Austin: The Capitol Incursion Was Nearly a Win for Democrats - But They Couldn't Keep Their Mouths Shut
Watching the events of Jan. 6 unfold was incredibly difficult. When protesters first stormed the Capitol, my feelings of disgust soon were overtaken by a sense of dread and horror.
Sadly, after months of witnessing similarly horrendous displays of violence, I’ve become used to so-called protesters behaving in such a despicable manner.
That being said, I wasn’t used to seeing them waving Trump flags and wearing MAGA hats.
For the average American who views politics in a superficial manner, the incursion wasn’t a good look for Trump supporters or Republicans in general.
Because of this, Democrats had seized a powerful cultural narrative in American politics — that Trump and his base were unable to accept the election results and were willing to try to overturn them using violent means.
Thankfully, due to their rapacious need to fully milk the moment, Democrats squandered that opportunity shortly thereafter.
Trump’s Tweets Made Things Worse
President Trump didn’t help the situation with his patented, incessant tweeting — and I say this as an overall supporter of the president.
He called for peace, which was good, but he also shared his oft-repeated claim that “we had an election stolen from us” without providing any substantial evidence of widespread, election-altering voter fraud, per usual.
Don’t get me wrong: Questions regarding 2020 election integrity are legitimate. The widespread use of universal mail-in voting seriously damaged the security of the election. Also, the fact that states allowed officials to unilaterally change voting laws that only the legislature has the power to alter should be considered illegal and unconstitutional.
All that being the case, there is no proof showing these issues helped “steal” the election for Joe Biden, and Trump’s inarticulate, unnuanced rhetoric only serves to make things worse and likely comes off as unappealing to the mainstream public.
The president also put out an incredibly troubling tweet that seemed to make excuses for the rioters, saying, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred election victory is … stripped away.”
It is important for conservatives to pursue election integrity through Democratic processes, but crying about a “stolen election” doesn’t help anyone, and it doesn’t improve the party’s standing with the American people.
Add that to the many uncomfortable images of pro-Trump rioters storming the U.S. Capitol and you have what amounts to a perfectly crafted narrative for Democrats to bark out for the next several years.
Then the Dems Couldn’t Help Themselves
Thankfully, enough is never enough for Democrats.
By overplaying their hand with inordinate exaggerations and insane, over-the-top calls to action, Democrats blew their chances to capitalize on this situation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went so far as to claim Trump committed an “act of sedition.” Similarly, her colleague in the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called the incursion “an insurrection against the United States, incited by President Trump.”
It can be argued that Trump’s “stolen election” rhetoric exacerbated the problem, although similar arguments would have to be made for Democrats such as Pelosi and Schumer, who forwarded the false narrative of anti-black prejudice in American policing, which undoubtedly exacerbated the many riots that occurred at Black Lives Matter rallies throughout 2020.
That being said, Trump repeatedly called for peace and told rioters to “go home.”
And I think that Trump’s handling of the situation was HORRIBLE, but you can’t pin this on him when he actively spoke out against it 1,000x stronger than #BlackLivesMatter ever spoke out against their own radical rioters and violent extremists.
— Michael Austin (@mikeswriting) January 7, 2021
He obviously wasn’t leading an “insurrection,” and nothing Trump has said thus far constitutes an “act of sedition.” Anyone with common sense can see that.
Invoking the Black Lives Matter Protests Was the Nail in the Coffin
The Democrats then made their biggest mistake — they tried to make Jan. 6 a race issue.
Numerous liberal voices and Democratic politicians have since argued that the police response to the Capitol incursion would have been deadlier if more protesters had been black.
Most notably, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris made such arguments.
You know what, Joe Biden’s right. BLM was treated very differently. pic.twitter.com/hyDMwKJbcd
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) January 7, 2021
Why would this be the message? Why throw more fuel on the fire? And it’s not even accurate. The police shot and killed a rioter, arrested 60~.
Biden transition has said they want to lower the temperature. Start by not making things about race that have nothing to do with race. https://t.co/IopfVXCI5b
— John Noonan (@noonanjo) January 8, 2021
This is where Democrats completely and unequivocally lost the narrative.
People remember the riots of 2020. They remember the looting, the destruction of businesses and the killings.
They also remember that at every turn, Democrats ridiculously defended those riots as the cries of the unheard and the oppressed.
No conservative has done a better job of pointing out this hypocrisy than Matt Walsh, a podcast host and writer at The Daily Wire.
What DC looked like after a BLM protest in May: pic.twitter.com/yjDNeQrfFP
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 6, 2021
Here are BLM rioters destroying a Minneapolis police precinct and not getting shot, tear gassed, or thrown in an unmarked police van. #MakesYaThink pic.twitter.com/nXvSpfwm5j
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 7, 2021
“When BLM shows up, that’s when the cops sit on their hands because they don’t want to be accused of racism. That’s the reality; we’ve all seen it. We’re just going to pretend we didn’t,” Walsh said on his podcast Thursday.
“If you’re curious, just go to Google. You can find loads of videos of people just setting things on fire, strolling in, taking what they want, assaulting pedestrians.”
Walsh then explained how in one video from a protest in New York that “somebody runs up and bashes a cop over the head with a brick.”
The above example is even worse than I said. The BLMer smashed a cop with a break [sic], he wasn’t shot for it but a cop did unholster his weapon, and the mayor of the city immediately called for the cop to be fired. That’s how BLM is treated. Protected at the highest levels.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 7, 2021
“So that is total nonsense. It’s especially nonsense when you consider that the cops yesterday killed somebody. They shot one of these people and killed them,” Walsh continued, referring to 35-year-old Air Force veteran and Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by a Capitol Police officer during the incursion.
Unlike George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake, Babbitt won’t be celebrated as a martyr. Her death hasn’t been covered ad nauseam by establishment media outlets as a gross injustice.
There are two reasons for this — she’s white and she was a right-winger.
This is because leftists have convinced themselves that the aforementioned shooting victims from the past year were shot because they were black, despite the absence of a shred of evidence supporting that claim.
“If it was the exact same situation,” Walsh continued, “but they’re carrying BLM flags and she’s black instead of white, the outrage today would be unlike anything you have every seen.”
“We all know that. And there would be more rioting in response to it. Instead, is there any outrage? Nobody cares.”
Conservatives Condemned All Riots; Democrats Didn’t
In the end, perhaps the greatest takeaway from Jan. 6 is this: While the overwhelming majority of conservative voices condemned the Capitol incursion, few Democrats condemned the many 2020 left-wing riots that devastated cities across the nation for months.
Americans will remember how both parties conducted themselves. They can see through the lies and obfuscations.
Most of all, they are tired of liberals making everything a race issue.
If Democrats just could have acted like adults and bitten their tongues, this might have been a huge cultural victory for them.
Thankfully, they just couldn’t help themselves.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
