Subject: Re: To Be clear
We have a couple of dozen nutjobs heavily armed with pepper spray and signs. They're going to bust in on Pence, grab him and take him out.

By the time they got to the hallway where Ashli Babbit died, there were dudes in there with M4's standing right next to the mob. Then there's whatever armed detail Pence had with him. How would that have gone?

Probably not well for the mob. Then again, the officers that were injured during the storming of the capitol were also armed (though not with M4's), and still they were hurt. Sometimes a mob can get an advantage through shear numbers, and for obvious reasons the dudes with M4's may be slow/reticent to start firing automatic weapons into a crowd.

The democrats have objected to every. single. GOP. Presidential victory in the last 20 years. How much did that slow down the process?

Not a bit, because although you say "the democrats," there were only a handful (sometimes only one) protest votes against certification. They never stormed and seized the U.S. Capitol. Nothing on this scale has ever happened with protesting a Presidential victory - either by the Congressbeings or by rioters.

Really. You're aware that most buildings in DC are connected by tunnels so you can get VIPs in and out whenever and wherever, right? That takes the CAPITOL UNDER SEIGE BY ANGRY MOB WITH STICKS AND PEPPER SPRAY kind of off the table. I don't think there's a line in the Constitution that says Congress can't certify the Presidential election with a voice vote in the hallway of say, the Smithsonian or the Treasury building.

I'm aware of both the existence of the tunnels and the text of the Constitution. They could have had their sessions in the conference center of the Radisson out by the interstate, if they wanted. But they're not actually going to conduct the voice vote in the hallway of the Smithsonian or at the Radisson. There's all sorts of logistical issues with that, and that was never likely to happen. What was the most likely outcome is what did happen - Congress waited for the building to be cleared, and then they went back and conducted business. Had the rioters held the Capitol for a little while longer, the outcome would have likely been the same. Only if it looked like they would hold the building for an extended period of time would the Congress have fallen back on a Plan B - and the irregularities of holding a vote somewhere other than Capitol Hill create opportunities for the objecting Congresscritters to try to hold things up.

It's also worth noting that these types of insurrectionist attacks aren't always - or even usually - about the direct consequence of the attack on the target. The classic example is the storming of the Bastille, which kicked off the French Revolution. The Bastille itself wasn't important to the administration of the French government, and there wasn't anyone or anything especially important in it (though there were some gunpowder stores). No one would have ever suggested that seizing the Bastille would in itself provide any direct power, control, or interference with the French monarchy. Taking the Bastille itself didn't stop the government from doing anything significant. But it is the ur-example of an insurrection, because the storming of the Bastille was a critical flashpoint in the revolution.

That's pretty common - a group of insurrectionists or insurgents or rebels will attack or take over something that does not itself give them any particular control or power over the government, but is a demonstration of (and they hope a call to others to engage in) resistance to the government. The difference between the barricades in the June Rebellion in 1832 (the failed and inconsequetial insurrection memorialized in Les Miserables) and the similar efforts in the successful 1848 French Revolution was the reaction of the populace, not anything different about the insurrectionist acts.