Eleven Observations on the Capitol Protest

On January 6, 2021, the United States Congress held its quadrennial joint session to count the votes of the Electoral College and certify the 2020 presidential election results. Many thousands of supporters of incumbent President Donald Trump gathered in Washington, D.C. beginning on the previous day to protest the election results and advocate for Vice President Mike Pence to use his power of reading the electoral votes to side with Republican electors in states which had anomalies in their popular vote results. At a rally on the Ellipse on the morning of January 6, Trump and others addressed the crowd. Trump encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” to “take back our country” and to march towards the Capitol, while his lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat”.[1]

The crowd marched to the Capitol, made their way past police lines, and entered the building during the Electoral College vote count, forcing the postponement of the proceedings for several hours.[2] Capitol security evacuated the House and Senate chambers. Several buildings in the Capitol complex were also evacuated and locked down. Protesters managed to enter the Capitol rotunda, the Senate chamber, and the offices of several members of Congress. Guards prevented entry to the House floor, killing a woman in the process.[3,4] Four others died during the events of the day. Improvised explosive devices were found in several places, but none detonated. Eleven observations follow on these events and the likely path forward.

1. Blame placement for the violence should be widespread, but will not be. Ever since the election on November 3, 2020, there have been legitimate questions about the procedures, conduct, and results. But rather than attempt to answer those questions, the lügenpresse and Big Tech have dismissed such questions and gone out of their way to ridicule and silence anyone who persists in asking. The courts have mostly punted, whether out of mistaken legal doctrines, loyalty to the Cathedral, or sheer cowardice. Those who sought to petition the government for a redress of grievances were told in no uncertain terms to sit down and shut up. Some did, but of course others would not. Had a fair hearing been granted at any level, few would have felt a need to resort to force.

Of course, the Cathedral is pathologically incapable of self-reflection, and would never consider truly holding itself accountable. Predictably, all blame was placed squarely on Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on Pence to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and threatened to impeach Trump for a second time.[5] Many sources described the event as a coup d'état, though its effects were far from actually displacing the US Government in favor of another authority, Trump or otherwise. Multiple Trump administration officials resigned in response, and mainstream social media companies permanently suspended Trump's accounts.[6] Only dissidents and a scant few at the edge of the establishment press dared to suggest any other fault.

2. Power belongs to those who take it, and does not belong to those who fail to take it or choose not to take it. These truths were demonstrated along multiple avenues in the events surrounding the storming. First, there are significant legal arguments to be made that Pence did in fact have the power to hand Trump a second term.[7–10] Namely, the Constitution vests the power to perform the vote count in the President of the Senate, who is the sitting Vice President. Part of this power is to decide which slates of electors are valid and which are invalid, if more than one slate is submitted from the same state. Had Pence interpreted the Twelfth Amendment in this manner and used his power accordingly, there is a strong possibility that Trump would have prevailed, though martial law may have been needed in many cities for several weeks to stop leftist riots.

Second, Trump could have used the Insurrection Act and the Militia Act to “cross the Rubicon,” the phrase which has emerged from the Dissident Right for dispensing with the current system and taking power by force. As Alexander Macris explains[11], these Acts provide the means for a President to call forth the armed forces and the militia while sidestepping the Posse Comitatus Act, the War Powers Act, and every other usual restriction on a President's use of force. He instead chose to “march up to the Rubicon, then sit down to fish,” as Ernst von Salomon would say. He did not even accompany the supporters he had called forth, leaving them to their own devices and, more importantly, their own consequences, including federal charges of insurrection, rioting, and seditious conspiracy.[12]

Third, those who occupied the Capitol could have accomplished far more than they did, if there were actually some kind of realistic plan to do more than simply protest or disrupt. But as Curtis Yarvin explains,

“Since they were only fishing in the Rubicon, not making any kind of practical plan to actually cross it, if they accidentally do cross it—they are lost. They will just wander around in the endless fields of Chianti, 'wondering why the level isn't ending,' until some Roman asswipe finds them and kills them with a spear.

They certainly will not 'declare a new government.' How? What government would that be? After Trump sets up his new basilica in the Rotunda, what is his next step? Even if the Supreme Court steals the election back for him—if he thought he was at war with Washington in his previous term, how about now?

And if he actually takes power by force, on the back of this mob—what exactly goes on in that Rotunda? What is his next step? What would he do tomorrow? Next week? Next month?”[13]

Fourth, the contest between Trump and Big Tech came to a head after the storming, with Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram deplatforming him. While Trump hinted at eliminating their Section 230 protection, which shields them from liability or accountability as they censor content and deplatform users however they see fit, no decisive action was ever taken and no serious attempt was made until it was too late. With Trump only days away from leaving office and appearing defeated and isolated, Big Tech made its move.

Read the entire article at ZerothPosition.com

References

1. “Before mob stormed US Capitol, Trump told them to 'fight like hell' –“. The Boston Globe. Jan. 7, 2021.
2. Barrett, Ted; Raju, Manu; Nickeas, Peter (2021, Jan. 6) “Pro-Trump mob storms US Capitol as armed standoff takes place outside House chamber”. CNN.
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4. “Man says San Diego woman killed in Capitol siege was his wife”. KXAN Austin. Jan. 7, 2021.
5. Pramuk, Jacob (2021, Jan. 7). “Pelosi and Schumer call for Trump's immediate removal from office for 'insurrection'”. CNBC.
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17. United States of America v. John Earle Sullivan
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