What Happened In DC…

John Braddock

3 min readJan 19, 2021

Some say what happened in DC was a powerplay.

They say it was one side or the other cleverly leveraging their assets to take power.

But that’s not what I saw.

I saw panic.

On both sides.

When you panic, your vision shortens. You see only what’s in front of you. Which means you can’t see very far. And you can’t imagine how the other side will react.

That’s why we’re now seeing an escalation in what game theorists call a “tit-for-tat” strategy.

One side pushes the envelope, then the other side pushes the envelope further. Because neither side can see further than the next step.

It may look like both sides are acting out of arrogance or self-righteousness or in line with totalitarian instincts.

But what I saw in DC was this: Both sides acted out of weakness.

Which is strange.

Because power is a zero-sum game. If one side has it, the other side doesn’t. And vice versa.

But power is also tied to beliefs. Beliefs about what you can do. And beliefs about what the other side will do.

What happens when you believe you don’t have power?

What happens when you believe the other side has too much power?

You build an alliance, which is what both sides did.

- Trump held a rally at the White House Ellipse and urged his followers to protest.
- Pelosi called the Joint Chiefs and “appeared to be seeking to have the Pentagon leadership essentially remove Mr. Trump from his authorities as the commander in chief,” according to the New York Times.

These aren’t moral equivalents — But they show both sides desperately tried to build an alliance on January 6th.

Which is a panic move.

You don’t build an alliance when you believe you have enough power already.

You don’t try to add more power to your side if you already have enough.

When there’s two groups, like we saw in DC, they’re in one of these four boxes:

On January 6th, both sides believed they were in the bottom righthand box. Neither group believed they had enough power.

Which means both sides acted out of weakness.

Which is dangerous. Dangerous because people who act out of weakness make bad decisions.

They can’t see past what’s in front of them.

They panic.

They panic and try to move into the box where their group dominates the other group. Where they have enough power to make sure the other group never threatens them again.

An amazing (and largely unrecognized) thing about the American system: For most of our history, we’ve been in that upper lefthand box.

For most of our history, most Americans have believed they have power, even though power is a zero-sum game.

Even those who don’t have power believe they have power or the ability to get power.

And they believe if they lose power for a little while, they’ll get it back in the next election.

Did we lose that on January 6th?

If so, you want it back, if you’re American.

Whatever side you’re on, you want a path to the upper lefthand box.

You want this:

If you want a stop to the tit-for-tat escalation, you want both sides to believe they have power.

You want both groups to bypass the boxes where one group dominates another.

Paradoxically, the conflict we saw in DC only ends when both sides believe they have power again.

What Happened In DC…

Some say what happened in DC was a powerplay.

They say it was one side or the other cleverly leveraging their assets to take power.

But that’s not what I saw.

I saw panic.

On both sides.

When you panic, your vision shortens. You see only what’s in front of you. Which means you can’t see very far. And you can’t imagine how the other side will react.

That’s why we’re now seeing an escalation in what game theorists call a “tit-for-tat” strategy.

One side pushes the envelope, then the other side pushes the envelope further. Because neither side can see further than the next step.

It may look like both sides are acting out of arrogance or self-righteousness or in line with totalitarian instincts.

But what I saw in DC was this: Both sides acted out of weakness.

Which is strange.

Because power is a zero-sum game. If one side has it, the other side doesn’t. And vice versa.

But power is also tied to beliefs. Beliefs about what you can do. And beliefs about what the other side will do.

What happens when you believe you don’t have power?

What happens when you believe the other side has too much power?

You build an alliance, which is what both sides did.

- Trump held a rally at the White House Ellipse and urged his followers to protest.- Pelosi called the Joint Chiefs and “appeared to be seeking to have the Pentagon leadership essentially remove Mr. Trump from his authorities as the commander in chief,” according to the New York Times.

These aren’t moral equivalents — But they show both sides desperately tried to build an alliance on January 6th.

Which is a panic move.

You don’t build an alliance when you believe you have enough power already.

You don’t try to add more power to your side if you already have enough.

When there’s two groups, like we saw in DC, they’re in one of these four boxes:

On January 6th, both sides believed they were in the bottom righthand box. Neither group believed they had enough power.

Which means both sides acted out of weakness.

Which is dangerous. Dangerous because people who act out of weakness make bad decisions.

They can’t see past what’s in front of them.

They panic.

They panic and try to move into the box where their group dominates the other group. Where they have enough power to make sure the other group never threatens them again.

An amazing (and largely unrecognized) thing about the American system: For most of our history, we’ve been in that upper lefthand box.

For most of our history, most Americans have believed they have power, even though power is a zero-sum game.

Even those who don’t have power believe they have power or the ability to get power.

And they believe if they lose power for a little while, they’ll get it back in the next election.

Did we lose that on January 6th?

If so, you want it back, if you’re American.

Whatever side you’re on, you want a path to the upper lefthand box.

You want this:

If you want a stop to the tit-for-tat escalation, you want both sides to believe they have power.

You want both groups to bypass the boxes where one group dominates another.

Paradoxically, the conflict we saw in DC only ends when both sides believe they have power again.

Written by John Braddock

- Trump held a rally at the White House Ellipse and urged his followers to protest.
- Pelosi called the Joint Chiefs and “appeared to be seeking to have the Pentagon leadership essentially remove Mr. Trump from his authorities as the commander in chief,” according to the New York Times.