January 6th was NOT an Insurrection
Calling January 6th an insurrection is an insult to actual insurrections.
The CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle, Washington, was arguably more successful than January 6th.
The Business Plot
These corporations would come together, and through the Wall Street bonds salesman Gerald C. MacGuire would ask Smedley Butler to lead a fascist coup of 500,000 men against the United States government.
Smedley Butler is a decorated war hero who remains an influential historical figure of the early 20th century. When he died in 1940 of intestinal cancer, he was the most decorated Marine in history and is one of 19 people to receive the Medal of Honor twice.
To summarize the kind of person he was, when he first earned the medal of honor, he tried to give it back. He didn’t feel as if he had earned it.
Smedley Butler is one of the very few historical figures who is a good person, even by today’s standards.
However, Smedley Butler is a hero from a dark time in American military history. He didn’t fight the fascists in World War II. He didn’t fight the South in the Civil War. He fought in the Banana Wars, conflicts in Central America meant to secure the interests of American fruit companies. Not only that, but he rigged elections in Nicaragua and Haiti. He fought rebels in the Philippines and the Boxers in China.
He didn’t fight to protect American people or our freedoms. He fought for American corporations and their profits.
After he left the military, Butler became a staunch anti-war, anti-fascist, and anti-capitalist activist. He’s the man behind the War is a Racket Speech. The speech is an early precursor to Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex.
“WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
In 1932, 43,000 people, which consisted of veterans, friends, and family, gathered in Washington, D.C., in what is now known as the Bonus Army.
When these soldiers joined up during World War I, they were given Bonus Bonds that would mature in 1945. However, by 1932, the Great Depression was in full swing, and many of them needed the money from their bonds now. Some sold their bonds to banks for a pittance to get some easy cash, others held on, desperate for some of the money they were promised.
The Bonus Army marched on Washington, D.C., protesting for their bonuses to be paid out early.
The media labeled them as vagrants and troublemakers.
President Herbert Hoover ordered them to be driven out. Douglas MacArthur and George Patton led 1,800 men and six tanks to drive the Bonus Army off. When they were gone, their camp was burned. Two veterans, William Hushka and Eric Carlton, were shot and later died.
After Herbert Hoover’s contentious administration, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president. His more hands-on approach to the economy led to blowback from corporations, especially Wall Street and banks.
These corporations would come together, and through the Wall Street bonds salesman Gerald C. MacGuire would ask Smedley Butler to lead a fascist coup of 500,000 men against the United States government.
Sources vary on who would become the American Mussolini. Butler told friends that General Hugo S. Johnson, then head of FDR’s National Recovery Administration, would become dictator. While others state the Plot wanted Butler to take the role, consigning FDR to a mere figurehead.
When I say fascist, I mean fascist. I don’t mean “a vaguely right-wing thing I don’t like,” not “the bad orange man.” The coup would be acting in concert with The American Legion, an overtly fascist veterans’ organization that tried to invite Benito Mussolini to speak at their conferences. They often worked with corporations to break up worker strikes. Alvin Owsley, a Legion commander, had this to say about Italian fascism:
If ever needed, The American Legion stands ready to protect our country’s institutions and ideals as the Fascisti dealt with the destructionists who menaced Italy! … The American Legion is fighting every element that threatens our democratic government — Soviets, anarchists, IWW, revolutionary socialists and every other red … Do not forget that the Fascisti are to Italy what The American Legion is to the United States.
-Alvin Owsley Legion Commander
Who would be fighting in this Wall Street Putsch? Smedley Butler regularly gave speeches to the Bonus Army and protested for their cause. He reassured them that they weren’t tramps and vagrants. He reminded them of their accomplishments during his speeches.
“You have just as much right to have a lobby here as any steel corporation . . . Makes me so damn mad, a whole lot of people speak of you as tramps. By God, they didn’t speak of you as tramps in 1917 and ’18.”
It would be these men and other disgruntled veterans and Americans who would march, armed and paid, on Washington, D.C., ready to install a fascist dictator.
The Business Plot had serious backing. These men would be financed by JPMorgan Chase and the DuPont chemical company. They would be armed with Remington Rifles.
The Business Plot was building on growing anti-communist sentiment (mostly against the “Socialist” policies of FDR) and the very real violent actions the American government had taken against its own veterans with the Bonus Army.
If Gerald C. MacGuire asked anyone else, any other human being, there was a very real chance armed, paid, and ready soldiers would have marched on the capital to instate a fascist government.
On January 6th, about a thousand protesters got into the Capitol building. One protester, Ashli Babbit was shot and killed. The protest lasted six hours.
They had about a thousand people and a vague motive, that was it.
No objectives were accomplished. No ground was taken. No demands were made or met.
The CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle, Washington, was arguably more successful than January 6th.
You could bring up Stewart Rhodes, the “mastermind” behind January 6th, who purchased a “small arsenal” of guns and ammo beforehand. Guns that never made it to the Capitol. He’s been convicted on seditious conspiracy and terrorism charges and is going to prison for 18 years.
He and nine other members of his militia were convicted.
Nine out of a thousand. No other protesters are confirmed to be a part of his or any other militia.
The only real guns that made it to the Capitol was a .40 caliber handgun carried by Guy Wesley Reffitt who, to my knowledge, is not affiliated with Stewart Rhodes. He never used it. Neither did Mark Ibrahim, photographed with his 9mm.
Other weapons charges were brought against people who brought pepper spray or a taser. I’m not kidding.
I want to make one point abundantly clear. There is no reality in which January 6th succeeds or comes close to succeeding. What if Stewart Rhodes and his nine accomplices brought their “small arsenal”? How much of a difference would that have made? What if Guy Reffitt used his gun?
