Epiphany Insurrection

 On Saturday, Washington will see another rally of true believers of the Big Lie promoted by Donald Trump. Ostensibly, the event is a protest against the arrest and prosecution of the Trump loyalists who attacked the Capitol on January 6.

In a January 11 post, I discussed the need for an agreed-upon name for the events of January 6. As of now, there isn’t one. Occasionally, “1/6” is used, by analogy to “9/11,” but, as I wrote earlier, this is derivative, indirect, and not especially euphonious. More commonly, writers referring to the event describe it in phrases like “the assault on the Capitol.”

In my January 11 post, I suggested “Epiphany Putsch” as an appropriate name. Perhaps, however, this sounds too German. “Epiphany Insurrection” is perhaps a better choice. There is a consensus, at least among Trump’s detractors, that the event was indeed an insurrection. As for “Epiphany,” I will simply repeat what I wrote earlier:

The ragtag army that marched on the Capitol had no thoughts of the Christian celebration, but the sack of the Capitol was an epiphany of sorts—it manifested, for all to see, the logical consequences of the error of Trumpism. That epiphany has been powerful enough to remove the blinders from the eyes even of some Republicans who have hitherto been unshakable Trump sycophants.

Well, not the eyes of many Republicans.