I’m gonna urge you to reconsider. I think bringing them along to DC is a really bad idea. I’m not so much worried about the protesters, but rather what Trump et al will do. There’s real fear about how far they will be willing to go (consider what Trump was willing to do just for a photo op in his first term).
I know you mentioned that you would get out of dodge quick if things turned south, but you won’t be the only one with this instinct. The crowd will likely be massive enough to the point that little ol’ DC’s transportation infrastructure won’t be able to handle a sudden mass exodus (Edit: Depending on the time of day I suppose. I understand that DC has a large commuter pop). To the point that just trying to leave could become dangerous (for reasons like crowd crush, auto accidents, that kind of thing). Granted, that’s basically the worst case scenario and under the assumption that there will be at least somewhere on the order of thousands of protesters (it might be much smaller, who can say at this point).
I really respect wanting to raise them to be politically conscious, but perhaps doing it from afar would be a better idea this time around.
You sound like an awesome parent.