What are you wearing?

Daniel Desrochers
·8 min read
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On the second day of Isaac Yoder’s trial here in Washington, he was wearing a tuxedo shirt, a black clip-on bow tie, a navy shawl collar tuxedo jacket and blue chinos. He had a black pork pie hat, that he would set face down on the table.

His clothes came up in the trial. Not because of what he was wearing that day, but because of what he was wearing while he climbed through scaffolding, with the smell of tear gas in the air, and entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as people around him were crawling into the building through broken windows.

That day, he was dressed as a Revolutionary War soldier, complete with a sword and a replica Betsy Ross flag. Yoder has been described as dressing as George Washington, which he said he appreciates, because he is trying to imitate the founding fathers.

Yoder’s defense attorney, John Machado, used several photos of Yoder wearing his Revolutionary War outfit in attempt to prove that it was a hobby of his, not necessarily a political statement.

Yoder, who was home-schooled until high school, really enjoys history. And when he enjoys a topic, he also enjoys dressing the part. He got into the history of the American Revolution when he was a kid and has outfits to fit the part ever since.

He’s able to find jackets in thrift stores and then he alters them to match the clothing from the period he’s imitating. He constructed a blue uniform that looks like it belongs to someone in the Continental Army and made a tricorn hat out of a Stetson.

All of this came up during the trial in part because Yoder was charged on four counts, including parading, picketing or demonstrating at the U.S. Capitol. If his outfit was specifically intended to make a political statement — i.e. calling for a revolution — it could affect whether he’s found guilty.

And while there was no evidence Yoder was wearing his Revolutionary War outfit to call for another revolution, clothes can easily make a statement.

Clothing is a language — when you put on an outfit in the morning, you’re saying something. Wearing a suit? You’re likely headed to a formal setting. Wearing sweatpants? You could be about to exercise.

There are levels to it, of course. But what you put on tells people something about your personality. Even when you’re actively avoiding standing out or caring about your appearance, it’s saying something to the people around you.

Because of that, I’ve always been interested in what people wear to attend political rallies. There are the politicians of course, who will sometimes put on jeans and a button-down shirt to say that they’re regular, casual people. But the crowd also tells us something.

There have always been ways of showing support for a candidate — when dress codes were more strict, people wore hats with their preferred candidates names, or they wore political buttons. But as dress codes have become more casual for campaign events, it’s not uncommon to see someone at a political rally dressed in a costume like Yoder’s. Or wearing a t-shirt with a campaign slogan. The outfits underscore how much politics has become something of a team sport, with people putting on a red “jersey” or a blue “jersey” depending on which party they prefer.

Yoder’s team stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. And now, a judge will have to decide if his uniform was making a political statement.

More from Missouri

At 14 out of the 16 executive branch agencies in Missouri, the percentage of non-white employees is less than the share of the state population who identify as minorities. It may not get much better. Efforts to increase diversity are unfolding amid growing suspicion of diversity, ethics and inclusion programs by some GOP officials, who see it as an attempt to promote left-wing ideology.

Here are headlines from across the state:

And across Kansas

Members of the Kansas Legislature make around $29,000 before taxes for their work, lower than many other states. Some say the low pay creates a system that favors independently wealthy, retired candidates over younger and lower income candidates. Some who have worked in the Legislature said the low pay means they worked multiple jobs to make ends meet and experienced financial instability to stay in office.

The latest from Kansas City

In Kansas City …

Have a news tip? Send it along to ddesrochers@kcstar.com

Odds and ends

Moran’s ranking

Researchers at the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a project by the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, released their list of the most effective lawmakers in the last Congress (between 2021 and 2023).

Only one of the senators from Kansas and Missouri made the list — Sen. Jerry Moran.

Moran, a Kansas Republican in his third Senate term, was ranked as the 10th most effective Republican and the most effective Republican on defense issues.

The rankings are based on legislation proposed by lawmakers and judged on 15 metrics, including how far their bills make it through the process and whether the legislation is substantial.

Two House Republicans from Missouri also made the list. Rep. Ann Wagner, a Republican from St. Louis County, was ranked as the 10th most effective Republican in the House and was seen as a lawmakers who consistently “exceeds expectations” meaning she’s consistently able to get more done regardless of whether her party is in the majority.

Both Moran and Wagner were ranked by the academics as “moderates” instead of conservatives.

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Republican from central Missouri, also made the list as the most effective House Republican on commerce issues. Luetkemeyer is on both the committee for Financial Services and the Committee on Small Business.

Roe and DeSantis

Political consultant Jeff Roe is advising a political action committee supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential election, according to Politico.

Roe got his start in Missouri politics with Rep. Sam Graves, who represents Kansas City’s Northland, and has become a top national consultant. By bringing him on, the PAC, called Never Back Down, appears to be getting serious about a DeSantis bid to challenge Trump.

It comes as DeSantis experienced some backlash from the establishment Republicans who have begun to coalesce around him after he suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “territorial dispute” (he has since cleaned up his comments and called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”).

DeSantis has also been going back and forth with former President Donald Trump. As news of a potential Trump indictment were circulating, DeSantis defended the former President while also saying he doesn’t know “what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair.”

Roe has worked for two other people considered presidential possibilities — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has said he’s not running, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who Roe’s firm helped get elected in 2021.

TikTok

The CEO of the social media app TikTok testified before a House committee on Thursday, amid mounting bipartisan pressure to ban the app.

Lawmakers have called TikTok a national security threat, out of fears that it could be used to pass data along to the Chinese Communist Party because it is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance. President Joe Biden’s administration is attempting to force the company to sell the app, in a similar move to one made by former President Donald Trump.

But while much of the early attention on the app focused on the national security threat, some people are starting to push back. On Wednesday, a group of TikTok influencers came to the Capitol to urge lawmakers not to ban the app and appeared in a press conference with three progressive Democrats.

Supporters of the app say that a move to ban it would be a limit on free speech and that it misses the larger issue issue of data privacy — there are plenty of American companies collecting as much data as TikTok.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how lawmakers are using calls for a ban to look tough on China, even as a larger data privacy bill appears out of reach.

Happy Friday

Read this about one of the largest randomized poll of trans adults. Spring is finally here! Have a bee’s knees. Here’s Patti Smith.

Enjoy your weekend.

Daniel Desrochers is the Star’s Washington, D.C. Correspondent
Daniel Desrochers is the Star’s Washington, D.C. Correspondent

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