Reflections on January 6th…14 January 2024

 
     **Reflections on January 6
     If the truth shall prevail, here is how history will remember
January 6: peaceful demonstrators were finally fed up with a
government that had become outwardly tyrannical.
     By Paul Ingrassia / January 12, 2024
     The following commentary was adapted from remarks I delivered
at an event held in Toms River, New Jersey, by the Patriot Freedom
Project, an organization, founded by Cynthia Hughes, committed to
shedding light on the plight of January 6 defendants and their
families.
     Today we commemorate the third anniversary of one of the dark-
est days in our country’s recent history—though not for the reasons
the Left believes. The tragedy of January 6, 2021, was not that it
was an “attack on our democracy,” let alone an “insurrection.” But
rather, it was an opportunity for the deep state to finally remove
its mask and begin the persecution and imprisonment of American
citizens, innocent patriots labeled domestic terrorists merely for
exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble on
public property, the vast majority of whom did not commit any acts
of violence on Capitol grounds. As we later found out, through the
disclosures of footage from Capitol grounds that day, many of these
peaceful demonstrators only entered the Capitol after being waved
on by Capitol police, who actively enabled them to make the alleged
breach, only to later turn around and scapegoat them as trespassers
and insurrectionists when it became politically convenient to do so.
     As we have also found out in the months and years since that
fateful day, federal agents were seeded throughout the crowds, both
outside and within the Capitol, tasked with openly inciting the
demonstrators to violence. Despite that irrefutable fact, an ex-
ceptionally small number of them did commit any violence. Absolutely
zero engaged in the act of insurrection, which is a legal term of
art with a very specific meaning: namely, the Framers of the 14th
Amendment, from where that term originates, had in mind preventing
Confederate War Generals from returning to government, who took up
arms and literally waged war against the Union. Nobody who showed
up on the Capitol steps on January 6 engaged in a rebellion—hardly
any of them were even armed, and those who were armed were, at
most, carrying around pepper spray. Show me an example in the entire
history of the world of a successful armed insurrection done with
pepper spray.
     The tragedy of January 6 continues through the present moment,
on the third anniversary, and will remain a tragedy so long as in-
nocent Americans remain locked up, every single one of them denied
due process of law. This will likely continue until Donald Trump
is reelected this November. As you all know, many January 6 pri-
soners continue to languish behind bars—many still in the DC Gulag,
and some in the most horrific conditions of solitary confinement.
The media has constantly demonized these political prisoners (which
President Trump refers to as “hostages” of our government) as do-
mestic terrorists. And the treatment they are currently getting is,
unsurprisingly, that of a domestic terrorist: cruel and inhumane,
deprived of fundamental rights, including the right to meaningful
legal assistance, food in some cases, and the bare minimum neces-
sities to stay alive. All for merely showing up on the Capitol, a
public forum on which Americans have long enjoyed their rights to
assemble and speak for centuries, to contest an election whose
results were tainted by the stain of illegitimacy—something that
history has vindicated, overwhelmingly, in the months and years
since that day.
     If the truth shall prevail, here is how history will re-
member January 6: peaceful demonstrators were finally fed up
with a government that had become outwardly tyrannical (and I’m
not talking about President Trump). They saw violence all through-
out the previous summer, committed by rogue, militant left-wing
organizations such as BLM and ANTIFA. These organizations were
allowed to commit untold billions of dollars of damage to public
and private property, but the entire regime, including both party
establishments and the mainstream media, excused them for every
action and even designated them as “peaceful protests,” asking
television audiences to deny observable reality, as churches were
broadcast literally burning to the ground while businesses were
looted and ransacked, and anarchy was unleashed in virtually every
major city from coast to coast. This again was the backdrop against
which, on January 6, a comparatively tame counter-response took
place.
     The 2020 presidential election observed all sorts of unprece-
dented rule changes, late-night ballot drop-offs, conveniently
timed “water main” breakages that obstructed the electioneering
process, not to mention rampant, government-instigated, top-down
censorship of both stories like the Hunter Biden laptop scandal
that would have been outcome-determining on the results of the
general election, and political candidates, like the President of
the United States himself, who was forced off every major social
media platform—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you name it—thereby
censoring his voice in the weeks before he left office.
     So, the regime took away the President’s First Amendment right
to speak and the people’s First Amendment right to peacefully de-
monstrate. The people who arrived at the Capitol on January 6 did
so not out of retribution towards their government but out of des-
peration for their political situation—what felt like a last-ditch
effort to have their voices heard.
     The cause of January 6 is therefore ultimately the cause of
the American republic: will it survive or will it too be relegated
to the dustbin of history? That cause will be determined, ultimate-
ly, by whether President Trump is re-elected this November. So far,
we have reason to be cautiously optimistic. He has never polled
this well before in his entire political career. The momentum be-
hind him seems to be growing stronger by the day, even as the wea-
ponized justice system gets more and more belligerent, a sign of
desperation for sure, with each successive indictment.
     We are living through truly historic times, not just for the
history of America but for the history of the world, because the
2024 presidential election will have world-historic consequences,
for where America goes, so goes Western civilization.
     Whether that dwindling light of freedom, which America long
stood for, ever gets rekindled will largely come down to what hap-
pens in several months from now. It is our duty to continue to
spread the truth, the perennial enemy of tyranny, in the lead-up
to the election. We need to continue to expose the utterly fake
narrative about J6, which was completely discredited for the gar-
bage propaganda it always was by the (partial) release of January
6 footage.
     We need to keep the momentum going strong behind President
Trump and remain vigilant of left-wing fraud and scheming, which
will surely get more desperate as they lose control of the narra-
tive and see all their lawfare prove ineffective.
     We must pray for the country, for the President, and for each
other—and especially for the victims, including those still locked
up—and for the wives and children of many victims, who continue to
endure unspeakable hardship—financially and emotionally—each and
every day.
     We must also, and this is important, remain unified as a move-
ment. Together, we are much stronger than if we merely proceeded
individually. A strong, happy, and united front is what the Left
fears most about President Trump and his supporters, which is why
they are doing everything in their power that they possibly can to
bring him down once and for all.
     Let us send a clear and unwavering message to them that they
cannot break our resolve whatsoever. We are stronger than ever
before. They will be met with resistance unlike anything they have
ever experienced if they so much as dare attempt to stop our momen-
tum or strike any one of us down. We should accept nothing less
than victory, because out of that victory will come true justice—
the justice all these political hostages and their families have
long waited for and so much deserve. Thank you.**
     A great recap. God Bless America

  Conservatively,
  John