Hindsight, as the old saying goes, is always 20/20. That thought came to mind after a couple of the roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 offenders given pardons and commutations by President Trump said they didn’t want it. Finally, I thought, a bright light of sanity shows itself. I am heartened by the example of Pamela Hemphill, 71, of Boise, Idaho, rechristened the “MAGA granny” by some. Now she’s making new headlines by declaring her desire to refuse to accept Trump’s pardon, although refusing a pardon is not easy in a system unaccustomed to such requests. She no longer supports Trump or believes his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. “Absolutely not,” she told The New York Times on Wednesday. “It’s an insult to the Capitol Police, to the rule of law and to the nation. If I accept a pardon, I’m continuing their propaganda, their gaslighting and all their falsehoods they’re putting out there about Jan. 6.” Hemphill, whose wish to reject the pardon was previously reported by The Idaho Statesman, pleaded guilty in January 2022 to a misdemeanor offense for entering the Capitol during the riot. She was sentenced to 60 days in prison and three years of probation. Now she looks back with regret, crediting a therapist who helped see that she was “not a victim of Jan. 6; I was a volunteer.” “I lost my critical thinking,” she told the Times. “Now I know it was a cult, and I was in a cult.” Which reminds me of author Tom Wolfe’s often-repeated observation: A cult is a religion that lacks political clout. She’s not alone. Pamela Hemphill, who served a federal prison sentence for her role in the Jan. 6 attack, poses after Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley spoke at a campaign event in Conway, South Carolina, on Jan. 28, 2024. (Matthew Kelley/AP) In New Hampshire, Navy veteran Jason Riddle also reacted uncomfortably to his pardon for offenses he regrets. He admitted to entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, drinking from a bottle of wine and stealing a book from the Senate parliamentarian’s office. He eventually pleaded guilty to theft of government property and illegally protesting inside the Capitol, for which he was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years of probation. But now, as he told ABC News, he feels grateful for the help his arrest and mandatory alcoholism treatment have given with his struggle with alcoholism. “It was definitely 100% warranted getting arrested. (I’m) thankful I did,” he said. “Good thing it didn’t happen before my life was turned around. I’m grateful he couldn’t pardon till now, because my life was terrible at the time of the riot.” After years of being tempted to dismiss the individual rioters as members of the tinfoil hat brigades, it has been illuminating to see how easily well-meaning folks can get swept up in what appears to be an insidious form of politically charged mass hysteria. As Riddle said, no one should be celebrating that. “Capitol Police officers are dead. People have died, and, you know, more people are going to die if, you know, by feeding this lie and carrying on with the charade,” Riddle said. “Obviously, it sounds better to say that I’m a hero and a patriot who I would love to, you know, I would love to believe that, but I know it’s not true.” That probably sounds familiar to Robert Pape, who directs the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago. He has spent months poring over court documents and researching more than 700 arrested for unlawfully entering the Capitol that day. He found that the motives of people interviewed by officials tended to be political more than criminal. They believed Trump’s big lie that he had won a legitimate electoral victory that was being snatched away from him and his voters. And while members of extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were arrested and convicted for their participation in the riot, Pape estimates that 87% of those who were convicted were not members of such groups. The awful truth, he told NPR, tends to show that “this is coming from part of the mainstream.” That means those of us who live in the mainstream need to be extra vigilant about extreme voices that are eager to exploit our legitimate grievances and frustrations for their own power grabs. Too often the cures they offer are worse than the malady. Email Clarence Page at [email protected]. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].