Don't be silly, rich people can't be criminals
The excuses made about January 6 and how they enable fascism
(Tyler Merbler, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
Four years ago rich people tried to do a coup. As I’m typing this, a few hours earlier today the new Congress certified the results of the 2024 election, with victor and convicted felon Donald Trump now set to fully take office in two weeks. It’s a far different picture than four years ago when rich people tried to do a coup.
What happened on Jan. 6, 2021 is clear enough. A group of people who wrongly believed Trump won the 2020 election marched on the Capitol and stormed through barricades and attacked police, barging into the halls of Congress. Elements of the right, including election deniers, think that it was somehow a FBI false flag or not that big of a deal or somehow the people who erected a gallows and tried to hunt down members of Congress and the then vice president were peaceful protesters. They’re wrong. What somehow isn’t clear is an understanding of who it was that took part in that violent mob four years ago.
Somehow a stereotype or assumption or joke about Hallmark movie tropes formed that these were somehow working class people or hicks or people from rural areas. That could not be farther from the truth. It was rich people. These were hundreds of people who had the money and resources to travel from around the country — and court cases and convictions prove they did — to the nation’s capital, to book hotels including at the Trump hotel in D.C., to show up in expensive combat gear or clothes. These were realtors, car dealership owners, bankers and in many cases current or former cops. Historian Patrick Wyman wrote a fantastic article about this, describing these people as “the American gentry, the salt-of-the-earth millionaires who see themselves as local leaders in business and politics, the unappreciated backbone of a once-great nation.” He correctly identifies the mindset of this type of wealthy class, powerful and controlling in their communities but not new Silicon Valley robber baron rich. But for some reason that idea that it was poor, misinformed hicks that traveled to D.C. four years ago has persisted.
One area in which it hasn’t persisted is with other people in power or influence. Part of why the right-wing effort to push for these people’s pardons has such traction, beyond general outrage by the right, is that these are donors and wealthy people. But also, there’s a certain privilege and position, that others in similar levels notice. On Sunday, Margaret Brennan was interviewing Nancy Pelosi on Face the Nation. There she brought up the criminal cases of Jan. 6 and said this: “About half of those who broke into the Capitol were white-collar workers. They were small business owners, didn't necessarily have a criminal record.”
Watch for yourself (at the 4:18 mark):
Brennan goes on to to ask about “intent” versus the actual crime they were charged with. But let’s look at that quote again. It’s a startling question because it implies some people are more deserving of immunity than others. If they were blue-collar workers would that change things? If they were employees at a car dealership rather than the boss? Because the people Brennan is describing are rich. When she says “small business owners” this isn’t some mom and pop corner store on Main Street. These are people who have the means to make the trek to do crime. Money and class privilege doesn’t give someone immunity. But it’s also something some of the insurrectionists themselves espoused. Take the case of Jenna Ryan, a Texas-based realtor and life coach who had one of the more high profile cases of the hundreds of convictions. Ryan not only flew on a private plane to take part in the riot, but she also livestreamed herself storming the Capitol (if there’s one underlying unifying feature to the Jan. 6 rioters, it’s that they all seem to not understand the Stringer Bell Rule). Two months after storming the Capitol, she tweeted “Definitely not going to jail. Sorry I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I'm not going to jail. Sorry to rain on your hater parade. I did nothing wrong.”
Ryan would indeed serve jail time (only 60 days, after pleading guilty to the charges against her). But Ryan’s tweet from 2021 and Brennan’s question this Sunday go hand in hand. Maybe it all says something greater about how our society perceives criminals. And although Brennan specifically is talking about the people only charged with trespassing (in the Capitol, as part of a violent mob out to storm Congress and do a coup) and not directly assaulting people or planting pipe bombs (something that still hasn’t been solved) her comment is jarring. The abundance of video and testimony from Jan. 6, 2021 shows screaming, loud and violent Trump supporters — again many have been convicted of assault. But they own businesses and have decorated homes in the suburbs or nice parts of New York or Dallas or the greater D.C. area! Surely someone with an expensive F-150 can’t be some violent criminal!
It’s not a new mindset or belief. It’s both an example of the militant reactionary attitude many well off Americans have, perceiving their way of life under siege from any sign of poverty or difference or even minor inconvenience. And it’s the way that many mainstream pundits try to excuse it away because such crimes lack any cliche or stereotypical appearance. Are the people who stormed the Capitol four years ago representative of the millions who voted for Trump? Not really. There are too many differences in income and lived experiences to be that. But they see themselves as class allies with Trump, both entitled to lives of convenience and believing they are above any consequence for their actions. And with Trump soon to be back in power and these people having a good chance of being pardoned, that might be true. After all, they have money.
Panic updates!
Good news! Let’s Do the Panic Again is moving to a new platform. It’s been fun here but since Substack has gotten into bed with pro-censorship, pro-fascist if not outright fascist people, lets hate be published on its platform and is now working with bad faith “free speech” leader Bari Weiss, it’s time to pack it up and move to a new home. This newsletter will be moving to Ghost or Beehiiv. Still determining which one but it should be within a day and it should hopefully be seamless. If you subscribe it shouldn’t impact you.
I appreciate everyone reading. I’m just a journalist currently working three jobs to get by, I find myself frazzled, unable to keep a steady schedule with this and surprised anyone wants to read my work. I promise this is actually going to get updated more regularly this year. In fact, a new, longer piece drops in the morning and I have more stuff planned for this week. Again, thank you for reading, here’s to a new home, and join me going forward as we continue to have anxiety about our current reality.