Ashli Babbitt, martyr
Re-writing history:
The Capital invaders were patriots. Ashli Babbitt was a victim. The real insurrection was the election on November 3, not January 6.
Introducing Ashli Babbitt.
While people were crashing through barricades and moving about the Capitol on January 6, Donald Trump was serene. Plan B was working. They were going to convince the Vice President and Congress that "the people" wanted to keep Trump in office. The Capitol rioters were peaceful protesters, and he loved them. He tweeted:
These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!
Then, the next day, a moment of remorse. It played badly on TV. Their actions, he said, were a "heinous attack":
The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy. To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay.
That was then.
Trump now describes the Capitol rioters as patriots. It was a modern Boston Tea Party, a disorderly event undertaken to bring political justice. This week Trump sent a video to a birthday party memorial done by Ashli Babbitt's family. Ashli Babbitt is the woman shot and killed as she attempted to climb through the broken glass window to enter the House Chamber. Trump said she is a "truly incredible person" and he offers his "unwavering support to her family."
Movements gain energy from martyrs. Ashli Babbitt is offered up to play that role. Fox News hosts treat her as an innocent victim. Demonstrators rally in her defense.
Ashli Babbitt is an Air Force veteran who became deeply involved with pro-Trump activities. As with George Floyd, there are problems with making her a hero. Floyd had a history of domestic violence. Protesters overlooked that; it was irrelevant to the real point of the protests, the way he was killed.
Ashli Babbitt was part of a crowd that was shoving and hammering on the broken window on a door barricaded with stacked up furniture. Beyond the door was the House Chamber, where House Members were huddled. The scene was loud and disorderly, people shouting "Fuck the Blue." Might she have "listened to reason" if she had better understood that her death was imminent if she did not retreat? Here is the scene:
The video below was new to me. Here is Ashli Babbitt, in a self-filmed video, done while she drove her car. Possibly some Americans will be thrilled by her passion. I consider her dangerously manic. I think efforts to portray Babbitt as a harmless victim will be difficult.