Posted on 03/19/2009 3:34:51 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
"What kind of revolution appeals most to you?" read the now-deleted poll question on Sean Hannity's message board: "Military Coup, Armed Rebellion, or War for Secession?"
The next four to eight years are gonna be some fun!
Barely two months into the Obama administration, wing-nuts across the land are frothing at the mouth, talking feverishly of secession, violent revolution, tax revolt, "going Galt," and national divorce. It would be hilarious if it weren't so creepy.
We all had a good laugh this past December when Igor Panarin, dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats, predicted that the financial crisis would eventually lead to widespread unrest, martial law, and, by 2010, a civil war in the US — the end result of which would be a motley collection of rump states like "Atlantic America" and the "Texas Republic," that then glom onto countries such as Canada and Mexico. It's an absurd idea.
Or is it? Perusing some of the sheer insanity spewed on rightist blogs, message boards, and comment threads — the pitchfork-shaking anger directed at this so-called socialist government — one has to wonder just what's percolating in this country. Maybe the big break-up is coming sooner than we think?
Obama talks a lot about his affinity for Abraham Lincoln. Let's just hope he doesn't end up having too much in common with the guy — that in addition to saving the economy, winning two wars, and curbing global warming, he doesn't find himself having to preserve the Union, too.
People are pissed. New faux-populist hero Rick Santelli has been enjoining citizens to register their disgust with the stimulus plan and budget by bombarding the White House and Capitol with tea bags — get it?! (The phenomenon has apparently caused headaches for workers charged with the safety screening of DC mail.) Meanwhile, 4000 people gathered this past Saturday for a so-called "Cincinnati Tea Party." Read one sign: HONK IF I'M PAYING YOUR MORTGAGE.
But protests do only so much. More and more, it seems, nothing less than outright secession will satisfy some of these cranks. The right-wing Web is all atwitter over a recent open letter, spreading from blog to blog like a hanta virus, by one "John J. Wall, Law Student and an American." In it, Wall puts it plainly: he wants a divorce.
"Let's just end it on friendly terms," he writes. "We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. . . . Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA, and the military." (What they'll do with all the guns he doesn't say.)
Ironically, when not busy fomenting revolution or concocting a plan to carve up the continental US, conservatives act a lot like the "hippies" that Wall went on to lambaste in his letter — thumbing their nose at authority and threatening to drop out of society.
It was reported on military.com last month that a soldier, First Lieutenant Scott Easterling, who is stationed in Iraq, has balked at following orders: "Until Mr. Obama releases a 'vault copy' of his original birth certificate for public review," he declared, "I will consider him neither my commander in chief nor my president, but rather, a usurper to the office — an impostor."
And the latest bit of in(s)anity making the rounds in conservative circles in is the notion of "going Galt," in which angry rich people protest Obama's fiscal policies by following the lead of John Galt —übermensch protagonist of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged — and removing their ostensibly valuable productivity from society.
Why? Because "a general strike among the wealth producers," as Michelle Malkin calls it, will help keep that wealth out of the grubby hands of the lower classes — those "moochers who claim your product by tears," in Rand's piquant description. Sigh.
Are we fated to fracture into Jesus Land and the People's Republic of Massafornia? Probably not. But maybe! Until and unless that day arrives, however, ours remains a riven nation. But if Malkin and their ilk want to "drop out" in the meantime, more power to 'em. It'll be nice, frankly, not to have to hear them talk for a while.
Tell me, how do I “work” peacefully with the offspring of a female dog that wrote the screed above? What common ground do I have with him?
I have a feeling this twit won’t like communism when he has to live under it.
Southerners don't hold a monopoly on patriotism.
Absolutely! The answer is to kick out the crazies that have brought us to this point.
