Following the unrest on January 6th, 2021, the media and their political allies set about to paint what happened as the worst thing to hit the country since the Civil War. Joe Biden bandied that line about multiple times while Nancy Pelosi feigned deep concern.

The reality of the situation always made those comparisons ludicrous, including comparisons to 9/11, where 3,000 people died and terrorists literally attempted to blow up the Capitol Building. Further, there’s a fairly objective case to be made that the BLM riots of 2020 were far worse, as well, seeing dozens of deaths and billions in destruction. On January 6th, one person was killed — Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by an unidentified police officer.

Some will gasp at me for daring to add context to the situation, but I’d argue the distinct lack of actual action once people entered the Capitol Building is fairly good evidence they only meant to yell at people and take selfies. Certainly, a single police officer standing in a hallway, which was one of the famed confrontations of the day, did not actually hold back the crowd. Rather, the crowd obviously chose not to lash out further. Pointing out such details is not an apologetic of January 6th, and frankly, I’m sick of bad-faith actors insisting you can not apply objective context without being complicit.

With all that said, one of the big post-January 6th narratives was that people were leaving and would leave the Republican Party in droves over their disgust with what occurred. Was that true? Did the American people actually buy the ridiculous notion that January 6th was worse than 9/11 and comparable to the Civil War?

In a word: No.

Despite numerous "Republicans abandoning their party" stories that were fairly standard fare in January, the percentage spread barely changed by February 1 – the Dem and Rep %age each declined 0.1%, while the 3rd Party % increased 0.1%
(5/)

— John Couvillon (@WinWithJMC) July 11, 2021

In absolute numbers, there are 729K less Dems, 606K less Reps, and 173K less Inds. Why the uniform decrease? Because typically after a major election cycle, states clean up their voter rolls.
(7/)

— John Couvillon (@WinWithJMC) July 11, 2021

On February 21st, The New York Times wrote an article entitled Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party. In April, USNews wrote Republicans Flee the GOP After Capitol Riots. Other similar articles include Thousands of Republicans Leave the Party, Registration Data Shows and Registered Republicans Ditch Party After Capitol Riot.

Was any of that actually true? Of course not. The media ran with incomplete and out-of-context data to push a narrative without even stopping to investigate what the real cause was. As Couvillon’s thread shows, the exodus from the Democrat Party has actually been larger than the GOP in regards to registrations. Why have the numbers changed to the extent they have? Because voter rolls are purged after elections.

In short, regardless of one’s opinion on the severity of January 6th, it is clearly not a priority in the minds of almost all Americans. The only people still obsessing over it are partisans seeking to use it as a wedge issue. It has not changed the landscape of the political parties the way the media wanted it to, and all those articles I linked to were obvious wishful thinking. That’s not how news outlets are supposed to operate.

In 2022, Americans will vote. They will vote based on the economy, cultural battles, energy prices, foreign policy, and a variety of other issues. What they won’t be doing is voting against their own interests because of January 6th. The suggestion was always nonsensical.