Not an answer to your question, but a few interesting data points nonetheless:
"From @YouGov poll: among Republican voters, 45% approve of the storming of Capitol, 30% think the perpetrators are 'patriots', 52% think Biden is at least partly to blame for it, and 85% think it would be inappropriate to remove Trump from office after this. This is not a fringe."
https://twitter.com/SMerler/status/1347089854958596098?s=20
1. just how many citizens were sympathetic to the rioters as they saw those events on unfolding on their screens
2. how their collective behavior will change as a result
I wouldn't say that "existential threat" is hyperbole, I'd say that its accuracy depends on the answer to the above questions.
I wasn't worried about the immediate collapse of the America at the hands of the Capitol mob.