January 6: The Riot, the Holiday, and the Exploitation of Ignorance

As I signed and dated papers in front of a notary it sunk in, January 6th! Not the religious feast of the 3 kings prior to Orthodox Christmas; the Capital insurrection in 2021. It’s three years later and here is exploitations of ignorance. In an example of the ultimate dog whistle is Majorie Taylor Greene with a scheduled a book signing in Florida for January 6. In an example of spinning a message that relies on ignorance of the English language and US federal processes, ex president Trump on January 6, in Clinton, Iowa said “Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe.”

Rounding things out, last month, Nikki Haley, who’s only consistency is to avoid taking a position, had a crazy responses: 

Asked during a Wednesday night town hall in Berlin, New Hampshire, what she believed had caused the war — the first shots of which were fired in her home state of South Carolina — Haley talked about the role of government, replying that it involved “the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do.”

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley left out slavery when asked what caused the Civil War. Then she backtracked

During a Thursday campaign event in New Hampshire, a 9-year-old asked Haley if she would pardon Trump. Haley replied that she would. “If he is found guilty, a leader needs to think about what’s in the best interest of the country,” Haley said. “What’s in the best interest of the country is not to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail, that continues to divide our country.”

Nikki Haley Ends Her Week of Saying Stupid Things With a Gift to Trump

We’re not all stupid. It’s obvious Ms Haley didn’t want to offend anyone with the truth about the civil war, nor did she want to alienate anyone, so she said she’d pardon Donald Trump should he be convicted. If she really doesn’t understand the civil war or the politics around it, she, perhaps don’t see the irony in her responses. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe Virginia. 

Americans were divided on how or whether to punish Davis. The government could prosecute Davis for alleged participation in the Lincoln assassination, for the mistreatment of Union prisoners of war, or for leading a rebellion against the United States. U.S. president Andrew Johnson favored murder charges. Many abolitionists and lawmakers opposed punishing Davis, and instead preferred a Reconstruction plan that would punish the former Confederacy. Yet many civilians wrote the president asking for Davis to be hanged; some even volunteered to construct the gallows. The Davis issue remained prominent in public discussion in 1865 until it gave way to other Reconstruction issues, such as the rights of black freedmen. When the Lincoln conspirators’ trial failed to establish a connection to Davis, Johnson settled on treason charges.

Jefferson Davis’s Imprisonment

In the end Jefferson was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson and so began the messy ineffective road to reconstruction with Jim Crow laws enacted by southern politicians and let’s just try to keep it together and turn the other way attitude of the Northern politicians. When ex-President Trump calls those serving time for the January 6 insurrection hostages, or more specifically, the J6 hostages and Majorie Taylor Greene, who supported January 6, says her book signing event just happen to coincide, we have a pattern and a problem with the truth in an exploitation of ignorance.

January 6, 2021 by the numbers, over 1,200 charged, 460 currently imprisoned, and $2.8 million in damages to the capital. Peaceful protest and self guided tours do not incur $2.8 million in damages. The rioters are themselves divided. Some have admitted they were wrong and duped, others insists they were right. This is important. We often think of mob mentality, group think and you had to be there. This rioter divide actually demonstrates why Trump will double down with his rhetoric and keep repeating a narrative, why Majorie Taylor Green can be comfortable with her event and present herself as a victim the opposition s out to silence and finally, highlights danger of Nikki Haley’s attempt to not take a position on anything makes her a co-signer of everything, Maybe January 6 was about 3 wisemen – politicians who conveniently shift a narrative to avoid rebuke, the whistler, the manipulator and the straddler.