Beware of history relived - January 6 and the Beer Hall Putsch

Opinion echo Column: We can’t let ongoing election lies become political white noise. A Jan. 6 defendant’s words show why.

By Rex Huppke published in The Chicago Tribune

Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, one of the hundreds charged in the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, broke down in tears while speaking to FBI agents: “I’m so stupid. I thought I was going to be awesome. I thought I was a good guy.”

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. A pro-Trump mob later stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and clashing with police officers. Five people died as a result. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

But, of course, Rodriguez was neither awesome nor a good guy. 

Rather, he was just a dupe. Yet, as simple as the con may be, we ignore it at our own peril. (Maine Writer- history redux:  Beer Hall Putsch!*)

Like many who have embraced former guy Donald Trump’s ongoing lie that the 2020, presidential election was stolen, Rodriguez embodied the old saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute, and two to take him.”

Now the California man stands charged with, among other things, tasing U.S. Capitol police Officer Michael Fanone, who was beaten and suffered a heart attack during the insurrection. Rodriguez is facing the possibility of decades in prison and nobody should feel sorry for him.

But it’s worth reading the nearly 200-page transcript of Rodriguez’s March 31, interview with FBI agents to see the shameless mental havoc wreaked by people like Trump and every Republican politician and pundit pimping, or even playing footsie with, a profoundly false election narrative.

Most recognize that, (truth!)but those who continue spreading it are unconcerned with collateral damage to people or democracy, and those rolling their eyes, and letting it become political white noise are missing the urgency and tragedy of the matter.

The transcript of Rodriguez’s interview with federal agents was filed Friday by his attorneys as part of a motion to suppress the interview, alleging the man was not properly Mirandized. 

Rodriguez was arrested earlier this year after he was identified by online sleuths at Huffington Post, an example of the so-called sedition hunters who have scoured photos and videos from the Jan. 6 attack and traced the identities of many insurrectionists.

In the interview, Rodriguez explains why he left his home in California and traveled to Washington for the “Stop the Steal Rally.”

“Trump called us,” he said. “Trump called us to D.C.”

He later said: “My story is just that we thought that we were going to save America, and we were wrong.”

It’s a con transparent as a freshly cleaned window. And it’s dangerous.

Rodriguez revealed he had been told by conspiracy sites such as Inforwars — which he had followed for years — that a civil war was about to happen. Trump and other prominent Facebook conspiracists had fully convinced him the election was stolen.

He told the agents “we felt that they stole the election. We thought they — we felt that they stole this country, that it’s gone, it’s wiped out. America’s over. It’s destroyed now.”

“I thought that Trump was going to stay president and they were going to find all this crooked stuff and … we thought that we did something good,” Rodriguez said. “It was rumored that Nancy Pelosi got her laptop stolen and that they found all this evidence on it and it was a secret plan. … And then we could just bust everything and find the truth and it’ll be all exposed and we’ll see that she’s corrupt or some kind of evidence. And we thought we were being a — we were part of a bigger thing. We thought we were being used as a part of a plan to save the country, to save America, save the Constitution, and the election, the integrity.”

There are moments in the interview when you almost feel Rodriguez’s mind wrestling with the poison that consumed it: “We just thought that — damn, dude. I don’t know. I understand what it ― it’s very stupid and ignorant, and I see that it’s a big joke, that we thought that we were going to save this country, we were doing the right thing and stuff. I get it.”

You see similar statements in the transcripts of other law enforcement interviews with Jan. 6 attackers and you hear similar words in court hearings. Again, I have no sympathy for these people. They tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power and directly attacked the heart of our democracy. Throw the book at them.

But beyond the crimes of these individuals, it’s important to pay close attention to these cases and see the insidious mental games an entire political party is playing with a huge swath of American voters.

Rodriguez, like most who attacked the U.S. Capitol, was convinced — by Trump, by the things he heard in right-wing media, by the like-minded people he associated with online — that an election was stolen and America was on the brink of a new civil war. He was willing to risk his life to that end and in doing so felt he was part of something bigger than himself.

It’s clear from the interview that it gave him meaning and purpose. You need only scan social media a few moments to see how these lies do the same for so many. And, on Fox (fake!) News, and on Infowars, and in the Facebook feeds of conspiracy profiteers, and in the words and tweets of many gutless elected Republicans, you see those lies still tossed out like chum.

It’s unconscionable what these people are doing to Americans they know will be susceptible to such lies. Their words are turning citizen against citizen, and warping minds for nothing but money and power.

Trump sent out a statement showing his continued delusion and scorched earth approach to making a buck: “If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented) Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24.”

Days later, his Super PAC sent a note to supporters quoting that statement. It added: “The truth is, we need $45 from EACH Patriot reading this email if we are going to have the necessary resources to solve the election fraud of 2020.”

There’s a sucker born every minute. (Maine Writer- Beer Hall Putsch warning!)

*The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated front-page headlines in newspapers around the world. His arrest was followed by a 24-day trial, which was widely publicized and gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments to the nation.