Could Never Happen Here

Yesterday gave us all a lot to think about. As I expect is true for many of you, I have tried to avoid making assumptions about the intent of the people who did this. I certainly understand how easy it is to paint them all as dangerous criminals who came to create mayhem and take hostage – or even kill – the people they believe are standing in the way of reversing the election. Of course, even if that was the real intent of the mob as a whole, the ultimate goal to change the election result would never have been achieved, Biden would still be declared the president, eventually.

On the other hand, nothing I witnessed on real-time news coverage, or saw in the reporting afterwards, could possibly lead me to conclude a benign intent of everyone involved. Pipe bombs and firearms were confiscated, and at least sixty people were arrested, people who likely (hopefully) will face serious criminal charges. Indeed, the more I think through this and read what others have written about it, I want to lean toward saying we simply don’t know enough now, and may never know enough, to speculate what the aggregate intent of the mob was, and thus what legal classification is correct. And maybe it’s pointless to even try.

What does seem to be clear is that this was a very disorganized mob lacking any coherent plan of execution or even a common notion of what the endgame was, or could be. And it’s equally clear that, to a one, these people were tRump idolaters, summoned by him via tweets to bring the fight directly to the White house. As such, I hold no sympathy for the supposed innocent ones hiding behind naivete, “We just came to protest, to make our voices heard, we didn’t want anybody to get hurt.” Really? In years past, lone gunman (real and imagined) have been shot on the White house lawn before even reaching the walls of the White house. The seriousness and consequences of that kind of trespass were made unambiguously clear in the days that followed. Yet you thought the actions to overcome security, occupy the steps right outside the front door, and remain there until your grievances were heard, would be met with, what, understanding? Really? (In fact, that is kinda what happened, but I’ll leave that for another post).

Protesters, rioters, criminal trespassers, insurrectionists, seditionists, terrorists – I don’t care to go down the semantic rabbit hole, though pretty clearly which one sticks will matter come prosecution and judgment time. But at the very least, unprecedented, misguided stupidity – yeah, I can get behind that.

Turning to something with more levity… had everyone in the mob been as freakishly harmless as this fella, I might judge them all as just hapless and misguided, deserving of our pity maybe. Seriously, give it a listen

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