Violence evidently.
I am merely claiming that the exchange of power has always been theatrical in nature.
Theatrical? Not really. Most of the time the loser of the election simply concedes and life goes on. Even when the entire race *is* decided by less the 600 votes, we've always (throughout my lifetime) had an admission of defeat after the court process was over and a *peaceful* transfer of power. Even in the instance you cite, there was no suggestion that *multiple states rigged an election* before.
Just how heavily armed were those “violent” trespassers?
I don't know, and neither do you, but I do know they brought guns, pipes, pipe bombs and tasers, and five people lost their lives that day.
Just how many cars were burned?
Since when was that a requirement for murder or violence?
Just how much damage was done to buildings in the area?
I don't know, but I do know they spread their feces around the Capitol building, they broke windows, they broke doors and they looted and smashed furniture, some of which was quite valuable.
If this had been a BLM protest that trespassed on a State Capital in Illinois and did exactly what these people did, would this have even made the news?
If BLM had stormed the Capitol like that, there would have been *hundreds* of protesters killed and shot. Don't kid yourself. I'm *so* sick and tired of all the "whataboutism" nonsense. You guys can't and won't stick to the topic because you've been programmed to believe (falsely again) that every Democrat supports BLM. Sorry to burst your bubble, but
I do not. Violence is violence regardless of who's doing it.
Insurrection is when people start shooting and attempt to overthrow the government.
They tried. They even chanted "hang Mike Pence", they brought handcuffs and they committed murder that day.
This was trespassing to protest what they believed (probably incorrectly, but who knows the truth) was a fraudulent election result.
Listen to you. You've *also* been programmed by your leaders to repeat lies and disinformation. I *know* for a *fact* that the election results were not "fraudulent" because every single state certified their results as required by law, and the courts ruled over 60 times against your cult leader and threw his nonsense out of court, including judges that Trump himself appointed!
For the level of fanning the flames from both sides ...
There was no fanning of the flames by the Democrats. In fact Biden has gone out of his way to *not* fan the flames and he has tried to unite the country in *spite* of all the lies coming from the Republican leadership, including more than half the house and even members of the Senate.
(Democrats that want to make lists of people that support Trump so they can be made to pay after the election;
Another lie. You guys can't even discern truth from conspiracy theories anymore. Who exactly do you think is doing something like that? Mean Democratic Santa?
Republicans claiming proof of a stolen election that they never make public) ...
Do you believe that nonsense too? Why wouldn't they have brought such "proof" to court if they had it?
I thought the abuse of the Capital was actually very non-violent.
I think you'd feel very differently if the police officer that was murdered was your father or your husband or brother or someone that you loved. I think the family of the woman who was shot and killed inside the Capitol would disagree with you too.
From other real violent protests, it could have been MUCH worse. I was there when cities burned in the 60’s.
It could indeed have been much worse if the police had opened fire on the crowd in mass but they chose to not directly confront the crowd with massive force and violence. In that sense, yes, the police *chose* to make the process as least violent as possible, probably because most of the rioters were white. Had that been a BLM crowd of black people storming the Capitol, I'm sure it would have ended with a lot more protesters and police killed. I'd say the police did their absolute best to deescalate the situation and minimize the casualties. For that I am grateful, in spite of the fact that I think the rioters were committing treason.
