Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst Martin Gurri is urging some perspective on January 6th and Donald Trump. With the media panicmongering about a descent into authoritarianism under a second Trump term, Gurri believes the “hysteria” is unwarranted.
“I know what some political depressives will be thinking – and they’re wrong,” Gurri wrote. “January 6 was not an insurgency aiming to install Trump as Chief Authoritarian.”
The former CIA analyst explained that “[i]n an insurgency, people with guns shoot at each other and lots of them die,” but on Jan 6 the only fatality was “a young woman who was shot by a Capitol policeman… She was unarmed, as was the rest of the trespassing mob. There’s no such thing as an unarmed insurgency,” he added.
Those skeptical of the “Jan 6 as insurrection” narrative have often pointed out the strangeness of the supposed insurrectionists showing up without firearms, despite the U.S. boasting a heavily armed citizenry.
Gurri was occasionally unflattering about Trump himself, but said he met none of the requisites to become a dictator. Typically, would-be dictators command the military or the security services. “What would happen if Trump ordered the FBI or the 101st Airborne Division to start shooting Democrats? Homeric laughter,” Gurri suggested.
Other would-be dictators depend on private militias – but “if Trump is training a militia somewhere off the 18th hole at Mar-a-Lago, not even the Times has heard about it,” Gurri observed.
“If you insist that Trump is an authoritarian, if you continue to maintain that he’s the greatest threat ever to our democracy, then you’re portraying [his] voters as goose-stepping bigots — and you know full well that they’re not.”
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