So a group of people stormed the Capitol and then danced around inside and had some fun. Ooooooooh, so fvcking terrifying. Was it wrong? Absolutely. Does it pale in comparison to the riots over the summer? Yes.
The reality is that this scares you.
I respect your opinion and am glad to hear it. I disagree that the Capitol Riot pales to last summer's riots. Here's my perspective.
Violence by rightists or leftists or centrists is to be avoided. But the "equivalency" argument to either excuse or overlook something wrong that is done because someone else did something similar and got away with it is a weak position. By that logic, if one bank robbery is not prosecuted, no bank robbery can ever be prosecuted.
Protests are fine, they are America's way. Violent protests of this nature have no place in a democracy.
What is so disturbing to me about the Capitol Riot is that it was precipitated by a sitting POTUS (as one example, this was stated by the antler-guy who said he he was following Trump's orders), that it was directed at a treasured symbol of our country, the Capitol buildng, that they breached security barriers (woefully designed and enforced), that they smashed windows and destroyed doors and beat up law enforcement officers, that they invaded by force the chambers of our House and Senate while proceedings were ongoing, that they hunted for VP Pence and Speaker Pelosi with clear intent to do them harm, that the Riot Crowd is on video chanting "Hang Mike Pence" (our Vice President), that they constructed the gallows and noose to carry out their threat of hanging our VP, that a Capitol Police officer was bludgeoned in the head with a fire extinguisher and later died from the trauma, that a veteran was shot and killed during the melee, that an elected WV legislator participated and brazenly selfied himself breaking in and proudly yelled out his own name upon breaching security, etc.
Those rioters should be prosecuted. Just as the rioters in Portland and other cities who damaged the federal courthouse and businesses, etc. should be prosecuted. Honestly, i am more disturbed by the Capitol Riot because of our President's involvment and because it was a direct, physical attack on our democratic election process and our elected representatives.
One of the motivations of the Capitol Riot was the allegations of election irregularities. More than 60 state and federal courts around the country, many with Trump-appointed and Republican judges, have ruled that there was no basis for such allegations, including rulings made after the Trumpers were allowed to present their evidence. Those courts have actually seen the unadulterated evidence presented by the lawyers arguing their case; the social media darlings on either side of the issue only present what is favorable to them to whip up their fanbase followers and increase their click-count.
Don't accept that? Then do this. Invest some time to research the issue and form your own opinion. Use the Google to monitor the defamation lawsuit filed last week by Dominion against Sidney Powell. As a normal part of the discovery process in that case, Powell will be required to present all of the evidence upon which the allegations of voter fraud are based. She will have her day(s) in court and be given full opportunity to lay out every iota of evidence of election fraud. She could hire Rudy and Lin Wood to represent her. We, as a country, need to see what evidence she has. She has repeatedly said she has mountains of evidence that will rock the world as she releases her Kracken. This is where the whole country can be educated about the election fraud, one way or the other. If she sees it through, we will either learn the unpleasant but necessary truth about the 2020 election fraud, or we will learn that Trump's Dept of Homeland Security, all those courts with Republican judges, all those Republican state officials, and others, were right that the election was legitimate. In any event, this should be evaluated by the courts and not by a group of partisan politicians or by the social media cesspool (as Rush Limbaugh calls it, and i agree) or by an angry mob.