> Pretending not to understand the difference between chanting slogans and actually hanging somebody is silly.
Most people who chant performative calls for violence don't normally, build a gallows and then go looking for the target. But sure, no doubt they had no intention of using violence, other than, you know, against all the police officers who were seriously injured or killed.
But fine, let the record show that it's remotely possible they were merely trying to overthrow a government by the threat of violence against Congress and the VP, and not actual violence.
> There's no possible way of overturning any election this way [...] It is literally impossible to change result of the election by jumping on a desk in a Congress.
The people involved were acting on the belief that Congress has the power to change the result of the election, and they were trying to force Congress to use that power. That's also why they were after Mike Pence.
And were they wrong? As a matter of strict constitutional interpretation, I think so, but as practical matter, there's no particular reason to think it couldn't work. They wanted to get a resolution out of Congress announcing that Congress had counted the electoral votes and Trump had won (or failing that, some sort of resolution purporting to delay the inauguration, re-run the election, etc.) How the nation would have responded to that I couldn't say. I don't think it would have worked, but who knows?
In any case, yes, this is one of the ways you can overturn an election. It's happened before; no doubt it will again. It didn't happen this time, but it's absurd to pretend it wasn't an attempt, however inept it may have been.
Most people who chant performative calls for violence don't normally, build a gallows and then go looking for the target. But sure, no doubt they had no intention of using violence, other than, you know, against all the police officers who were seriously injured or killed.
But fine, let the record show that it's remotely possible they were merely trying to overthrow a government by the threat of violence against Congress and the VP, and not actual violence.
> There's no possible way of overturning any election this way [...] It is literally impossible to change result of the election by jumping on a desk in a Congress.
The people involved were acting on the belief that Congress has the power to change the result of the election, and they were trying to force Congress to use that power. That's also why they were after Mike Pence.
And were they wrong? As a matter of strict constitutional interpretation, I think so, but as practical matter, there's no particular reason to think it couldn't work. They wanted to get a resolution out of Congress announcing that Congress had counted the electoral votes and Trump had won (or failing that, some sort of resolution purporting to delay the inauguration, re-run the election, etc.) How the nation would have responded to that I couldn't say. I don't think it would have worked, but who knows?
In any case, yes, this is one of the ways you can overturn an election. It's happened before; no doubt it will again. It didn't happen this time, but it's absurd to pretend it wasn't an attempt, however inept it may have been.
> means armed violent action
And how did Sicknick die again?