It is now clear that the crowd at the Capitol was not just a spontaneous gathering that happened to include criminals and crazies, but was assembled according to plan by a coalition of Tea Party leftovers, Trump campaign aides and former White House staffers, a rogues gallery of old and new right-wing women’s groups, and members of the House of Representatives.

Now one could say that these conspirators really meant no harm, that they were only bringing together genuinely concerned citizens for a peaceful protest against the imagined theft of the election. But that would be like claiming that the heap of oily rags purposely stuffed into a closed space had nothing to do with the ensuing fire.