With arrests exceeding 1,000 of Capitol rioters, the US government has recently reminded dissenters about limits on dissent. In particular, with six convictions of rioters for sedition, with those dissenters now facing 20 years’ incarceration, we are reminded, forcefully, that sedition in America is not among tolerable means of dissent. As such, serious American dissenters effectively have been urged to choose dissent that is merely subversive, say, and not seditious (subversion is the undermining of established authority, sedition is the making of war against established authority.
But that choice is for the future. Presently, with the Capitol Riot, American dissent overall has stepped toward sedition, and this was not a first step.
In 2010 in Michigan, an armed Christian militia fueled by crack cocaine and steroids were planning to murder police. Nine members were charged with seditious conspiracy – a plotting to levy war against the United States.[1] Prosecutors say the Michigan group planned to make a phony 911 call, kill responding police officers, then set off a bomb at the ensuing funeral to kill many more police.
Militia leader David Stone said in an FBI surveillance tape,
“It’s about the authority. They see us as the little people.”
Next, in January 2016 at a wildlife preserve in eastern Oregon, heavily armed men led by “star” anti-government figure Ammon Bundy broke into and occupied management offices of the US Forest Service for weeks.[2] Toward evicting them, no law enforcement would risk any shooting. From neighboring states, dozens of armed militia members arrived in the nearby town of Burns, reportedly asking locals aggressively whether the locals would join in opposing federal control of Oregon land.
As occupiers eventually left the wildlife preserve, in a law-enforcement chase, armed militant La Voy Finicum sacrificed his life by reaching for a gun as officers held him in gunsights.[3]
La Voy Finicum
Four years later, again in Michigan, many Covid skeptics brought guns to the State Capitol, on April 15, 2020. Two days later, President Donald Trump, seeing opportunity to rally far-right support in his re-election bid, tweeted, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”
Just days after that, a large gathering of men with long guns stormed the Michigan Capitol building, attempting to force legislators to end the Covid lockdown.[4]
Not long after this, in mid-2020, insurrectionists made a plot to overthrow the Michigan government, by kidnapping the sitting governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Four militants from Wolverine Watchmen were convicted of providing armed (“material”) support for terrorist acts. Authorities said this overthrow/kidnap plot intended to trigger a U.S. civil war (known to extremists as “The Boogaloo”).
Arrested Wolverine Watchman Joe Morrison
And in California at just that time, a pair of militants plotted that, if in November 2020 Trump lost, they would blow up a Sacramento government building – the headquarters of the state Democratic Party.
Plotter Jarrod Copeland, after desertion and discharge from the army, joined the “Three Percenters” militia. He was abusing steroids.[5]
Jarrod Copeland
Convicted of conspiracy to destroy a government building, Copeland heard a prosecutor say,
“The danger he poses to anyone with opposing political views is obvious.”
Very likely, the current of insurrection expressed by the above events encouraged Donald Trump considerably. On December 18, having lost an election to Joe Biden, Trump tweeted,
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th.”
Three days after this Trump summons to action, armed militants responded to the following Internet message:
Armed militants insurrected the Oregon State Capitol on December 21, 2020, blocking government from proceeding[6] – that is, with that action these militants effectively made a template for a US Capitol insurrection – which insurrection did in fact occur, just two weeks later, on Trump’s recommended date – January 6, 2021.
Devising the above Internet message was Oregon legislator Mike Neerman. In response, a gun-carrying crowd did show up at the Oregon Capitol, whereupon Neerman opened a locked entrance door, and the armed crowd stormed in and blocked the Oregon Legislature’s governmental proceeding.[7]
Promptly, militants on social media promoted similar insurrectionary activity to occur at state capitols nationwide. They called for this to happen on January 5, 2021, the day before Trump’s rally in DC.
An image/meme posted on Facebook on Jan. 5, 2021[8] had authors including #1776Rebel (it is worth noting that Tik Tok chose to gather together posts by La Voy Finicum’s daughter, Challice, with #1776Rebel posts).[9]
Apparently responding to the #1776Rebel summons, on January 5, 2021, in Redding, California, two Shasta County supervisors unlocked doors officially closed for Covid deliberations to numerous mask-less people who cried “insurrection” while threatening particular legislators.[10] This was the day before thousands insurrected the nation’s Capitol.[11]
What Should We Do?
Each of us dissenters should post on Internet media something that would tend to start a thread concerning sedition, subversion, and a choice between.
Each of us serious dissenters should pick, and aim an Internet post at, some individual(s), the more powerful the better, whom we perceive as a soft dissenter, “calling out” this person to up his ante, saying that the dissent game has been changing for a while, and it now requires a higher ante (Examples: former Republican senator from Nebraska Ben Sasse [now president of the University of Florida]; current Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom).
[1] Associated Press, April 13, 2010
[2] Organizers claimed they sought to publicize their view that the federal government is constitutionally required to turn over much federal public land to individual states.
[3] Wikipedia. Finicum likely would have faced a charge of conspiracy to impede officers through use of force; his fellow alleged conspirators were acquitted of the charge.
[4] Clearly, this attack counts as a progenitor of the DC insurrection on January 6, in that the Michigan insurgents, just as would the DC insurgents, used armed incursion toward controlling a government proceeding..
[5] Court records note a $1,200 purchase of steroids by Copeland in December and the seizure of steroids from his home in January.
[6] Salem Statesman Journal, January 7, 2021
[7] Oregon Public Broadcasting, August 17, 2021
[8] Washington Post, January 13, 2021
[9] The Tik Tok batch was called “Short videos related to ‘This is just like 1776.’” The US Secret Service had been warned that #1776Rebel was planning violence at the US Capitol, apparently in response to Trump’s tweet.
[10] Los Angeles Times, January 10, 2021
[11] More than 1,000 additional people could still face charges, mostly felony, in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol..Bloomberg, March 15, 2023