For almost five years, Democrats and NeverTrumpers have insisted that events on January 6, 2021, were “an insurrection” justifying the biggest crackdown in federal criminal history. In fact, those events were not an insurrection by any definition. However, the violent Democrat attacks against ICE facilities across America are as close to an insurrection as we’ve seen since the Civil War itself.
The word “insurrection” appears four times in the Constitution. Under Art. 1, sec. 8 (ratified in 1788), Congress has the power “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” At that time, the Founders, many of whom had attended law school in the 1760s, would have been familiar with English common law, which defined an “insurrection” as people deliberately banding together to use violence to oppose lawful authority.
Eighty years later, in 1868, Congress ratified the 14th Amendment on the heels of a four-year-long war that pitted a successionist South against the federal government, leaving 600,000 dead Americans in its wake.
Sections 3 and 4 effectively said that if you held a government office, elected or not, took an oath to defend the Constitution, and then betrayed that oath by fighting for the Confederacy (i.e., engaged in an “insurrection,”) you can’t hold another federal office, elected or not. Additionally, authorized debts for the Union side of the war were valid, but the government wouldn’t back debts incurred for the Confederacy (i.e., the “insurrection”). The point was that Confederates had forfeited their right to hold office and couldn’t come crying to the federal government for their debts.
For the next 150 years, insurrection was a politically obscure term, but it suddenly gained prominence in 2021. That’s because, on January 6, helped by masked people removing “no trespassing” signs and Capitol Police opening doors, thousands of MAGA supporters who had descended on the Capitol to use speech and assembly, not violence, to let Congress know that they disapproved of the Electoral College vote count, entered the building, almost all unwittingly swept in by the press of the crowd. One guy stole a podium.
No one was armed and, other than the mysterious Ray Epps, no one was speaking of entering the building, whether violently or otherwise. A Capitol Police officer shot one woman to death, and other officers may have beaten a second woman to death. When things calmed down, those who survived the Capitol Police officers went home.
Nevertheless, under Biden, the events on that day sparked the largest manhunt in American history, with 1,575 people, many of whom were harmless elderly people, forced through the criminal justice system, with a median sentence of 240 days. It was, the left insisted, an “insurrection,” a term that popped up literally while the protest was ongoing.
Notably, Democrats really couldn’t define what an insurrection was, other than to say that January 6 was that insurrection. It was a self-defining term, kind of like the color orange and the fruit orange, with each as an example of the other. January 6 and “insurrection” meant the same thing!
When it was pointed out that, in 2020, Democrats had violently attacked federal buildings across America to overthrow their functions, we were told that these weren’t unconstitutional (i.e., Republican) insurrections; they were constitutional (i.e., Democrat) protests. And why weren’t they insurrections? Because “insurrection” means “what happened on January 6.” However, since ICE started enforcing America’s immigration laws, the claim that January 6 was the only American insurrection since the Civil War, while Democrats invading Congress, storming the Supreme Court, trying to burn the White House and federal courthouses, and generally wreaking havoc are merely protesting, is beginning to wear thin.
That’s because the Democrats’ militia, aka Antifa, is getting increasingly aggressive in its efforts to hamper ICE operations and target ICE officers for death via doxxing and physical violence. Democrat officials are also throwing up barriers, whether hiding people, warning them about raids, or refusing to have local police on city streets where activists are engaged in violent activity against ICE. Notably, the Supremacy Clause says that, because immigration and border security are solely within the federal purview, states and individual actors cannot interfere with their operations.
In Dallas, an activist fired shots at ICE officers and succeeded only in killing two illegal aliens. Most recently, in Chicago, activists swarmed ICE officers and trapped them with their cars, with one activist emerging from her car armed and ready. She was shot.
No Chicago police assisted, apparently on orders from a Patrol Chief:This morning, during routine patrolling in Broadview, in the same area of Chicago that law enforcement were assaulted yesterday, our brave law enforcement officers were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) October 4, 2025
Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car. One…
The riot continued all day, with violent physical attacks, even as the local police deliberately did nothing:It appears this is the man who ordered @Chicago_Police officers NOT to assist ICE Agents in need of help this morning.
— Hunter Eagleman™ (@Hunter_Eagleman) October 4, 2025
Meet Patrol Chief Jon Hein. pic.twitter.com/3NkockaoLE
???? BREAKING: Left-wing rioters are SIEGING and PELTING federal vehicles with rocks and bottles in Chicago.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 4, 2025
WHY are *ALL* of them not being rounded up?
Because local police are standing DOWN.
Unacceptable. Insurrection without consequence must END.pic.twitter.com/XUyNloXTbb
This is not Midwestern grannies assembling for speech, finding themselves swept with the crowd into the Capitol, and walking between the rope lines to take pictures. This is an all-out, concerted, violent war against a specific federal agency and operation. It is an insurrection.
If you want an analogy, think of the famous scene in Crocodile Dundee, the one with the knife:
January 6 isn’t an insurrection. This is an insurrection—and, unlike the Crocodile Dundee joke, it’s not just kids having fun. It’s nihilistic revolutionaries that truly want to burn it all down. Fortunately, the Trump administration seems to get this. In Portland, the Antifa types are discovering that violent revolution is as much fun when the government fights back:
???? BREAKING: DHS has deployed BLACKHAWKS over the ICE facility in Portland, as rioters get tear-gassed and pepperballed by agents
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 4, 2025
Following my wrongful arrest, Secretary Noem promised to SURGE additional DHS resources into the area.
Looks like she’s following through! NO MERCY! pic.twitter.com/sBej0cW1h6
Portland (Oct. 4) — Federal agents aren't tolerating rioting outside the ICE facility and are making prompt arrests of the far-left extremists who gathered outside to besiege the building. Their numbers are thinning. pic.twitter.com/dLNKn5ub8e
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 4, 2025
(And of course, it’s time to go after the officials who ordered the police to stand down in Portland, just as they’ve been standing down in Chicago.)
Antifa types are bullies who love unopposed violence. I believe that their shenanigans will end soon, now that the bail money is drying up and real consequences for their insurrection are kicking in.