ELMER DUD — The Weekly Opine

When he gets out of prison, Elmer Rhodes should take a class on safely handling firearms. (Photo credit NBC News)

Yale to jail

When you are a White male with a law degree from Yale University – ahem, Ivy League Yale - you are in position to benefit from as much privilege as anyone could ever hope for. The world, as the saying goes, is your oyster. The path in front of you is lined with golden opportunities to flourish.

If you keep your wits intact you could easily live at the high end of the good life. Moving and shaking amongst the much ballyhooed one-percenters is in the palm of your hand. Having your cake and eating it too is a real and attainable proposition when your education comes from Yale of the Ivy League.

But if you are blinded by rage and petty, imagined grievances based on lies and conspiracies, your mind disintegrates into illogical mush. You may as well have dropped out of school in the 10th grade.

Such is the case of Elmer Stewart Rhodes, found guilty this week of seditious conspiracy. (Rhodes’ conviction gives us hope that the Department of Justice has warmed up its prosecutorial chops and will go after even bigger targets, all the way up to Trump.)

Elmer Rhodes chose to apply his gift of Ivy League brainpower to forming the alleged patriotic but white supremacist militia group, the Oath Keepers. The Oath Keepers are faux patriots who became another group willingly suckered by Trump, eagerly falling in line behind the most ignorant, racist, criminal president in U.S. history.

You’ve seen photos of Elmer Rhodes wearing his eye patch, posturing like a macho man. Maybe, you wonder, did Rhodes lose his eye in combat on some faraway battlefield? According to reporting during his trial, Rhodes wears an eye patch not because he was wounded in war. Demonstrating he is far from Ivy League intelligent when it comes to handling firearms, Elmer Rhodes wears an eye patch because he accidentally shot himself in the eye. Heavens.

Now, Rhodes faces 20 years in prison for doing something so arrogantly stupid his tarnished legacy will live in history books for the ages. A Yale-educated White man, on the doorstep of life’s most coveted privileges, instead decides to follow a path leading to conviction for partaking in seditious conspiracy against the U.S. Constitution and government.

A big shoe just dropped. According to the attorney general, others will follow. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

The other shoe(s)

Something tells me there will be others joining Elmer Rhodes and his Oath Keeper pal Kelly Meggs, also convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Surely, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio – facing seditious conspiracy charges – is not sleeping well, and neither should Trump. It is factually, plainly obvious the attempt to overthrow the U.S. government on January 6, 2021, was orchestrated by Trump and his inner circle of hoodlums. It wasn’t happenstance. It was a seditious conspiracy.

As we saw during the recent midterm election, Americans are not having it regarding MAGAs taking over our government. The hardcore, out-of-control element of the MAGA cabal is shrinking, not growing. There was no violence at voting sites. If you were predisposed to participate in another January 6 style insurrection, you are seeing serious consequences meted out to bad actors. Real prison time. Do you really want to go to prison for several years? Do you actually believe Trump will ever be in position to pardon you?

Furthermore, while their reasons are self-serving following the GOP’s dismal midterm performance, “normal” Republicans – politicians and donors – are finding their voice and rejecting loser Trump and crazed MAGA politicians.

Attorney General Merrick Garland keeps repeating that anyone guilty of crimes related to January 6 and the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case will be criminally prosecuted. Although he quivers, like he’s nervous, at least Garland keeps saying it.

OK, Merrick, if you’re listening, don’t stop now. There is overwhelming evidence Trump is The One.