On March 17, a federal judge sentenced Larry Rendall Brock, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, to two years’ imprisonment for joining a mob that tried to overturn a legitimate Presidential election. 

It was a decision that would have appalled Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science.        

U.S. District Judge John Bates had convicted Brock after a bench trial in November, 2022, of one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and four misdemeanor counts for his role in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt. 

Larry Brock (in helmet) on the floor of the Senate 

Prosecutors asked Bates to sentence Brock to five years in prison, owing to his calls for violence on Facebook before the coup attempt: 

• “When we get to the bottom of this conspiracy we need to execute the traitors that are trying to steal the election, and that includes the leaders of the media and social media aiding and abetting the coup plotters.”
• “I bought myself body armor and a helmet for a civil war that is coming.”
• “Do not kill LEO [law enforcement officers] unless necessary. Gas would assist in this if we can get it.”

But Bates rejected a significant enhancement against Brock for threatening bodily injury. Bates’ decision reduced his sentencing guideline range to 24-30 months. 

U.S. District Judge John Bates

Brock’s defense attorney, Charles Burnham, tried to put the best spin possible on Brock’s behavior: “It is inconceivable that he was motivated by anything other than genuine concern for democracy.

“If Mr. Brock was sincerely motivated by high ideals, it significantly reduces his culpability even if the Court should privately disagree with his view.” 

Brock, 55, of Grapevine, Texas, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1989. He was on active duty until 1998 and served in the reserves until 2014.

Bates credited Brock’s distinguished military service, which included five Air Medals and multiple deployments during the War on Terror, as well as his community involvement and his lack of any criminal history. 

And that is where—according to Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science—-Bates went dangerously wrong.

Niccolo Machiavelli

In his masterwork, The Discourses, Machiavelli provides clear instructions on how to preserve liberty within a republic. In Book 1, Chapter 24, he advises: “Well-Ordered Republics Establish Punishments and Rewards for Their Citizens, But Never Set Off One Against the Other.”

Specifically: 

“The services of Horatius had been of the highest importance to Rome, for by his bravery he had conquered the Curatii. But the crime of killing his sister was atrocious, and the Romans were so outraged….that he was put upon trial for his life.

“…It may seem like an instance of popular ingratitude, but a more careful examination…will show that the people were to blame rather for the acquittal than for having him tried.

“And the reason for this is, that no well-ordered republic should ever cancel the crimes of its citizens by their merits. But having established rewards for good actions and penalties for evil ones, and having rewarded a citizen for conduct who afterwards commits a wrong, he should be chastised for that without regard to his previous merits.  

“And a state that properly observes this principle will long enjoy its liberty, but if otherwise, it will speedily come to ruin. 

“For if a citizen who has rendered some eminent service to the state should add to the reputation and influence which he has thereby acquired the confident audacity of being able to commit any wrong without fear of punishment, he will in a little while become so insolent and overbearing as to put an end to all power of the law.”

No better proof of this can be found in the unwillingness of local, state and federal courts to hold accountable former President Donald Trump for a decades-long history of criminality.

This includes two attempts to impeach him as President—in 2019 and 2021.

The first impeachment trial centered on two charges: Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

The second trial centered on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” against the U.S. Capitol on January 6. 

The evidence against Trump was overwhelming in both trials, but his Right-wing allies in a Republican-controlled Senate twice acquitted him.

And although he was banned from Youtube, Facebook and Twitter in the wake of his inciting an attack on Congress, the oligarchs who own these websites have since fully restored his accounts.

He is once again free to use their platforms to spread his “Big Lie” gospel that he was robbed of the Presidency in 2020 through massive voter fraud.

Moreover, he is doing so as a candidate for President of the United States.

There is a very real danger that his millions of Fascistic followers could return him to the Oval Office—and thus put an end to the 245-year history of democratic government in the United States.

And the fact that so many of his followers have gotten slap-on-the-wrist sentences for their treasonous coup attempt only incites them to similar future violence.

All of which would lead Machiavelli to declare: “This bodes ill for your republic.”