How The Ruling Class Fueled The Capitol Riot

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

Any investigation of the Capitol riot on January 6 must start by asking what provoked these men and women to act. While thousands showed up, roughly 200 of them managed to enter the Capitol. That small portion of Trump supporters must be held accountable, but we can't get to the bottom of this until we understand why most of the crowd—the non-violent ones—were there in the first place. 

What fueled the anger of this mob were many things, among them being the passive reaction of the ruling class to the wave of violence that encapsulated American cities in 2020. The police were told to stand down and prosecutors refused to hold the rioters accountable. When Americans saw their flags being burned, cops attacked, stores looted, and police stations set on fire—with no pushback—they knew the anarchists were winning. What they witnessed was a total collapse of authority. 

It was worse than this. Mobs took sledgehammers to statues of American icons, and trashed historic landmarks. The anarchists, most of whom were white, took great delight in sticking it to the American people. Religious symbols were also targeted. Catholic churches, schools and graveyards were vandalized, and statues of saints were toppled. All of this was done with impunity, week after week, month after month. 

The decision by Democrats in urban areas to allow their cities to be destroyed by Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters must be investigated. City mayors, city councils and city prosecutors—along with their counterparts at the state level—must be held accountable for their role in fanning the flames. They set the stage for January 6. Did they really think there would be no pushback?  

Democrats act as though the origin of the Capitol riot rests with Trump and his supporters. But choosing to focus exclusively on the rioters is myopic. It would be like focusing exclusively on the black rioters of the 1960s without ever addressing the social and economic conditions that inspired them to act. If the reason why blacks rioted in the 1960s was in response to long-standing grievances, why is it so implausible to believe that the Capitol riot was in response to long-standing grievances in the white working class community? 

One part of the probe must explain why the white working class has been demonized by the ruling class. To be specific, those who work in the media, the entertainment industry, colleges and universities, Big Tech and Wall Street have long exhibited an animus against these Trump supporters. We need to get to the origins of their pathology. 

The ruling class shares a strong anti-Christian bias. Throwing around terms like Christian Nationalism are designed to marginalize Christian voters, suggesting they are engaged in some kind of conspiracy to take over the nation. This is all madness, but it is a madness embraced by pundits and the media. 

Many of the working class are veterans, and are proudly patriotic. But patriotism is seen as provincial by elites, if not worse. Of course, most of those in the ruling class have never served a day in their life. Many are embarrassed by their country, which is why smashing American symbols and burning the American flag doesn't bother them. 

The working class is acutely aware of how the ruling class sees them. When they are called "Nazis" by TV commentators, and when their president is compared to Osama bin Laden by Democratic congressmen, it incenses them. That few in authority call out these lunatics for their lies is just as bad. 

What really gets under the skin of blue-collar workers is the sight of white privileged men and women joining Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters in burning down our cities. To cite one example, it is nauseating to watch young white brats, at least half of whom are women, leave their tony Brooklyn neighborhoods so they can take over bridges and tie up traffic. None had a permit to protest and none practiced social distancing norms. 

To sum up, the root cause of white working class fury is traceable to how the Left destroyed our cities while the ruling class looked away; this is still going on in Oregon and Washington. The fact is that leading Democrats in major urban areas nurtured a year-long culture of violence, and it was this reality that played a major role in enticing Trump supporters to swing into action. Moreover, not once in the four days of the Democratic National Convention did anyone even make reference to the anarchists. 

The sooner we get on with a serious investigation—not the kind of political farce being considered—the sooner we can prevent the kind of mayhem that took place on January 6 from ever happening again.