Proud Goeth Before The Fall

 "I am not a political zealot. Inflicting harm or changing the results of the election was not my goal. I ask you that you not take my forties from me." These were the words "Proud Boy" leader Enrique Tarrio used to plead for mercy at his sentencing for his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the nation's capitol. 

Some quick math suggests that his plea fell on deaf ears, since he was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison which if my math holds up lets him out at the age of sixty-one. Maybe he should have begged for his fifties as well. At the time of his sentencing, Mister Tarrio was referring to the riots he helped incite as "a national embarrassment." What a gift hindsight turns out to be. Or the prospect of spending more than twenty years in a federal prison. 

You may remember Enrique from his previous "Proud" appearances, including his club's credo: "Western chauvinists" who "refuse to apologize for creating the modern world." Or perhaps you recall the time in September of 2020 that the former game show host and twice-impeached "president" called out, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by."

Enrique and his boys were listening. Over the course of the next few months, their appearances as agitators increased, and culminated in their 1776 Returns manifesto that laid out plans to storm key buildings in Washington, DC and suggested possible slogans to chant, such as “No Trump, No America." 

You probably know most of the rest of the story. In the years since the 2020 election, more than one thousand people have been rounded up for their participation in the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6. Currently, the record for the length of his sentence is Mister Tarrio. The national embarrassment he helped foment continues to put people in jail. Enrique is being locked up for his role in the seditious conspiracy that took place that day and the days leading up to it. All a part of the Big Lie. 

Meanwhile, the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party, the person mouth that set this all in motion, remains at the top of the polls. 

America's a funny town.