January 6th, 2021

The events which transpired on January 6th, 2021, are erroneously regarded by many as an “attack” or the “downfall” of “democracy” or that of “American society”. However, this belies the truth about that day — a day when the lion’s share of protestors congregated peacefully at the United States Capitol to protest the injustices of a stolen election.

The fact of the matter is that the 2020 presidential election was indeed fraught with major issues. The election was compromised, plain and simple, not just by suspicious statistical anomalies but by documented instances of voter fraud (in such cases as Fulton County, Georgia) and the deliberate suppression of critical information — including the truth around the Hunter Biden laptop scandal — which (if released) would have no doubt altered the outcome of the election.

Ultimately, the January 6th protests at the Capitol Building are consistent with the very spirit of America’s forefathers and the patriots who have long maintained a tradition of bringing grievances directly to the doorstep of government. 

Indeed, it is in the absence of sufficient pushback from the governed that the state becomes powerful enough to insulate itself from public scrutiny. Apprehension and eternal vigilance toward government constitute the very qualities of Americans which have helped distinguish them from the rest of the world, and which have enabled Americans to assert and defend the truth along with their inalienable rights.

This contrasts with the mobs of the Left, who bring riots to the streets to disturb the lives of their fellow men who haven’t assumed a public trust through careers in government, who individually possess insufficient power to effect any meaningful change, and who seek simply to go about their days unmolested; and it is in this regard that the Leftist mobs are lacking not only coherent direction but an effective means to accomplish anything more than the progressive destruction and division they bring about within the communities to which their influence — ideological or physical — has spread. 

Of course, none of this keeps the Leftists from fancying themselves “progressive”, even as their influence never fails to bring violence, decadence, and dilapidation wherever they prevail. 

But, of course, as with their general view on things, the loss of life and the destruction of property that come as a consequence of their “mostly peaceful protests” are deemed mere costs of civilization, a righting of wrongs — perfectly in keeping with their attitudes on theft and looting, which they regard as “justice” or righteous “redistribution”. 

So, when the January 6th protestors brought their grievances to the doorstep of government, the Leftists within the establishment sounded all of the alarms, and they continue to do so — as they see it, they are members of the elite and thus untouchable. 

And so the Leftists have sounded the alarms ever since, making sure to send an unmistakable signal to the masses: “You who have grievances are not welcome on the doorsteps of government, and you who wish to make demands, with force if necessary, will be met swiftly with the heavy hand of ‘justice’.” 

As far as the Leftists in power see it, those patriotic Americans who remain should consider themselves fortunate enough that they can still visit the Jefferson Memorial, and that the men of the Revolution haven’t been altogether erased from American history books. 

As those Leftists in power see it, they (the Leftists) are the source of all things good and righteous, and to the extent that they are met with “eternal vigilance” in the flesh, they will sound the alarms to rally their henchmen to do their bidding in the streets — to make life miserable enough for the decent and the disciplined that they will have every reason to steer clear of meaningful political expression; one of the clever means by which thoughtful opposition is silenced and conformity is assured in a state which fancies itself “progressive”. 

Author’s Note

Not only were the United States (in the plural) declared and made independent through resistance, protest, and rebellion, but the Founding generation openly defended political demonstrations, resistance, and — when necessary — rebellion as essential safeguards of liberty, including after independence. 

Thomas Jefferson penned just such remarks in 1787: “What country can preserve its liberties, if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.” 

In response to Shays’s Rebellion, Jefferson likewise argued that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” viewing popular uprisings as natural and even healthy checks on government power. He also endorsed the Revolutionary maxim “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God,” reflecting his belief that resistance rested on moral as well as political grounds. 

James Madison echoed this sentiment in his own writings. In Federalist No. 49, he affirmed that “the people are the only legitimate fountain of power.” In Federalist No. 40, he argued that abuses of authority are most often traceable to those who govern, not to the people themselves. 

In Federalist No. 51, Madison warned that when factions are able to unite and oppress others, the result is a form of tyranny indistinguishable from anarchy — hence the need for both constitutional safeguards and continued popular vigilance. 

Samuel Adams was even more explicit. In The Rights of the Colonists (1772), he grounded American rights in natural law and Christian moral duty, urging citizens to study both the rights of mankind and the principles of just government. Later, he famously declared, “If ye love wealth better than liberty… crouch down and lick the hands which feed you,” making clear that submission to usurpation was incompatible with a state of liberty and incongruent with the kind of citizenship necessary within a republic. 

George Mason, the principal author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, repeatedly warned that peoples who surrender their liberties risk falling into permanent subjugation. He insisted that no such institution of ‘just government’ can be preserved except through adherence to justice, moderation, and virtue, and through frequent recurrence to fundamental principles — thereby affirming the people’s right to resist governments that abandon those foundations. 

John Adams likewise justified resistance. In 1765, he wrote that “resistance to sudden violence, for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs, and my life, but of my property… is an indisputable right of nature.” Throughout his writings, Adams maintained that the American Revolution arose from long-standing resistance to unconstitutional and arbitrary power, not from momentary passion. 

Even the more order-minded and imperialistic of the Founders agreed on the principle. Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 28 that when rulers betray their trust, the people retain an original right of self-defense that supersedes all positive forms of government. 

John Jay, in Federalist No. 2, grounded American legitimacy in a people conscious of their shared identity, common rights, and collective responsibility to defend them. 

Benjamin Franklin famously warned that “those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” 

George Washington, while deeply concerned about disorder and division, nevertheless affirmed that governments exist to secure the inalienable rights of the people, and that they lose their legitimacy when they become destructive of those ends. 

Crucially, these statements were made after independence, not merely during the Revolution. 

The Founders understood protest, resistance, and even rebellion as ongoing political realities in a free society, not one-time exceptions. While they did not celebrate chaos or constant revolt, they rejected the idea that obedience and order were higher values than liberty and resistance to tyranny. 

The modern claim that the Founders opposed popular resistance is not merely mistaken — it is fundamentally ahistorical and misunderstanding the attitudes and ideas which distinguished the rugged American from the rest of the world; the "rugged American" whose personal courage is perhaps best captured by the memories and legacies of the American West, as one John Wayne is said to have so eloquently put it: "The West — the very words go straight to that place of the heart where Americans feel the spirit of pride in their western heritage — the triumph of personal courage over any obstacle, whether nature or man."