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oath keepers
Could 2024 Bring Another January 6?
The institutional and cultural conditions that led to the insurrection have not abated; if anything, the landscape has only become more permissive.
Oct 23, 2023
More than 1,100 people—most of whom are white, employed men between the age of 18 and 50—have been charged by the government in connection with the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Several were reportedly surprised by their legal troubles because they viewed themselves as having acted to save democracy.
One of the men convicted was Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government militia group. Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the insurrection, but he has argued that he deserves leniency because his organization operated in service of the public.
It is not just jailed participants who view the attempted coup as an expression of patriotic duty. Nearly half of Republicans viewed it as an act of patriotism, according to a December 2021 poll.
In a 2023 survey, 33% of white Americans agreed that gun ownership is a sign of good citizenship.
The truth is, this feeling is a core part of American identity, and it brings together two ideological strands present in the American experience since its founding: martial republicanism and white male supremacy.
Martial republicanism encompasses the belief that men—and only men—become good citizens by serving their country in war and politics. This ideology is the seed of modern democracy. Many democratic countries today recognize political participation and military service as the rights and obligations of citizenship.
Martial republicanism does not have a specific answer to who exactly may become a virtuous citizen. At the time of the American Revolution, white male supremacy provided that answer. It was white men who could be entrusted with the country’s defense and its political life.
This was inscribed in the United States’ institutions. The Uniform Militia Act of 1792 mandated white men to serve in the state militia. In some states, militia membership enabled men to vote. Because state governments didn’t have the fiscal capacity to pay for defense, the law required these men to own their own firearms and military supplies.
To be sure, the country’s military has changed since. In 1903, militias were federalized and professionalized. But an ideology that valorizes guns and views government institutions with hostility has survived. And when the gun world merged with the Republican party in the 1990s, these ideas received broader attention.
In a 2023 survey, 33% of white Americans agreed that gun ownership is a sign of good citizenship. Alarmingly, 56% responded that the government is so powerful that people need guns to protect themselves from it.
The link between civilian gun ownership and political violence is reinforced by political elites, from former President Donald Trump to Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia. Allusions to armed citizenship and violence have been featured in political ads. Candidates have even appeared armed in Christmas cards.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Ads have featured Manchin shooting through a bill attempting to regulate fossil fuel companies, an armed Eric Greitens (former Republican governor of Missouri) breaking through a suburban house door hunting RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), and Jerone Davison (a Republican congressional candidate from Arizona), a Black man, holding an AR-15 in order to scare away “a dozen angry Democrats in klan hoods” invading his lawn.
To be sure, their proponents say that these ads are purely metaphor, but studies show that violent language can have deadly consequences, and trusted political elites can incite followers to violence.
The wave of threats and violence in politics should not be surprising. The institutional and cultural conditions that led to January 6 have not abated; if anything, the landscape has only become more permissive. Data shows that, from the U.S. President down to school boards, officials are regularly threats and actual violence. Specifically, while the U.S. Capitol Police recorded 3,939 threats against Congress in 2017, that number was 7,501 in 2022, nearly doubling in six years. The threats targeted both parties equally.
Unless political elites and leaders take these warnings seriously, the 2024 election cycle promises more excesses and, possibly, more violence. The country cannot endure a repeat of January 6.
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'Enormous Victory': Four Proud Boys Convicted of Seditious Conspiracy for Jan. 6 Attack
One journalist noted that those convicted "identified President Donald Trump's admonition for them to 'stand back and stand by' as a major motivation for recruitment and action."
May 04, 2023
The former chairman of the Proud Boys was among four members of the white nationalist and misogynist group convicted on Thursday of seditious conspiracy for planning and carrying out the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The members now face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and numerous potential fines.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) proved to a jury in Washington, D.C. that former leader Enrique Tarrio was sufficiently involved in the conspiracy to attack the U.S. Capitol as members of Congress certified the 2020 election, even though he was in a hotel room in Baltimore on the day of the insurrection—having been banned from the nation's Capitol the day before by a judge for burning a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a church.
Although Tarrio wasn't present on Capitol Hill as thousands of supporters of Republican then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, encrypted messages revealed during the trial showed that the Proud Boys leader wanted a "spectacle" in Washington, D.C. on January 6 and that he said after the attack: "Make no mistake. We did this."
Prosecutors also publicized a document titled "1776 Returns" that they said Tarrio used to map out the planned occupation of Capitol building. The document said the Proud Boys and other far-right, pro-Trump groups including the Oath Keepers would fill federal buildings and at least one news outlet—CNN—"with patriots and communicate our demands."
The document also said the group would maintain control of "crucial buildings in the D.C. area for a set period of time" and would try to get as "many people as possible inside these buildings."
The attack came as Trump and other Republican leaders baselessly claimed that President Joe Biden was not the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, and months after Trump called on the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" as he repeatedly suggested fraud would be rampant in the voting process.
"These Proud Boys just convicted of seditious conspiracy against the United States identified President Donald Trump's admonition for them to 'stand back and stand by' as a major motivation for recruitment and action," said Todd Zwillich, deputy Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Vice News.
\u201cThe obvious bottom line gets lost: The President of the United States spurred on multiple extremist groups to undertake sedition against the country. And he's running to be president again.\u201d— Todd Zwillich (@Todd Zwillich) 1683212993
Along with Tarrio, Proud Boys chapter leaders Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly asked the jury to continue deliberations over a seditious conspiracy verdict for a fifth member, Dominic Pezzola, who admitted to smashing a Capitol building window with a stolen police shield.
All five members were convicted of other charges including obstruction of an official proceeding and preventing lawmakers and law enforcement agents from carrying out their duties.
Guilty verdicts in seditious conspiracy cases have been rare in the U.S. The Biden administration has successfully prosecuted six members of the Oath Keepers this year for the same crime related to January 6.
Ryan Goodman, former special counsel for the Department of Defense, called the verdict an "enormous victory."
\u201c2. Enormous victory on Count 1 seditious conspiracy.\n\nBANG\n\nhttps://t.co/zMvxEB4h8k\u201d— Ryan Goodman (@Ryan Goodman) 1683212599
"Important victory for accountability, for historical record, for democracy," Goodman said. "The white supremacist paramilitary group would not have taken these actions without Trump's messaging."
Trump is now seeking the 2024 Republican nomination for president.
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