My trap card has been activated. I play "Personal PTSD".
January, 6th 2021 was not fucking, “bare speculation that third parties might interact with the individuals President Trump comments on”.
Through social media posts, he summoned up a goddamned army of lunatics to overthrow my goddamned country. They captured the Capitol of the United States of my fucking America. I'm so pissed off I could fucking choke.
I watched 01/06 go down live on CNN, all fucking day. Anyone else? I can't watch 60-seconds of those videos, not 60 damned seconds. The fear and anger and revulsion and hate and revenge lust, I can't do it. Can anyone else? Now I truly know what "triggered" means.
I'd comment more, but I can't think straight, and the words "gallows and a mass grave for traitors" don't generally get good reception.
But seriously, his social media posts are harmless, just a man practicing free speech.
I watched it live and was pretty underwhelmed the whole time. The coverage really didn't capture the gravity of the violence imo. It just seemed like people lazily walking past barricates. I didn't even realize that shit was going down until well into the day when there were reports of injuries.
It definitely depended on the feed, but there was some violent window smashing and screaming/yelling/trying to break down doors.
The news crews really weren't set up for "action movie" style coverage with all the key points of interest. That's part of why it didn't "look" that bad. Like, if you look at most gas station robberies, they don't look that bad either ... because the angles aren't dramatic, they don't make you "feel" the moment.
Trump's called those seditionists "hostages" in a speech the other day.
EDIT: Also, January 6th was the day I quit my online gaming group. I just didn't feel like having that sort of magical fantasy life when this shit was happening for a while. I regret it now, but the group broke up anyway (not because of me quitting).
I was shocked that it happened, but I knew it wasn't going to amount to anything. I'm actually surprised that only one of those fuckers got shot. What sickens me more is I'm probably distantly related to her (her last name is my mom's maiden name).
It really almost did though. There should be a statue of that black capital police officer that drew the mob away from the senate chamber without firing a shot.
A hundred or two hundred people couldn't overthrow the government. They could certainly hurt prominent people and cause mayhem, but it wouldn't have a serious effect on our country's government, it's not like they could start passing laws and affecting the country's infrastructure, like what happens in Coup d'etats in third world countries or where this is a heavy militia behind it. It got out of control because they didn't use lethal force until absolutely necessary. If they said "get any closer and we open fire" it would have been over in a few minutes once all those pussies started seeing their other "freedom fighters" gunned down in front of them. self preservation is the first law of nature. They would have scattered like cockroaches at the first sight of light.
You're getting down voted, but I think your point makes sense ... at least on the surface.
Ultimately though, it would've caused a constitutional crisis if Congress was unable to swear in Biden. It would basically be up to the courts to decide who the president is, and Trump could presumably ask for emergency powers from the reduced head count (likely of loyalists) in Congress ... which would've created further conditional crises. Not to mention martial law was something Trump's team (it hasn't yet been proven to be spoken of directly by Trump or to Trump) was considering using along with the instruction act to squash protest.
Basically, it would've depended on two things:
What the courts did
What the military did
And that's never where you want your government to be. It might not have made the table collapse itself, but it certainly would've made the table wobbly and put it in a weakened position where it could be much more easily smashed.
It really depends on how much faith you have in institutional leaders and members of those institutions to "see through" the county. If the military leaders or a large majority of the rank and file went "TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP" and state governors got behind the overthrow (or didn't react quickly enough to replace important seats in Congress) that probably would've spelled the end of the US.
Fortunately, we didn't have to find out how that version of the story ends.
I think a lot of people are exaggerating the outcomes, yeah it may have delayed having Biden sworn in, but not by long. Also I don't think Trump could have outright instated Martial Law, especially when he was the one causing the disruptions. The president isn't all powerful, the system of checks and balances exist, and not everyone was for Trump in the government, so there definitely would have been pushback against a lot of things. For all we know, if it actually did happen, he could have been forceably evicted from the office and charged with treason outright for essentially becoming a dictator. Stuff like this has never happened in our country so whose to say what would happen exactly.
Like you said, it definitely would have made things messy for a bit, but I highly doubt it would have led to "the downfall of the US". Hell, The Civil War couldn't even bring the downfall of the US over 150 years ago and that was multiple states banding together with tons of guns and support, over the course of a year or longer (I forget how long it lasted). This was like 200 people with no guns, it was only scary because the Capitol Police didn't use deadly force (except in one case) so you had mobs of angry people, which is always scary no matter where it happens. I can guarantee you that if shots started to ring out, 90% or more would have said "fuck this, it isn't worth dying for" (even though they say they'd die for Trump) and ran for cover.
Of course there is always the "what ifs" that pop up and some of our imaginations tend to run wild with these things. It's important to keep a level head and look at past conflicts that have been quelled. Our government isn't a house of cards on a folding table.