All of the pearl clutching over the storming of the Capitol building indicates one thing that I have known for a long time: Our political class thinks it is indispensable, while the peasants are expendable.

For the entire summer, rioting, looting, burning and violence was either condoned by virtually the entire Democratic Party, or else it was dismissed as unimportant. The use of military forces or the National Guard to restore order was seen as an unconscionable violation of the rules and norms of the country. We were constantly reminded of what a supposedly small portion of the protests involved violence or vandalism.

Now, when the people in power are affected, we have full military deployment at the Capitol. Now riots are the worst problem ever; they must be suppressed by restricting people’s right to express their opinions and shutting down dissent. Although only a small portion of the people who attended Trump’s rally participated in or were even aware of the occupation of the Capitol, everyone at the rally is blamed.

This is not a double standard. It is actually simply a standard that our politicians’ lives and safety matter more than ours.

Those who wish to be outraged over the hypocrisy of Washington, D.C., on this would do better simply to dismiss the Capitol occupation as the result of politicians allowing riots in American cities for the past six months, and to refuse to sympathize with their fear when they did not sympathize with ours.

Michael Jose

Augusta