January 6, 2021, should be remembered as one of the darkest days in American history. It was a day where extremists stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to force Congress to overturn the results of an election. Democrats, media, Big Tech, and others are placing the blame solely on President Trump. The House of Representatives introduced Articles of Impeachment for Inciting an Insurrection, even though Trump will be out of office in less than two weeks. Despite the narrative, this event, like other dark moments, did not occur without months, even years, of build-up.
So far, January 6 has been compared to some of the worst days in human history. However, in terms of the power rankings of dark days in America, 1/6/21 certainly ranks lower than its colleagues. It is exceeded by dates such as April 12, 1861 (start of Civil War), April 14, 1865 (assassination of President Lincoln), December 7, 1941 (attack on Pearl Harbor), November 22, 1963 (assassination of President Kennedy), April 4, 1968 (assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.) and September 11, 2001. This is not to diminish the horror of the day, rather to put it in context. Like all tragedy, there is a chance to unify and heal. The lead-up and aftermath of January 6 shows no sign that healing will occur.
President Trump’s election in 2016 was a cataclysmic shock to many established institutions that believed that Obama’s popularity would lead to indefinite Democratic rule. These institutions, which include, but are not limited to, media outlets, Hollywood, universities, Big Tech, and entrenched bureaucrats, spent the subsequent four years ripping the American social fabric to shreds in an attempt to “get Trump.” They pushed false narratives like Russia collusion, declared that Trump voters were racists, and celebrated those who called for physical violence against Republicans.
The year 2020 was the culmination of these attacks – a year that began with an attempt to kick Trump out of office through a partisan impeachment contained hundreds of riots around the nation, unconstitutional changes to electoral laws, and willful and deliberate censorship of negative stories about Democrats. Lies about Trump stealing mailboxes, refusal to discuss Operation Warp Speed or the Abraham Accords, and never asking Kamala Harris a question all added to the powder keg of January 6.
At the base of this powder keg were the riots that occurred over the summer. Day after day, city after city burned. The reaction from the media was that the riots were “mostly peaceful.” The reaction from the police was to kneel with protesters. The reaction from the liberal populace was subservience. The reaction from the Democratic mayors was to rename streets and plazas after the Black Lives Matter organization. Meanwhile, police stations in Minneapolis and Seattle were overrun, federal buildings in Portland were attacked, a church in Washington DC was burned, and cities like Kenosha were destroyed. Trump supporters around the country looked on, aghast with what they saw, and planned to show their disgust at the ballot box.
When the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was splashed across the front page of the New York Post, Twitter, and Facebook mobilized instantaneously. Twitter not only banned the Post for weeks, they wouldn’t allow a tweet that contained a link to the story. Facebook downgraded dissemination of the story “pending a fact check.” The media didn’t discuss the scandal until well after the election was over. The Department of Justice did not disclose that they were investigating Hunter lest they affect the election. The irony is that by not disclosing that fact, they affected the election. All the pieces were aligning against the Right.
On election night, Trump was winning handily until the counting stopped. When the nation awoke on Wednesday morning, Biden was winning. The media refused to question this. Lack of investigation lends itself to theorizing, and it was simple for Trump supporters to imagine that this election was stolen. For four years Trump was called Hitler; why wouldn’t anyone cheat to defeat Hitler?
The testimonies began piling up of voter irregularity, which obviously occurred. Even if there was not enough fraud and irregularity to overturn one state, let alone six, the gaslighting of the media referring to 2020 as the cleanest election ever was enough to make anyone crazy. Something was wrong, and nobody wanted to investigate. Nobody, that is, except the Trump legal team.
Then there was the Georgia election, a pivotal race that decided the majority in the Senate. Once again, the media shamed themselves by refusing to cover years of statements made by Raphael Warnock, where he praised everything from Marxism to Fidel Castro and Louis Farrakhan. Nobody “fact-checked” Jon Ossoff when he lied that Kelly Loeffler was campaigning with a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. The Presidential race still had multiple lawsuits pending, and Republicans couldn’t effectuate a clear message. The Democrats won, and another powder keg was added to the pile.
So when tens of thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol to protest the election, it was not simply because Trump told them to “keep the faith.” Trump was wrong when he said that Vice President Mike Pence would overturn the election. He was wrong when he insisted that he would be inaugurated on January 20. But he was not wrong when he told his supporters that the media cannot be trusted, that Big Tech is censoring information, and Hollywood hates them. That is why people marched.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser specifically turned down extra security for January 6. Extremists took advantage of the lax security and ruined any semblance of a peaceful demonstration when they stormed the Capitol Building. One unarmed woman was killed by police. One police officer was killed. Three others died during the incident. Every single person who unlawfully entered the Capitol on January 6 should be arrested and prosecuted. There should also be an investigation as to why it was so easy for a mob to enter what should be one of the most secure buildings in the world.
No lessons were learned from this. The media, Joe Biden, and other Democrats falsely claimed that if they were black, cops would have shot them all. There is a sample size of hundreds of riots around the country that prove this is false. Arnold Schwarzenegger posted a video comparing Trump to Hitler, protesters to Nazis, and January 6 to Kristallnacht, which Joe Biden retweeted. Big Tech, Democrats, and Republicans who want to distance themselves from Trump blamed Trump for the attack. This is despite Trump saying at the rally that the attendees will “soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” This is not a call to storm the Capitol. Nevertheless, Twitter and Facebook banned President Trump, and Apple removed Parler, the conservative alternative to Twitter, from its App Store. Amazon Web Services said they will remove Parler as well, basically killing it. Meanwhile, House Democrats are going to try to impeach Trump again for the sole reason of preventing him from running in 2024.
With this myopic and obtuse level of thinking, January 6 will not be the end of the anger – only the first explosion from the sky-high powder keg. It did not occur because of Trump; it occurred over a long period where Trump was one of many factors. As long as the spaces of culture and conversation are occupied by partisan hacks who seek to indoctrinate the public, there will always be those who fight back. When Trump is gone, will there be introspection, or will these same institutions merely look for another scapegoat? The immediate aftermath of January 6 does not provide much hope going forward.
Moshe Hill is a political analyst who has written for The Daily Wire, the Queens Jewish Link, The Jewish Link of New Jersey and JNS.org. He is regularly featured on ‘The Josh M Show’ podcast. Subscribe to aHillwithaview.com for more content from Moshe Hill. Like him on Facebook at facebook.com/ahillwithaview and follow him on Twitter @TheMoHill.