“The assault was defeated, in a momentum swing of about an hour, and with an historical minimum of serious casualties. That it could be put down so easily is a testiment to American institutions. A federal democracy, with powers shared and divided at many levels among executives, legislatures, and courts, there is no place to turn the switch that controls everything. Decentralized democracies like the USA can have civil wars-- if geographical splits are severe enough and include the armed forces; but it cannot have coups at the top or revolutions in the Capitol.”

“In this lull, the emotional mood will drain away unless there is something for the crowd to do. Looting is a way to keep the riot going-- sometimes along with arson, even if it means burning your own neighbourhood; the smoke and flames in the sky carry a visual message of how serious the situation is. And looting is made possible, and easy, because police are visibly absent. Without opposition, the atmosphere is like a holiday; and at least temporarily it is a victory over the absent enemy. Looting is emotionally easy; there is no face-to-face confrontation. It provides a kind of pseudo-victory over the symbols of the enemy.”

“This was the atmosphere in which Trump supporters, polarized against the BLM protests, the left-dominated media, and the congressional Democrats, acquired the emotional conviction that their country was being taken from them. The slogan of the stolen vote was a symbol of this larger feeling. Trump fed it with his rallies, ritualistic emotional-energy generators that swing belief into line with a surge of collective feeling.”

“…it is typical in riots that the great majority of the crowd are onlookers and noise-making supporters; only about 10 percent or less of the persons seen in riot photos are actually doing something violent, engaging the other side. It may well be the case that those who carry the battle are specialists in violence, as Charles Tilly calls them, tough guys, athletes and weapons specialists on either side of the law. (One of those charged at the Capitol was an Olympic gold-medalist swimmer.)”

“Trump’s emotional addiction to rallies took him down the slope of political psychosis, the delusion that the size of his crowds meant he couldn’t possibly have lost the popular vote-- a delusion shared by the rallies themselves.

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The Capitol Police Chief also said he didn’t like the impression it would give if armed troops were photographed around the Capitol; a sentiment echoed by some military officials.

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The shooting was done by a Capitol Police lieutenant, which appears to have turned the tide. Heavily armored SWAT teams effectively mopped up die-hard resistance.

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Except fore that shooting, the weaponry used on both sides was surprisingly low-level.

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The most striking thing about the violence at the Capitol is that so little of it came from gunfire.”