It's not like we're flying blind. We have a proven plan for running a nation, all neatly written down and tested by 200 years of actually doing the job. Turn the clock back about 90 years and undo all the silliness that's led to our problems.
elitist = neo-yankee
I am deign to respond to this in any way other than anger, but let's be adults first. I don't see any problem with discussions of secession, armed revolt, or economic coup. The left has been peddling these ideas for decades, and it was ok for them to do it. Now that they're in power, their protestations against the conservative movements to effect change is laughable. They're all hypocrites!
That being said, the Framers worked in the ability of the people to revolt against government through the Bill of Rights. Amendment 1 gives us the right to speak against the government and request redress from grievances. Amendment 2 gives us the tools to effect those changes. The problem is that aside from the Civil War, the United States has NEVER requested redress from grievances in a way that made any difference.
A perfect example would be the Bonus Army march on DC in 1932. These brave men fought for our country, came back to a floundering economy, were promised money by the government, and when they went to collect, they were burned out of their shacks and violently ousted by commanders who we would eventually call war heroes after WWII. If an armed mass of men and women peaceably marched on DC with open-breech rifles, they would be struck down before getting out of Maryland or Virginia (depending on the direction they're marching). The US government has no tolerance for civil uprisings (look at what happened in Alabama last week with the Guard), and I believe that once the government has grown to the size it is now, there need to be talks about what rights, if any, the government is letting us have.
Personally, I will not live in a country where the government is looming, ever closer to passing regulations to universally ban everything we've known about freedom. My real question and ultimate concern: will those events drive people to rise up? Or are we all doomed to a life in brown shirts and bread lines? I would die for this country and what I know it to be. Would you?
Yes I have and I believe the nation would be a better place if it was respected. But the 10th Amendement only grants the states powers not prohibited by the Constitution and Article 1, Section 10 prohibits acts of sovereignty by the states.
re: not getting all the government we paid for
Don’t we wish! It would be far better if they just kept the money and went away. It’s bad enough spending trillions of dollars we don’t have but to see it being used to finance a government that is both bad and a danger to us is adding insult to injury!
No telling how much money we would save if they would just take the money and go away. We can make up for the loss of the money, but they doing things to our way of life that will be difficult, if not impossible, to correct at any cost.
re: but people who are speaking in a very calm, thoughtful manner
My dad was a man of few words. And when he used them he did so in the very calm, thoughtful manner you describe. At first blush he seemed almost harmless. But after you knew him for a while you new that even though he was a man of few words you had best pay attention to few words.
I see lots of people like that clearing their throat, getting ready to say something. The Left would do well to listen carefully!
If this communism runs true to its form, he n’t live under it for long. The communists will soon stand him against a wall in front of a firing squad.
Well if it hypothetically divides like I think(an pray it does not) it will, which side of the "fence" will you be on?
Do you think your state would ever "rebel"? If not my FRiend, in that "silly" hypothetical scenario, you are in enemy territory, whether you like it or not. You see, when and If(and I personally hope not), a time were to come, people will have to make "real" decisions, geographhy becomes everything....
“What kind of revolution appeals most to you?”
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable.”
-—JFK
well you know its bushes fault they voted for obama....
my 2-1/2 yr old sees obama on tv and says bad bad bad man....now pelosi is the wicked witchand bawney fwank is just gay boy.....lol....
Two wrongs do not make a right, especially when the people in question on the other side are political idiots.
The Declaration of Independence states that revolutions should not be entered into lightly or as anything but a last resort of desperation:
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
People may disagree, but I do not see the present sad course of affairs as being anywhere close to this standard of revolution. I feel that the proper course of action is through peaceful Constitutional political means. Work to promote strong conservative Constitutional ideals and work to elect and monitor those dedicated to such principles.
I believe we are also starting to see a movement away from that “we’re too busy working to do anything” mindset of many conservatives to a “if we don’t do anything we’re toast” mentality and it’s about G.D. time.
I think the Achille’s heel of the Tea Parties is lack of coordination of schedules. Pick a date and roll with it. It will have a much greater impact.
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