# So what would have happened after 1/6 had the riot been successful? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 11, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286 "2021-01-11T20:22:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/21 "2021-01-12T03:34:12Z")
There are 3 options: 1. GOP willingly doesn’t assume power, boots out any insurrectionists, parties come together to unequivocally condemn Trump and his hard core supporters 2. GOP assumes power. American becomes a dictatorship 3. Civil war. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/22 "2021-01-12T03:46:13Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > GOP assumes power. American becomes a dictatorship Why assume the GOP is capable of assuming power via a dictatorship? If you throw out the law, the country will be ruled by whoever has the most power. The Republican can’t disenfranchise or gerrymander or voter ID their way out of that. The Republicans need to have a functioning legal system that they can manipulate in order to stay in power. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/23 "2021-01-12T03:48:55Z")
Serious question: Have any of America’s many militia groups taken a stand _against_ the insurrectionists, perhaps stating a willingness to fight against them? ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/24 "2021-01-12T04:32:58Z")
Which is a seriously good question. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/25 "2021-01-12T05:16:08Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Those Republicans were claiming the Electoral Count Act gave them the authority to throw out votes they didn’t like and replace them with a set of votes they preferred. Not quite correct. The plan was to throw out enough EVs so that no one got 270 EVs needed to be elected and the election would go to the House for a vote which it was assumed Trump would win. There was no “replacing” of votes since each state only sent one set of certified votes. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/26 "2021-01-12T05:45:32Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > There’s no legal issue here, no issues for the SCOTUS to address – a quorum of senators and representatives overturn enough electoral votes to throw the election to the House, then they decide for Trump. But that would be illegal, so yes, it would go to SCOTUS. Once the states certified the results, it was over, the rest is just ceremony. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/27 "2021-01-12T05:52:50Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Not quite correct. The plan was to throw out enough EVs so that no one got 270 EVs needed to be elected and the election would go to the House for a vote which it was assumed Trump would win. There was no “replacing” of votes since each state only sent one set of certified votes. Yes, and that wouldnt work either. The Electoral Vote is purely ceremonial, unless several states had sent two sets of votes in. No states did. Thus, this was only some crazy plan by trump and Giuliani that wasnt rooted in reality. Even killing off bunches would not work, it was all over once the states certified. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/28 "2021-01-12T05:58:59Z")
The crazy plan would about as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury going “I crown… ME as King of Great Britain, nyaa, nyaa!”. They’d just take the crown off, lead the Archbishop off, gesture to the other Archbishop, and continue on. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/29 "2021-01-12T06:11:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There are limits to how much you can accomplish by pointing guns at people. You can walk into a bank and steal the money in the tellers’ drawers by pointing guns at people. But you can’t walk into a bank and get a mortgage by pointing guns at people. This is the main issue. America is strong enough to withstand a group of thugs with guns, even if several of them had automatic rifles and sprayed the room with bullets, killing half the nations’s politicians. There seems to be a weird atmosphere of joy going on in several threads here at the Dope, and among Democrats in general. Like Christians expecting the rapture and Armageddon, some people seem to be enjoying fantasies of what is about to happen as the end times approach. It reminds me of the 9/11 attacks, but in reverse. Back then, lots of Americans were afraid of the Islamic terrorists, and wondering if the country was doomed,and everybody was saying “What if …”. But the Dope was full of threads saying that it’s nothing to worry about, Back then, there were public calls to investigate all the mosques in America, to censor internet sites used by terrorists, to prevent Muslims from serving in the army or getting access to guns, etc But most people remained level-headed. Let’s do the same now. . We survived 9/11 and we’ll survive this too… … ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/30 "2021-01-12T10:23:00Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > We survived 9/11 and we’ll survive this too… Yes, but you’d concede that national unity in the face of a singular, identifiable foreign threat is a different beast to achieve in contrast to what is essentially a sectarian divide. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_McCabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@Earl\_McCabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_McCabe)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/31 "2021-01-12T11:31:59Z")
The riot was successful. They rioted. Who knows what was inside the adrenaline-addled minds of these folks? All we can say for sure was that they all wanted to riot. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/32 "2021-01-12T14:28:14Z")
I feel the time and place of the riot shows that they had a goal. They wanted to change the outcome of the presidential election. The rioters failed and they never had any chance of succeeding. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/33 "2021-01-12T15:11:57Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > This is the main issue. > America is strong enough to withstand a group of thugs with guns, even if several of them had automatic rifles and sprayed the room with bullets, killing half the nations’s politicians. The thing people tend to forget is that the States are the bedrock of the system; even if Congress was killed outright to a person, the States would simply appoint new Senators and Reps, and/or hold elections. And Congress would reconvene, somewhere, and get to business. The Federal government derives its power and legitimacy FROM the States through the powers and rights granted to it in the Constitution. It does not lend its power TO the State governments as in most other countries, and I suspect that if the Federal government got too rambunctious, the States would check that, one way or another. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/34 "2021-01-12T16:31:25Z")
I don’t think the rioters had much of a plan except some nebulous goal of keeping Trump in power. When they got into the capitol most of them just milled around looking like tourists. It’s possible (probable?) that a few had an actual plan to capture some lawmakers and try to hold them hostage for some reason. Some started up the “hang Mike Pence” chant so maybe that was a goal. They were all basically idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_McCabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@Earl\_McCabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_McCabe)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/35 "2021-01-12T17:27:14Z")
Ok then perhaps they didn’t know exactly what a riot can and cannot accomplish. I’m sure plenty of them went home feeling a sense of accomplishment, even if it was an ephemeral one. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/36 "2021-01-12T17:30:36Z")
The whole thing seemed spontaneous, which is why the demonstrators looked so clueless once actually in. Many of them even stayed within the velvet-rope corridor. Had it been a pre-planned, coordinated, attack, it would have been different. They could have forced Congress and Pence to certify Trump and then we could see whether **Little Nemo** ’s analogy of “getting bank mortgage at gunpoint” would hold (which was a great analogy.) I would bet every penny I have that the Supreme Court would have either struck it down as null due to duress, or Congress would just re-certify once the SWAT team removed the protesters. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/37 "2021-01-12T17:33:36Z")
I’m sure it was spontaneous, except maybe in Trump’s mind, where I’d bet there was some tiny fragment of an idea fermenting that if a big enough crowd went to the Capitol and/or busted in, that maybe Congress would be cowed in some fashion. And yeah, the obedience to the velvet ropes is probably the only funny thing about the whole sad episode. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/38 "2021-01-12T18:04:21Z")
I think a lot of the rioters were thinking they could intimidate congress to install Trump, like the ones who brought the noose and gallows. Those guys should be locked up. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/39 "2021-01-12T18:45:12Z")
> [@bump](#): > > And yeah, the obedience to the velvet ropes is probably the only funny thing about the whole sad episode. C’mon, the rioter who accidentally tasered himself in the nuts was a little bit funny. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286/40 "2021-01-12T18:54:28Z")
Spontaneous except for those who suborned the LEOs, erected a gallows, carried zip ties and tasers, brought climbing gear, and had vehicles full of molotov cocktails and weapons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-have-happened-after-1-6-had-the-riot-been-successful/930286.md?page=3)