Democrat/Leftist/Anti-Republican protesters have been taking over state houses and disrupting legislative proceedings multiple times in the past couple of months. It’s not like it’s a new tactic.
I’m so old I remember the insurrection against Scott Walker in Wisconsin during 2011-2012.
It was what I called Wisconsin’s Long, Strange Trip, on which we had exhaustive coverage:
Police insurrections. Palace guards. Catch a Senator contests. Doctors behaving badly. Massive national solidarity protests which weren’t. Identity theft as political theater. Shark jumping. Legislators who run away to other states. Bus bang bangs. Protesters locking their heads to metal railings and pretending to walk like Egyptians. Beer attacks. Canoe flotillas. (alleged) Judicial chokeholds. Tears falling on Che Guevara t-shirts at midnight. Endless recalls. And recounts. Communications Directors making threats. Judges who think they are legislators (well, I’ll grant you that one is common). V-K Day. Hole-y warriors. Cities named Speculation and Conjecture.
Windows were smashed to gain entry, as protesters pushed through police guarding the doors.
The capture and occupation of the Wisconsin State House was violent, it took over a legislative building, and disrupted legislative proceedings. The purpose was to replace the duly-elected Wisconsin government.
A Republican State Senator was chased down:
A bus carrying Republican legislators was attacked:
But Democrats and the media believe the term “insurrection” only can apply to the January 6 riot. (As before, my position is that the J6 riot should not have taken place, but it has been exploited by Democrats and the media who have lied about it repeatedly, including false claims that police were killed.)
There is a concerted media effort to demand that state house disruptions not be called an insurrection. On April 14, 2023, The Washington Post ran a laundry list of offenders:
The Associated Press ran an article on April 28, 2023, GOP uses state capitol protests to redefine ‘insurrection’:
Legal experts say the term insurrection has a specific meaning — a violent uprising that targets government authority.That’s how dictionaries described it in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the term was added to the Constitution and the 14th Amendment, said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard University.Protests at the capitols in Montana and Tennessee didn’t involve violence or any real attempts to dismantle or replace a government, so it’s wrong to call them insurrections, Tribe said.Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, said insurrection is understood as a coordinated attempt to overthrow government.“Disrupting things is a far cry from insurrection,” Gerhardt said. “It’s just a protest, and protesters are not insurrectionists.”Nevertheless, conservative social media commentators and bloggers have used the word insurrection alongside videos of protesters at state capitols in attempts to equate those demonstrations to the Jan. 6 attack….Republicans’ use of the term insurrection in these cases isn’t just wrong, it’s also strategic, said Yotam Ophir, a University at Buffalo communications professor who focuses on misinformation. Repeating a loaded term over and over makes it lose its meaning and power, he said .
Because AP article run in newspapers across the country, the story has been widely shared.
This is now a major media theme, such as this MSNBC segment:
Sorry, the word “insurrection” has been weaponized against people attenting protests at the Capitol on January 6 who committed no violence, and are being charged with misdemeanors such as “parading” and various forms of trespassing. No one has actually been charged with insurrection. Yet even old ladies who spent minutes inside the building walking through open doors are meeting the full force of the DOJ police power.
So as not to upset the media, please stop calling things “insurrections” even when they are insurrectiony.
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