Despite traveling to Washington, D.C. and being arrested for participating in a violent assault on the Capitol building in an attempt to “Stop the Steal” (Read: physically prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election), it turns out that some of these insurrectionists skipped the easiest and most effective thing they could’ve done to keep Donald Trump in office: actually vote.
As the reality of the situation sets in, some of the alleged attackers have attempted to downplay their role in the MAGA coup by admitting that they didn’t even vote in the last election, which county records are proving to be true. Others have had their non-voting outed by journalists in an attempt to understand what led to the Capitol attack. For people who claimed to be committed to preserving the “Constitutional integrity of the election,” they jumped right over actually participating in the process, which has some concerning implications. Via CNN:
“When we see that significant ideological groups are stopping participating in the Democratic process, that may mean they are looking for other ways to participate, and those other ways could be more violent,” said [University of Massachusets Lowell professor Arie] Perliger, who oversees a database of right-wing extremist acts of violence in the United States. “We should be concerned if we see a growing number of ideological groups are reducing their involvement in electoral politics.”
A recent Wall Street Journal report has also shown that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones played an even larger in organizing the rally-turned-coup than he originally boasted. On top of covering a significant amount of the cost, Jones was also responsible for using siege-like rhetoric to incite attendees. “DC becomes FORT TRUMP starting tomorrow on my orders!” he apparently tweeted before the event.
(Via CNN & Wall Street Journal)