Imagine having a giant mob willing to march and take the fucking capitol, doing it while the police supported you and the army looked to their bellies, and not even getting concesions out of it. WORSE: your movement and party is shitting itself after it.
I really believe they could have pulled something IF Trump wasn't Trump.
Especially when the thing immediately preceding it is that unelected authoritarian demanding they show strength by marching on the capitol while he'll be there with him. If Pelosi had stayed in her office, the hostage situation would either be Ruby Ridge on steroids- the genuine inciting moment for all of those militias who have been salivating about this very moment for decades- or the ultimate bargaining chip for Trump. "My supporters can do this with the support of the police and national guard. Your supporters did nothing". What are they going to do except play pope/antipope while the antipope controls a fanatically loyal paramilitary?
I'll downplay any of this when there aren't four people within this neighbourhood with 3%-er stickers on their cars. It would take all of an hour to muster any of their local groups and the bulk of the opposition to them doesn't believe in guns and denounces Antifa for punching them. We may be radical in the way we think and capable in the way we organise but the raw psychic energy of fascism results in irrational spasmotic violence. They're willing to attack the house, the most insane act of sedition since the 19th century, on a whim because they were there and the opportunity to unleash all of that pent-up hatred without consequences presented itself. I can't imagine PSL or DSA or any of the mutual self-defense militias we have doing that without similar conditions to 1917 because any of us can look at the strength of the military even in that immediate area. They're so poised for rapid escalation that even a completely uncoordinated attack on the seat of power without demands made sense when enough of them were in one place. It has never been easier in all of human history to get a bunch of them in one place and their entire culture revolves around convoys to those rallies. In better transport vehicles and with better guns than any insurgency I'm aware of. Big fucking spooks.