Early on January 6th, 2021, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) addressed the crowd of Trump supporters who would later storm the Capitol. A suit against Brooks alleges that his speech at the “Save America Rally” incited the violent insurrection. Toward the end of his speech, Brooks says, “In 1776, at a time of great peril, an American patriot by the name of Thomas Paine said, ‘These are the times that try men’s souls,'” and continues quoting from Paine’s “The Crisis.” Brooks continues, “Such was the mettle of our Founding Fathers. And today’s times do try our souls.” His final exclamation is “The fight begins today!”
Brooks’ rhetoric reflects how the rioters, as Franita Tolson puts it, “romanticized the revolutionaries of 1776.” The idea that 1/6 was Trump supporters’ “1776 Moment” exemplifies the logic of typology.
As I discuss in my book, typology is a way of reading the bible that treats one person or event as a precursor to another. In Christian biblical interpretation, Old Testament figures like Isaac, Joseph, Moses, and David are considered precursors or “types” of Jesus. Americans have long applied this logic to their own history. Puritans thought of themselves as new Israelites, and abolitionists dubbed Harriet Tubman Moses. Many uses of typology, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s comparison of himself to Moses, seem benign, but others are more sinister.
In justifying their violent assault on the Capitol as a “1776 moment,” the rioters used typology to legitimize their lawlessness. They imagined themselves as recapitulating the moment of America’s founding, but they were really seeking to overturn the results of a democratic election.
The tricky thing about typology, like metaphor, allegory, and other kinds of figurative language, is that people can be very creative in finding superficial parallels between contemporary circumstances and their preferred precursor. Typology is rhetorically powerful because it suggests a specific outcome: as the Founders defeated the British, so we will ensure that Trump remains in power.
Whether wielded for liberation or oppression, typology is as American as apple pie.
