Some election deniers are really dumb. For example, this one.
Elmer Stewart Rhodes isn’t one of them. A former congressional staffer (for Rep. Ron Paul) and a Yale Law School graduate, he’s a very smart guy who possesses the intellect to easily grasp abstract concepts like those I discuss below. Huffington Post reported on October 5, 2022 (here),
“Evidence presented at trial Tuesday showed that Elmer Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right Oath Keepers, started agitating for a strategy to keep President Donald Trump in power by force as early as Nov. 7, 2020 — the date that media outlets called the presidential election for Joe Biden.”
This is called a coup, defined (here) as “a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics and especially the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group.” Coups are illegal. Huffington Post continues,
“Prosecutors showed the 16-member jury how Rhodes swiftly endorsed a ‘positive pressure’ campaign to convince Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act so he could stay in office with help from the Oath Keepers and their firearms. … To Rhodes, the ‘insurrection’ was what he perceived to be a fraudulent presidential election his group had a ‘duty’ to oppose. … On the Nov. 9 call, Rhodes regurgitated multiple disproven election fraud theories, such as the idea Democratic operatives brought in ‘extra ballots by the suitcase-load’ and ‘flipp[ed] the numbers with the scorecard software.'”
Trained by one of America’s leading law schools, Rhodes surely knows what evidence is, and how to evaluate and weigh it. The lack of evidence of fraud in the 2020 election need not be reiterated here. He’s too smart to actually believe the election was “flipped.” This is really simple: His candidate lost, he didn’t like it, so he decided to overthrow the election results by force.
“Rhodes said in one text that the Oath Keepers needed to prepare themselves ‘mind, body and spirit’ for a coming fight.”
Attacking Congress isn’t acting in self-defense.
“Washington has very strict gun laws, a fact Rhodes lamented at one point as he floated ideas for getting around them.”
Law-abiding people don’t need to “get around” laws.
“He said they could keep a stash of guns just over the border in Virginia until Trump invoked the Insurrection Act …”
Even if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act, his group would have no authority under it; they’re not the Army or National Guard. But that’s a red herring anyway. Although Rhodes told his group they’d be “awaiting the president’s orders,” so far as we know they never got such orders, but Oath Keepers participated in the riot anyway, which makes clear their plans were never contingent on some pretense of authorization.
” … and carry ‘less lethal’ weapons like tasers and pepper spray which were legal. … Weapons could also be improvised. A flag pole could double as a beating instrument, as could a tactical helmet, Rhodes said, pointing out that he had wielded his helmet in such a way before.”
Guns, tasers, pepper spray, and “beating instruments” aren’t implements of protest, free speech, or “peaceably assembling and petitioning the Government for a redress of grievances” (paraphrased from U.S. Const., Amend. 1). And there’s this:
“In a recording from Jan. 10, 2021, played Monday, Rhodes was heard saying that his ‘only regret’ was ‘that they should have brought rifles’ to the Capitol the day of the riot.”
For what? Shooting people? What else would rifles at a riot be for?
Maybe the dunderheads who helped Rhodes carry out his Jan. 6 plans can plead stupidity, but he can’t. What he lacks is not brains, but character. Given his history of anti-government activity (details here), it’s clear he intended to wage war against our constitutional government, which satisfies the Constitution’s definition of treason and under the statutes carries a potential death penalty. If he gets only 20 years for sedition, he’ll get off easy.
Related story: Sedition is difficult to prove, and criminal defendants typically take plea deals only if they’re guilty and sure to be convicted; that’s why it’s especially significant that a high-ranking Proud Boy pled guilty to seditious conspiracy on Thursday, October 6, 2022 (read story here).