The Insurrectionist Next Door

A new film shows that cops and courts are the answer to political violence

It was never enough to say the insurrectionists were cultists, ignorant partisans, or violence-prone thugs. These descriptors may have served during the January 6 attack on the Capitol, as we watched a pro-Trump mob seize control of the building and halt the certification of the 2020 election.  Since then, a more sophisticated profile has emerged thanks to accounts from academics, journalists and now an HBO documentary called The Insurrectionist Next Door

The film’s director Alexandra Pelosi is, ironically, the daughter of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.  As she shows, on January 6 some of the attackers said they were out for the speaker’s blood. However, in her up-close interviews with people who joined the mob, they insisted that her mother was never in danger, and they really didn’t mean her harm. (Here Pelosi deserves credit for never mentioning that last year a Trumpist invaded her parents’ home and, finding her mother absent, beat her father with a hammer. )

“A lot of people lost their sanity,” says an insurrectionist named Ronnie Sandlin, who worked as an internet marketer in Tennessee. This point is supported by Sandlin’s own January 6 video selfie, in which he declared, “Freedom is paid for with blood” and “Trump said it’s going to be wild. Let’s see what happens”. Sandlin joins the medieval battle to overwhelm the Capitol police, at one point trying to pull an officer’s helmet off his head. Once inside he announces. “God is on our side,” and then celebrates with others by smoking a joint.

Others in Pelosi’s film include a minor league pro wrestler who held a Trump flag as he stood on the dais of the Senate chamber, a white supremacist, an adventure-seeking brother and sister duo, a would-be candidate for Congress, a  former prison inmate with a “Proud Boys” tattoo across his forehead, and a young man who confessed to having mental health issues. Two of Pelosi’s subjects had done time in prison. All had either been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty and been sentenced to jail time or monitored probation.

The ideas and emotions the insurrectionists held in common included a raft of resentments, grievances, and misconceptions that could be traced to Trump and conservative media outlets. They had been certain that Trump had been cheated out of reelection, that the mainstream press was corrupt and deceptive, and that they were true patriots who had responded to a president’s call to save America from his evil political opponents.

Trump’s influence on Pelosi’s subjects was obvious and their responses to her questions revealed that rhetoric can, indeed, move people to violence. Until Trump, America’s major political leaders generally respected the line that separates political argument and criticism from incitement. In Trump’s case we have seen a man with tens of millions of followers who crosses the line almost every day, claiming to be a martyr pursued by deranged opponents.

The stories of those moved to join the January 6 mob are the strength of The Insurrectionist Next Door. As they speak the true believers fill in the picture first painted by academics who have studied the crowd and concluded that though it included members of extremist organizations, most participants were simply part of a Trump movement that considers political violence to be legitimate.

From the moment he declared his candidacy in 2015 Trump has used violent statements to energize his followers. Most recently Trump has called for thieves to be summarily shot and he mused that in the past retired Pentagon chief of staff General Mark Milley would have been executed as a traitor because he spoke to Chinese officials in order to calm their concerns about him. “This is an act so egregious,” Trump wrote on social media, “that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been death!” It’s no wonder that politically inspired violence has continued unabated since Trump left the White House and we’re entering the 2024 election season worried about what his followers might do.

No one who has looked at the violent streak among Trump extremists has been able to suggest a workable solution. Yes, attention must be paid to the problems of underemployment, inadequate education, addiction, and even mental health. But these approaches would be difficult to implement and even if they were, a decade or more would pass before any results might be seen.

What might work? Pelosi’s film suggests an answer – the criminal justice system. Having been arrested and brought into the system, each one of Pelosi’s interviews now has a criminal record. And each one expressed regret. Some feel they were duped by Trump. Others blame themselves. Given a chance to do it over, not one of them would have joined the rioters.

Ronnie Sandlin, sentenced to 5 ½ years and serving alongside other January 6 offenders, expressed the kind of regret one hopes would resonate with others who might consider violence. He watched the Congressional hearings on the January 6 attack and came away a changed man.

“The hearings really affected me,” he said. “The violence – I’m so disgusted. I feel so remorseful….I did assault two officers that day,” he says. “I’m willing to take responsibility, but it’s pretty bad.” The “bad” he references, is the prospect of years more prison time.

With luck, Sandlin’s story, and those of more than 1,000 insurrectionists who have been arrested, will resonate with those who need to hear his message.  Society wants to know who you are, in full, but will punish political violence, even if it’s summoned by a reckless leader. The responsibility will be yours.