Originally published at crisis magazine
By now, we are all familiar with the basic details. Four years ago today thousands of Trump supporters, including Donald Trump himself, gathered in Washington, DC to protest the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. They believed that the election was either stolen or at least rigged and that more investigations into the results were needed before certification. After the main rally, a segment of these protesters entered the Capitol Building, including the Senate chamber and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Since then almost 1,500 people have been arrested on a series of charges, ranging from assaulting a police officer to entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds.
These details are relatively uncontroversial. The interpretation of these details, however, is far more divisive. Those on the Left say that the events of that day were nothing less than an attempted insurrection by the Right, led by Donald Trump, seeking to overthrow a legitimate election and install Trump back into power by coup. It was a violent effort to destroy democracy in this country. According to this narrative, January 6, 2021 is one of the darkest days in American history.
On the other hand, those on the
