Activist protesters stormed and occupied House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's office in the Capitol on Monday, demanding that he help pass a five-year reauthorization of PEPFAR, the "President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief."
PEPFAR has been renewed since George Bush's time in a bipartisan way, but some Republicans alleged that the Biden administration is putting some of the $7 billion annual budget toward abortion providers; they want a provision to prevent that from happening. The Biden administration denies it.
Ultimately, six people were arrested. They were lined up and zip-tied. Then they were marched out by the police, still chanting about the bill.
Now, this is a protest that could be resolved by the Biden administration and Democrats simply agreeing with the Republicans that none of the money is going to abortion providers. If you deny it is, then you shouldn't have any problem with agreeing to a provision that says so. And if you won't, then we know that Biden is full of malarkey and likely is using it for abortion providers.
But the protest was interesting for another reason. That was the reaction of many to it in the wake of the incredible sentences passed down for some Jan. 6 defendants who had not been accused of violence to anyone during the riot, yet got long sentences. Many believed that these protesters would be treated differently, and more favorably, for occupying a Capitol office.
I wrote earlier about Communists protesting outside a Jason Aldean concert, calling for a Communist revolution here. As I noted, in a Communist system they'd be locked up and have the key thrown away, if they protested the government. We aren't in that system yet, but we are moving toward a banana republic with two systems of justice -- where how you are treated may depend on your politics. If you have a magical "D" after your name, you get no punishment. But if you are on the right you can go to prison for years. if you are the political opponent of the Democrats, suddenly multiple indictments may appear against you.