They came waving flags, not firearms.

They sang hymns, not battle cries.

But for daring to question a broken election system, more than 1,500 everyday Americans were unprecedentedly treated like terrorists.

They were raided, arrested, thrown into solitary confinement, and tortured.

They were raided, arrested, thrown into solitary confinement and tortured.

Families shattered, bank accounts drained, and lives destroyed — all under the boot of a weaponized Department of Justice hell-bent on crushing dissent.

Now, with President Donald J. Trump back in the White House and political prisoners freed by his first act in office, the call to honor these citizens is growing louder.

Leading that charge is Jason Meister, a former Trump 2020 Advisory Board member, who is demanding that January 6 be recognized as a national holiday — a new Independence Day for Americans who stood against tyranny.

"J6 must be celebrated and forever known as Patriot’s Day," Meister told The New York Post. "American citizens exercised their right of assembly and redress. All of these Americans were unarmed."

The idea to enshrine January 6 into the federal calendar isn’t new — just long overdue, Meister contends.

"It has been on my mind for four years, I just didn’t have the chutzpah to talk about it," he said. "That would be the biggest way to honor these American heroes who risked their lives, freedom and honor to protest what they perceived to be a stolen election."

While the political class and corporate media smeared them as insurrectionists, over 1,500 Americans were charged with federal crimes simply for exercising their First Amendment rights.

The Biden administration didn’t merely prosecute them — it hunted them down. Armed FBI raids ripped citizens from their homes. Many were locked in solitary confinement for months, banned from seeing family, subjected to abuse behind bars, and financially ruined by legal bills often topping six figures.

"The elites weaponized J6 to crush dissent," Meister said. "These men and women have lost everything — jobs, families, their very liberty — for refusing to kneel."

Some were imprisoned so long, their spouses abandoned them. Some never returned to their jobs or communities.

For four years under Joe Biden, the FBI’s dragnet swept daily, with J6 arrests continuing right up to Trump’s return to power in January 2025.

In his first act upon retaking the Oval Office, President Trump issued sweeping pardons to what he warned were "political hostages."

Among the lives lost was Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed U.S. Air Force veteran who was shot dead by a federal officer while protesting in the Capitol building. Her family recently won a $30 million wrongful death settlement from the Department of Justice — a tacit acknowledgment of the regime’s deadly overreach.

"In response, the regime murdered a woman who was protesting and sent thousands more to federal prison without fair trials," Meister said.

Now he wants the country to remember — not regret — what those Americans stood for.

Meister is also calling for J6 defendants to sing the National Anthem at the 2027 NFL Draft, which will be held at the National Mall — a symbolic return to the same space where their voices were silenced.

He also hopes to see their names etched into history through Trump’s upcoming "National Garden of American Heroes," set to open in 2026.

"We talk about due process for illegal gangbangers who beat their wives,” Meister fumed. “I want to celebrate these heroes who sacrificed it all to protect our democracy."

And in Meister’s America, the fireworks and parades won’t be limited to July 4th.

"In 10 years, [January 6] will look like July 4," he declared.

The call has been made. Now it’s up to an emboldened nation to decide: will January 6 be remembered as a day of shame—or a day of honor?