Well, he’s not John Wick, and Stewart Rhodes wasn’t leading a special forces squad, so I doubt very much.
In the process of writing this article, some new footage came to light. Security footage from January 6th was released by Speaker Mike Johnson. You can watch it here.
This is by far the most orderly insurrection I’ve seen.
For Contrast
An Actual Coup
In the featured image for this article, I included a picture from Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. This coup succeeded and installed a military junta government. In response, armed insurgents and remnants of the old government have been duking it out with the junta government ever since.
Sorry (not sorry) if I don’t see the comparison between these events and a six-hour protest.
While writing this article, Donald Trump has been removed from two (blue) state ballots, Colorado and Maine. The State Supreme Court of Colorado and the State Secretary of State of Maine have done this under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Did Donald Trump provide arms? No, he didn’t. He didn’t get Stewart Rhodes’ nine-man team their “small arsenal” or Guy Wesley Reffit his one pistol. Did he fund them? Again, no. He hasn’t even funded their legal defense. Was he the logistical and tactical organizer of the event? Again, no.
So how does Donald Trump get thrown off the ballot again? Well, with his inflammatory tweets, of course. Handy timeline here.
In place of funding, arms, and administrative support, we have this vague tweet talking about a “big, wild protest.” At this point, that’s all they have.
Because that’s about the only place where Trump has power. In office, he was practically impotent, with a tax cut being his major political victory.
But online, where he has a little bit of power and influence, uncorralled by regulatory agencies and established laws and processes, he’s “dangerous” and on par with Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.
It’s only on Twitter that they can construe Trump as having “engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” never mind the fact he hasn’t even been charged with that crime.
That’s part of why a prosecution of public opinion wants Trump thrown off the ballot and protestors thrown in prison on terrorism charges. There’s another.
Why prosecute January 6th? Why make Everest out of a molehill?
It’s a political slam-dunk.
You may remember the Russian Interference conspiracy. The ever-evolving idea that interference from Vladimir Putin helped put Trump in office. From election hacking to internet bots spreading disinformation, this conspiracy is still being circulated today.
For years, Democrats and Never Trump Republicans persecuted an investigation into Trump and his campaign. Mueller, the whistleblower, the Steele Dossier, and even Piss Gate. The ever-shifting goal posts for this conspiracy theory are mind-blowing.
After 2020, Democrats and Never Trump Republicans were staring down the barrel of the exact same thing. Years of investigation into election fraud, potential audits, hearings, whistleblowers, etc.
How do you stop that? How do you prevent that from happening?
By claiming that doing so is an attempt to overthrow our democracy.
It’s also the perfect argument to use against Trump and his faction of Republicans. “You guys tried to usurp our democracy!”
It adds fuel to “Trump is Literally Hitler” and “Republikkkans are literally Nazis.” Of course it’s going to be blown out of proportion. Of course it’s going to be called “The darkest day of our democracy.” Democrats would be stupid not to use it in such a manner.
The people who perpetrate the Russian interference conspiracy but call skepticism over our elections “dangerous” are all fucking hypocrites and should be called such.
But they didn’t storm the capital and try to “overthrow” an election, so it’s all okay.
I wasn’t going to bring up what happened with Rashida Tlaib, but let me drive my point deeper.
After the October 7th attack in Israel-Palestine, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib gave a (in-person, not on Twitter) misinformed, anti-Semitic speech in front of the Capitol. Immediately afterward, protestors stormed the Capitol and scuffled with police.
Is this an insurrection? No, absolutely not. But if you’re going to nail Stewart Rhodes with terrorism charges and Trump with “leading an insurrection,” then you are required to nail these protestors with terrorism and charge Tlaib.
If you’re going to go after the January 6th protestors for trying to change the outcome of an election, then you have to go after those people for trying to change our foreign policy with violence and force. You have to charge Tlaib for inciting it.
Be fucking consistent.
No one will, of course. Republicans are too divided and impotent, and Democrats aren’t going to go after one of “the Squad.” It would be a PR nightmare. Republicans would pounce, and we can’t have that.
I brought up Smedley Butler, the Business Plot, and Rashida Tlaib to provide a contrast. A very real threat to our republic and a similar occurrence. A group that had money, guns, people, a reason, objectives, and leaders. All of which hinged on one man, one man who knew and did better.
No one got in trouble over the Business Plot.
An investigation was held by the McCormack-Dickstein Committee. At the end of their hearings, they concluded that the fascist threat was very real and came very close to succeeding.
Even with this conclusion in hand, none of the companies or people involved got into trouble. Not DuPont, not Remington, not J.P. Morgan. I’m even willing to bet you’ve never heard of the Business Plot until now.
If anything, January 6th proves the strength of our democracy and republic. Some people came and stormed a government building with the hope of installing Trump, and life continued within six hours. Joe Biden became our president, and January 6th became less than a bump in the road.
If you’ve made it this far and are still convinced that January 6th was a coup on par with Napoleon, Franco, Pinochet and Hitler, then consider this:
One thousand people, out of the most armed population on the planet, from a political party known for gun ownership, showed up to the Capitol with two actual guns, and the whole thing lasted six hours.
Be very fucking serious right now.
January 6th was not an insurrection. It was a protest that got wildly out of hand. If someone broke or stole something or brought a weapon where they weren’t supposed to, charge them. But don’t blow this protest out of proportion.
This has been Michael Vincent Hawthorne, with the Midnight Variety Hour starting off 2024 and my one-year anniversary of writing with a bang.
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