, that’s a riot too half the time.”
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
