In a visual usually reserved for a zombie movie, hundreds of protesters ascended the steps of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Their goal? Maybe not 100% in synch with each other, but in general, to disrupt the certification of the results of the November 2020 Presidential election.

As expected, media coverage combined with social media resulted in disturbing, violent images spread live around the world. It was a bad look for a country touting itself as a shining example of a successful, peaceful, on-the-level representative democracy. If they had stopped at surrounding the building and shouted their slogans from the Capitol steps, it would have been a symbolic gesture of disgust with the American political system that, truthfully, gives everyone a vote but only to select from a pool of often-disconnected elites.

But they broke into the U.S. Capitol.

I personally don’t think everyone had a specific plan, or even thought they would actually wind up inside the building. Some seemed to want to physically get their hands on some members of Congress…but what then? Some grabbed some stuff and left. Some took selfies. Some went to the bathroom. The Capitol police, lacking the gear and the numbers to deal with this, did what they could, but in the chaos, multiple deaths occurred between the initial invasion and the following days.

It could have been a lot deadlier, but was 100% preventable, and wow, what a price tag. Damage to the building and contents, lawsuits, criminal investigations, court proceedings, and as of this writing, an on-going Congressional investigation.

The certification of the election results was delayed by less than one day, so the speculated goal of the crowd was not even achieved. And skipping class might not go one your permanent high school record, but a Federal felony conviction is forever. And plenty of those were handed out over the successive months.

Why am I even talking about this? Because this is the kind of thing we hear about in other countries and shake our heads, point fingers, and ridicule. This doesn’t work. And it should never be seen as a workable solution. You’re never going to replace 538 red and blue knuckleheads with 538 blue or 538 red knuckleheads and get Utopia.

You want Utopia, go to your local record store.