Standing with Ilhan

I went to stand with Ilhan on Monday when Mulligan came to speak in the south metro suburb of Burnsville. He was set to speak inside a trucking firm in the middle of an industrial park, located within the elbow of a highway interchange. One of those places where the buildings are made of concrete block and set back from wide roads with no sidewalks.

As I drove into the area (not much choice, since there's no transit anywhere nearby), I saw a few people wearing red Make America Great Again hats. I parked a few long blocks away on the street, next to a younger man and woman who were making pro-Ilhan signs in the hatchback of their car before they left it, and walked to the site with them.

Pro-Mulligan people were arranged along the left side of the road as we approached...


Mostly they had general pro-Mulligan signs, but some had signs like this, saying "CAIR is Hamas." (CAIR stands for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group, and if it were aligned with Hamas, I think the Mulligan DOJ would have already done something about it. But slander like this is how it starts.)


There was more than one reference to the Q conspiracy that's theory popular with some Mulligan supporters.

Pro-Ilhan people were arranged along the right side of the road, which was the same side as the business where the event would be held.








Basically, it was two rows of people facing each other, doing chants. Either I couldn't hear their voices well, or there weren't many chants from the other side. I did hear a few over the three hours, but they were nowhere near continuous: "Four more years," "USA USA USA," "Trump Trump Trump."

The most noticeable sound from that side of the street was made by one guy with a bullhorn. He wandered back and forth and uttered a maniacal laugh every once in a while, the kind of laugh generally associated with villains (think Vincent Price at the end of "Thriller"). I guess he thought he was laughing at us, but it seemed an odd way to represent your vision for America.

On the Ilhan side, the energy was good. Veterans for Peace were well represented in the crowd. At least five people (all women, I think) had bullhorns to lead chants. Long banners were held facing the street, meant to be seen by the motorcade, but mostly seen by the Mulligan supporters across the way. My favorite chant, which I think someone worked out on the fly, was an adaptation of one of the standard chants I've heard over the years: "Show me what democracy looks like! Ilhan's what democracy looks like!"




It was pretty peaceful, overall. There were a few young men from the Mulligan side who came over and tried to troll people, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. According to a letter writer in today's Star Tribune, a young woman came over and engaged him in meaningful conversation. I went over and asked one man, about my age, what his flag meant. He answered cordially.

After about three hours, and after the motorcade had gone by, there was a brief speech by the head of CAIR Minnesota (using one of the bullhorns), we did some chants that had more energy than ever, and then... this weird thing happened.

One young MAGA guy had been standing at the edge of the chanting, and he kept moving forward into the assembled group, his arms at his side. Two of the Ilhan marshals (a woman and a man, wearing fluorescent safety vests as IDs) moved to intervene, basically blocking him without touching him. He kept moving into them, claiming they were touching him. I was standing with my back to all this in the spot where I had been standing all along during the speech and chants, and realized this was happening because I was bumped from behind.

Soon three other young guys joined him in an arc around his back, pushing in. A photographer or two swept in with their long lenses, trying to capture the disturbance. (Everyone knows that an entire peaceful protest can end up being portrayed as "marred by violence" because of an incident caused by one provocateur.) The guys were jeering at the marshals.

I finally turned my back on it all so I wouldn't feed the negative energy and I think it dissipated, or at least it didn't erupt into anything that couldn't be ignored. But wow, what jerks. They make me so frustrated.

I left not long after that. And I have to say, as I planned to walk the two or three blocks back to my car by myself, I thought about my safety, with guys like that around. I thought about whether I was wearing anything that identified me as an Ilhan supporter. I realized the fact that I'm white and almost 60 protects me. That I'm a woman maybe protects me and maybe makes me more vulnerable.

I passed three sets of young guys on foot who were heading into the protest area. The first was a set of four dressed all in black, with face masks: most likely anarchists or anarchist-wannabes, who ignored me. Great. The second was five white frat-boy-types who mostly ignored me as they talked among themselves loudly. The last was two white guys who gave off a more threatening vibe. After I had passed them, I heard one of them say something like, "These people are such cowards. You can see it in their eyes."

Which made me angry. I think it's self-preservation to be afraid of people who are bigger than me and who are brimming with toxic masculinity.

And then I realized he couldn't see my eyes because I was wearing sunglasses.