January 6th Was a White Nationalist Insurrection

And we are not done crushing it

Micah Sifry
GEN
Published in
5 min readJan 5, 2022

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Screencap from Justice Department footage of the January 6th Capitol attack

One year after thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, temporarily preventing the certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, the most troubling aspect of that day is the way the MAGA faction has managed to suppress nearly all dissent among Republicans about what happened that day and what it means.

From Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who will become House Speaker if the Republicans retake the majority next year, to the Wall Street Journal’s editors, the backsliding has been abysmal. In the days after the attack, McCarthy insisted Trump bore responsibility for the mob’s actions. The Journal denounced him for “lying” to his supporters about the election. It took just a few days for McCarthy to fly down to Mar-a-Lago to be photographed grinning with Trump. Now the Journal publishes opeds arguing that “the idea that the Capitol rioters threatened the American republic is a fantasy.” If you want a full accounting of Republican hypocrisy, the #NeverTrump writers at The Bulwark like Mona Charen and Charlie Sykes are out with fresh recaps.

It’s easy to get discouraged by polls showing that most Republicans want Trump to run for president again, and that January 6th has left little overall mark on public attitudes toward the GOP. But…

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Micah Sifry
GEN
Writer for

Co-founder Civic Hall. Publisher of The Connector newsletter (theconnector.substack.com)