Right Hand of the Father: Insurrection Legacy

By James Hull and Dennis A. Chargin

Crisis events hold the seeds of great wisdom. This is the story of two congressmen; an independent and a Republican, who wait out an insurrection in the bowels of the Capitol and find a way forward for the country. Through a day of personal conflict, and potential attacks from the Insurrectionists, they discover the danger to democracy of party politics. Further they uncover what could have happened to avoid the insurrection, why it didn't and where we go from here. This work of historical fiction is a quest for wisdom from chaos.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350922578

James Hull

Dennis Chargin attended college at Santa Clara University and Stanford. He is now retired from a career in Architecture and Real Estate development and splits his time between Northern and Southern California. The idea for this book has been on his mind for some time. He and his coauthor have enjoyed the collaboration over several years in its development. This is his first novel.

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© 2020 James Hull and Dennis A. Chargin. This novel is a work of historical fiction based on actual events occurring in a different timeline with fictional characters. It expresses how fictional characters may have acted when faced with actual events. This is a story of what could have happened, why it didn’t, and the possibilities that exist to extract wisdom from the Insurrection. These possibilities and the opinions expressed in the novel are those of the authors. Note: Unless otherwise indicated all sayings and poems at the beginning of the chapters are those of James Hull

ISBN 979-8-35092-256-1 eBook 979-8-35092-257-8

Dedication Trinity

First Dedication:

This Book is dedicated to all nationally elected officials who keep their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America with respect for the will of the people.

Second Dedication:

This book is dedicated to Richard Rohr and Lou Marinoff Ph.D., whose nonfiction books respectively, The Wisdom Pattern, and The Middle Way, were an inspiration for this novel.

Third Dedication:

This book is dedicated to our wives, families, and friends who supported us in this effort.

Table of Contents

Dedication Trinity

Introduction

Prelude

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Introduction

July 21, 2022

New York City

Let me introduce myself. I’m Representative Will Taddich, Independent United States Congressman, from the state of California. My wife Denise and I, along with our family, just returned to our hotel, the Michelangelo. We spent today at the September 11 Memorial in Manhattan. At dinner tonight, we shared our impressions. My wife and I wanted our children, and grandchildren, to experience the memorial so they would remember that tragic day. As we explained to them, there are certain events that, while tragic, open up the possibility for wisdom through renewed commitment and unity. We discussed the quote from Virgil, the Roman poet, that is inscribed on the memorial.

"No day shall erase you from the memory of time"

Everyone had their own ideas regarding how that phrase was intended to apply to those who lost their lives on 9-11. It was Penny, our 16-year-old granddaughter, who looked up the quote on the internet. She discovered it was Virgil’s way of conveying wisdom. It was a part of his epic poem The Aeneid. The poem was meant to invoke an understanding that in every dark hour, there are the seeds of an opportunity to overcome what was lost and to persevere to create a new and better place. It reinforced my understanding of such events given to me by my father years ago. He was the first to tell me about what would later become known as Flashbulb Events. Then Penny questioned the most recent Flashbulb Event, the January 6, 2021 Insurrection. She asked me how we were to recover and what wisdom I thought came from that event. Penny wondered if the January 6 Committee findings would ever result in justice and positive change. Further she challenged me to do something to make sure that it never happened again. Her question was not only a great question, but the right question. I told her, and the others, that as usual I took notes and made recordings on my phone during the Insurrection. I carried them with me ever since. That habit has always driven my wife crazy, but it has served me well. I carried the January 6th notes and recordings with me knowing that I must do something with them at some point in time. This was obviously that point in time. I told Penny, and the rest, that I would begin that night, in my hotel room to write the story of that day. I told them it was a day that ended in a personal miracle and is what I think Virgil was talking about when he wrote that famous phrase inscribed at the 9/11 Memorial. So, dear reader, what follows is my Insurrection story.

Prelude

A house divided begets disorder

With order lost a country cast astray

All with the intent to hold on to power

To be decided on insurrection day

Great is the Power of Misrepresentation

--C. Darwin

Insurrection is a violent process. Having lived through this process, I offer an objective point of view from a subjective source. As an Independent Congressman, I trained myself to put my personal point of view aside in order to objectively understand others. It is from this objective point of view that I write this narrative. Some of this information is gathered from other sources known to me to be reputable and honest. This is necessary because from my location for most of that day, secured in a storeroom in the basement of the Capitol Building, I wasn’t able to personally experience all of the day’s events. In addition, there are my notes. I learned some time ago that taking and recording notes made me focus on what others were saying. I take written notes like dictation. I learned Gregg shorthand in high school and have used it ever since. The notes from that day, on the index cards I carry with me for that express purpose, provided the content for this narrative. Those, along with my recorded notes from my phone include, to the best of my recollection, the dialogue that occurred between myself and other parties. It was a unique day with many lessons. One of those lessons stands out among the many. It is a lesson with two parts given to us by our founding father George Washington. First, and against popular demand, he refused to remain in the Presidency as he knew that model would lead to a kingship of sorts. But even more profound was his warning against the creation of political parties. He saw political parties as time bombs that create disunity. He felt they would become more important than the will of the people and thus take the country away from the shared power model of democracy. His wisdom was not followed but still remains a possibility. My hope is that you, the reader, will be better equipped to understand and use the events of this day to gain an appreciation for our founding father’s wisdom. We need wise citizens to ensure this Insurrection results in an opportunity to create a stronger democracy.

