Brooks: One year after Jan. 6 and deeper in denial

There's a moment in every disaster movie when the heroes set aside their differences and face the real threat, united. The oncoming asteroid. The sharknado. The violent mob trying to overthrow our democracy.

The insurrection was a year ago today. The violent mob smashed its way into the U.S. Capitol, howling for lawmakers to overturn a legitimate election, egged on by the president who'd just lost.

They waved blue-line flags and beat Capitol Police bloody with flagpoles. They bounded through the Senate galleries with zip ties, hunting for targets. They smeared the walls with feces and dangled nooses from trees and scaffolds.

The mob crushed to death one of its own, Roseanne Boyland, as it surged into a tunnel on the west side of the Capitol. Video of bystanders desperately performing CPR captured a nearby family from Minnesota, rubbing tear gas from their eyes and preparing for another push inside. Other video would reveal two members of this family from Lindstrom trying to bash their way through police lines with stolen riot shields.

Jan. 6 should have changed everything.

But another year older and deeper in denial, America can't even agree whether bloody antidemocratic insurrections qualify as a disaster.

"I certainly would call it a disturbance of some kind," Minnesota Republican Party Chairman David Hann told the Star Tribune. "But I have not been spending a lot of time thinking about it, and I don't know anybody else who has other than Democrats and I guess the media."

To date, the family from Lindstrom has raised more than $37,000 toward its $250,000 fundraising goal. They have legal bills to pay. The FBI followed a trail of videos and proud social media posts to arrest Robert, Jonah and Isaac Westbury and Aaron James on an assortment of federal charges.

"Please pray that the truth will counter the lies of the lamestream media," family matriarch Rosemarie Westbury wrote in a post on the crowdfunding site I won't be linking to. "My sons DID NOT nor would they EVER attack anyone, especially a police officer?"

You can see what the Westburys and James did at the Capitol in coverage by Stephen Montemayor of the Star Tribune, in an in-depth investigation of Roseanne Boyland's death by the New York Times, and in footage scattered across the internet.

The family fundraiser got a boost from Minnesota state Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, who — contrary to Hann's assertion — did have something to say about the events of Jan. 6. In October, Koran urged his supporters to donate to the Westbury legal defense fund, in a post no longer available on his public social media account.

"Here's a local family in Lindstrom who can use some help," wrote Koran, who did not respond to an interview request this week. "They attended the Jan 6th Rally and have been accused and charged with a variety of crimes. Some very serious and some which seem to be just to punish opposing views. All I'm asking is that they need assistance to mount a fair defense from an over bearing Dept of Justice. They are a good family!"

One year after battered Capitol Police pulled Roseanne Boyland's lifeless body out from under the feet of the mob, a majority of Americans told Associated Press pollsters that the events of Jan. 6 had been "very violent" or "extremely violent."

Six out of 10 Republicans disagreed.