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| Trump rally Tulsa, Oklahoma businessinsider.com |
It is a very lovely early summer afternoon in the blogosphere and The Candidate Forum is back for a round of Protest and Politics. Speaking of politics, Mr. Donald Trump campaign trail comeback fizzled bigly. After excitedly tweeting about ticket reservations, the big campaign reset rally, with all the bells and whistles, failed to deliver, sending the Trump campaign into panic mode. The president faced empty blue seats instead of a sea of MAGA red. Only a third of the capacity--6,200 people--19,200 were able socially distanced themselves in around the arena. The Trump campaign blamed the media fanning fears of COVID-19 and protesters. Maybe but The Candidate Forum thinks it may also be the lack of a coherent and cohesive message. Or, it is the messenger. Onward
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| The president in front of St. John's Church Washington D.C. mercurynews.com |
Now that the smoke has cleared from the Battle of Lafayette Square, what comes next? Soldiers being quartered in Washington D.C., in violation of the Third Amendment? More peaceful protests? Most likely. Regardless, Washington D.C. is settling in for the long haul. As proof of this, work crews have surrounded the White House with a black fence that stretched all the way to Lafayette Park "The perimeter of the new fence extends south to Constitution Avenue, encompassing the entire Ellipse, a park area previously open to the public. This is an escalation in a long-running effort by the Trump administration to fence off the pedestrian areas around the White House" (bloomberg.com; June 5, 2020; date accessed June 22, 2020). The plaza between the White House and Lafayette Square is a particularly significant American public forum, where you can petition the federal government or take a selfie. Now it is sealed off from the public.
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| Washington D.C, Mayor Muriel Bowser looking at the BLM street washingtonpost.com |
Washington D.C. has settled in for long term as well. The municipal government is drawing a sharp distinct contrast between the Trump administration's bunker mentality and what the city would like to showcase as its core values. In the pre-dawn hours, work crews and protesters began painting BLACK LIVES MATTER along 16th Street in "enormous letters spanning the road" (Ibid). The enormous yellow letters was deliberately placed on the roadway that leads to the home of the president. The street became a billboard for the message in the same way as cities in and police departments in New Jersey painted a blue line down main streets, a reference to the thin blue line "cop flag" (Ibid). In the nation's capital, both 16th Street and the text end at Lafayette Square, in front of St. John's Church, renamed by Mayor Muriel Bowser Black Lives Matter Plaza (Ibid).
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| Close up of Black Lives Matter street washingtonpost.com |
The giant street-yellow letters render Black Lives Matter as a sign. Kriston Capps writes, "It's the color of civic infrastructure, a warning of an emergency happening on our streets. The text on 16th Street--where demonstrators have been writing messages of and anger in paint and chalk all week--leads directly to the White House, cast not a little blame on its currant occupant for exacerbating tensions, but also indicating where the buck stops, period" (bloomberg.com; June 5, 2020). The president got his long desired wall and his critics painted around it. Some of the president's critics are Mayor Bowser's as well.
The Black Lives Matter chapter for D.C. tweeted,
This is performative distraction form real policy changes. Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police.... say it with us (bloomberg.com; June 5, 2020).
By the following evening protesters added DEFUND THE POLICE to the original sign. The city let the addition stand. Whether you consider it street theater or tactical urbanism, Black Lives Matter Plaza signifies twin currents in the Washington D.C. protests--"the mayor taking a stand for statehood and protesters refusing to let her off the hook" (Ibid).
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| Pierre L'Enfant plan for Washington D.C. smithsonianmag.com |
The current administration's recalcitrance to take any meaningful action in response to this criminal justice crisis has manifested itself into a combative stance: tear gas, rubber bullets, building fences and walls. This is the complete opposite of why the city was designed with Enlightenment era concepts of democratic participation. Washington D.C, architect Pierre L'Enfant incorporated Baroque period estate planning for the city, "which called for broad radial avenues fit for hunting on horseback through dense forest" (Ibid). Pierre L'Enfant designed the avenues to that they terminate at the Capitol Building and the White House, emphasizing the foundational concepts of the state, according to Thomas Luebke, secretary for the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts and the author of Civic Art (bloomberg.com; June 5, 2020).
One argument posited about the of Washington D.C. is that it was purposefully designed to intimidate foreign powers (Ibid). Baron Eugene Haussmann's design for Paris in the mid-nineteenth century also incorporated broad avenues carved out of the dense urban-scape in order to facilitate military movement and thwart rebel barricades. It is not clear whether Pierre L'Enfant's plan for D.C. informed Baron Haussmann's plan is not clear.
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| Protesters at dusk Washington D.C. npr.org |
Kriston Capps describes the scene at dusk, "When dusk gathered during the curfew, the emptied streets revealed the civic genius behind the L'Enfant Plan. Cutting through downtown, it was possible to peer at the Capitol from many blocks away, or catch sight of the White House plaza from damn near across the city" (Ibid). The protesters assembled in Lafayette Square fulfilled that ideal. The genius behind the L'Enfant plan is that would always be clear to ordinary citizens where they could go to demand their rights. The genius of Enlightenment thinking translated into urban planning and design. Unfortunately this has not always been the case for disenfranchised American men and women. Mr. Capps reports, "For a majority-black city without representation in Congress and its own problems with police, drastic change is needed inside and out" (Ibid).
Here we are, it is June 22 and the president remains barricaded behind his long desired wall. The streets of Washington D.C. are still the site of protests, albeit smaller and quieter. Juneteenth was day of reflection, protest, and celebration; perhaps what Pierre L'Enfant and the Founding Fathers had in mind. The streets of the nation's capitol are the place where the people come to demand their rights as citizens of the republic.
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