The Insurrection, you will discover, is our most recent Flashbulb Event. We will discuss Flashbulb Events later and also the miracles that occurred that day. But I can tell you that as a Flashbulb Event, my memory of the day is almost photographic. I wish to convey a sense of how it happened, what it means, and how it will affect our future. In the end it is my hope this recollection will help you gain an understanding of the importance of such events for the growth of wisdom.

Our story begins a year before the assault on our Capitol Building. No specific event began the process. It was fear that drove a nationwide year-long campaign by the Presidential incumbent’s political party to place doubt in the minds of the citizens that the presidential election would be fair. The President was in fear of losing the vote for re-election. If he lost, he wanted a fallback plan. He needed citizens primed to accept the fact that if he lost it was because of corruption on part of the opposing party. To assist him in his quest, to plant this idea in the minds of the public, he enlisted a group of very vulnerable public servants. These were the congressional members of his delegation that feared retribution if they didn’t go along with this strategy. They were willing to accept his need for power to keep their own. In so doing they, and their party, ramped up a year-long process of countrywide rallies to establish the likelihood of a potentially questionable election process and various supporting conspiracy theories. Doubt was the seed they planted. They presented a case for doubt so convincing as to challenge the health of the nation. They sought to appeal to the patriotic feelings of their supporters. One of their congressional leaders went so far as to say, We lose elections because the other party is corrupt. In city after city, rallies were held. Like Johnny Appleseed, they planted seeds along the way. Unlike apple seeds these were seeds of doubt, disharmony, and division. Their hope was to grow a crop of active supporters to overwhelm the election process should they lose on election day. Thus, the propaganda process began only to be further supported by certain media and foreign interventions.

This was their strategy. Step one was to plant the seeds. Then the seeds were nurtured. This activity was further developed with a party driven propaganda process throughout the year. It assured them that what was once just an idea of unfairness, would become the truth to those they sought to enlist. They moved their message from possibility, to belief, and finally to truth. Well before the election occurred, support for the idea of a stolen election was growing.

On the other side of the aisle, the opposition was busy fighting internally for control of their platform message. There was little unity. Each party member seemed to have their own personal agenda. The agendas were not compatible, and unity was not the main theme. Again, it was a struggle for power and control, but it was also a distraction. In my opinion it distracted the party from successfully addressing the messaging of the incumbent president and his allies. While the President’s party was focused externally, the opposition seemed focused internally. This resulted in a lack of public communication of the true issues and solutions. The incumbent had simplified the message of his party as he cast himself as the solution. He was the superman, and his followers loved it. The opposing party replaced lasting solutions with reactive measures to well-known problems and issues. Their message was too broad. It attempted to make too many people happy. Regardless of the election outcome, the public was the one to suffer. This is only my opinion. I think it is, however, a qualified opinion, as I have been a member of Congress for over 38 years.

And then it all came true! The President lost the election in November of 2020, but the die was cast. He didn’t accept the loss and what followed was several months of political and legal maneuvering to overturn the election. In the end a desperate President, hell bent on stopping the electoral college from confirming and certifying the election results, called a rally of his supporters to Washington. The rally was called for January 6, the day the electoral college results would be accepted and certified. The rally officially began at 9 am, with the main contingent of protestors gathering at the Ellipse. They had come to hear their leader, the President, speak at noon. In the morning hours, before the President’s speech, groups primarily composed of the far right and white supremacist groups, formed at locations on the northeast and northwest sides of the Capitol. It was apparent there was an organized element to the process within the crowd. In retrospect, every one of my associates has agreed with me on this fact. The use of certain slogans at all locations, and the obvious movement of certain small groups of people within the body of the protestors, made obvious the underlying organized nature of the event. These small groups, and the opposition hate slogans they supplied, were effectively moving the crowd from a protest movement to an angry mob. It could be felt and seen as the expressions on faces changed from opposition to anger. It was quickly moving toward violence. During the pre-presidential speech period, many of the President’s most trusted supporters addressed those gathered at the Ellipse. They were the warmup acts to prepare the main body of protestors emotionally for the President’s address. At 12:00 pm, amid their cheers and protest slogans, his speech began. Early in the speech he told them, Together we are going to march to the Capitol. That is now an oft-quoted line that I think all of us will remember. It was his call to action. He continued to egg them on and said, Unless you act with courage against our enemies, you will never forgive yourselves. I quote this from his speech, a copy of which I now have in my possession. I have read that speech many times and would categorize it as a pep rally speech. Like most pep rally speeches, its intent was to create feedback loops of hate and discord against an opponent. I’m told he completed his speech at 1:00 pm and was escorted back to the White House where he watched the march to the Capitol and ensuing Insurrection play out on television. It has been suggested that he actually wanted to follow his supporters to the Capitol but was restrained from doing so by his security detail. The security detail knew there were loaded weapons in the crowd and did not want him to go in harm’s way. While he watched the demonstration from the West Wing, he said he was very proud of them and wouldn’t take action to end the demonstration. At the end of the day he tweeted, Loyalty is always rewarded, and I will remember yours. Contrary to many who have reported on this event, it’s my belief that the Insurrection awakened a sleepwalking culture. It caused America to become aware of the fear and hate being spread by party propaganda and the need for a return to unity. This is a fact that both major parties should recognize. It is wisdom that if heeded may avert a future loss of our constitutional democracy. But now let’s pick up the untold story of the miracle of that day.

Prologue

Washington, D.C.

January 6, 2021

U.S. Capitol

Joint Session of Congress

12:30 pm

The President was still speaking to the crowd at the Ellipse, when advance groups of protestors, already in place at the Capitol, went into motion. The organized external threat was a multi-prong attack to breech Capitol security and stop the certification vote for the President. These advance units were to spread out the threat, thus challenging