Revolution

American Thinker ^ | May 20, 2009 | Herbert E. Meyer

[plsjr]

During the last 30 years we Americans have been so politically divided that some of us have called this left-right, liberal-conservative split a "culture war" or even a "second Civil War." These descriptions are no longer accurate. The precise, technical word for what is happening in the United States today is revolution.

Because of our country's history, we tend to think of revolutions as military conflicts, and of the revolutionaries as the good guys; the image of Minutemen fighting valiantly against the British forces at Lexington and Concord lies deep within our DNA. But sometimes -- quite often, actually -- revolutions aren't military conflicts, and the good guys are the ones trying to keep the revolution from happening. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by its elected president; he would spend the next two years consolidating his power with the legislative connivance of his political allies in the Reichstag. In October 1917, Lenin and his Bolsheviks took control of Russia from Kerensky and his Social Democrats -- who had overthrown the Czar earlier that year -- entirely through parliamentary maneuvering in Russia's fledgling Duma.

What defines a revolution -- and this is the crucial point to grasp -- is that when it's over a country has changed not merely its leaders and its laws, but its operating system.

[plsjr]

Real US Citizens take responsibility for their actions, take care of their families, work for a living, and are good stewards of their assets and abilities. We trusted the electoral processes to select representatives and officials that would have the same values carrying out their governmental responsibilities.

Unfortunately, we've not paid sufficient attention to what they did after elected.

Now we have an education industry that focuses on leftist propaganda, the majority of the news industry, ditto and of course, the progressives/liberals/leftists/socialists/statists/marxists/fascists have completely co-opted one of the political parties and the other is too focused on perqs and re-election to be responsible. The normal, hard working, US Citizen needs to realize the left owns entire industries that are dedicated to the destruction of our country by whatever means available. Responsible US Citizens need to dedicate the time necessary to counter the leftists if we don't want to find ourselves being another banana republic, or worse: another point in the line that includes Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Castro, ...

[Publius6961]

BUMP!

[21twelve]

Here’s an old thread, with an even older (1938) conservative booklet called “The Revolution Was”, written about FDR and the New Deal. Similar points, and almost EXACTLY what we see happening 70 years later.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/929392/posts

THE REVOLUTION WAS, By Garet Garrett (written in 1938)

Excerpt:

There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom.

There are those who have never ceased to say very earnestly, “Something is going to happen to the American form of government if we don’t watch out.” These were the innocent disarmers. Their trust was in words.....

Worse outwitted were those who kept trying to make sense of the New Deal from the point of view of all that was implicit in the American scheme, charging it therefore with contradiction, fallacy, economic ignorance, and general incompetence to govern.

But it could not be so embarrassed and all that line was wasted, because, in the first place, it never intended to make that kind of sense, and secondly, it took off from nothing that was implicit in the American scheme. It took off from a revolutionary base......

....Having passed this crisis, the New Deal went on from one problem to another, taking them in the proper order, according to revolutionary technic.....The effect was to keep people excited about one thing at a time, and divided, while steadily through all the uproar of outrage and confusion a certain end, held constantly in view, was pursued by main intention.

The end held constantly in view was power.....

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[shibumi]

Hegelian Dialectic anyone?

[A Navy Vet]

"...is that when it's over a country has changed not merely its leaders and its laws, but its operating system.

I'm getting so weary of metaphors. Let's be blunt, our "operating system" is a societal contract called the Constitution of the United States of America. This is not an "operating system", it is a written contract and has been abused and ignored that it is no longer recognizable. Okay, so I'm splitting hairs.

So what? What are you going to do about it? Nothing, most likely. You're going to talk and talk about it all; give it new names; and do nothing while our contract is ripped to shreds.

You will write your representatives; join your demonstrations (as I used to do); bitch on the Web; occasionally talk with relatives and friends; and then watch your "op system" go to hell.

I don't mean you, personally. I mean the American populace in general. There are movements growing for States' rights. There are movements growing otherwise - take that as you will.

Just stop giving metaphors for the Constitution of the United States of America. You and everyone else should use the word, CONSTITUTION, every time you speak of the abuses of the Fedgov. End rant.

[mtnjimmi]

much of our problem today is that we have discovered we can vote our/friends from the public trough, and we do in large amounts.

[plsjr]

Thanks shibumi, Hegelian Dialectic is certainly a consideration in my worldview, but US Citizens, as 'A Navy Vet' says, MUST get off their keisters and do something.

As the author of the article, Mr. Meyer, observes:
"At the core of democracy is the rule of law, and we have already lost it. [emphasis mine] The liberals lecture us incessantly that everything is "relative," but that's not true; some things are absolutes. You cannot claim to be faithful to your spouse because you never cheat on her -- except when you're in London on business. And you cannot claim to have the rule of law if the government can set aside the rule of law when it decides that "special circumstances" have arisen that warrant illegality. When the President and his aides handed ownership of Chrysler Corp. to the United Auto Workers union, they tried to avoid sending that beleaguered company into bankruptcy by muscling its bondholders into accepting less money for their assets than the law entitled them to collect. These contracts, and the law under which they were signed, were mere obstacles to a thuggish President bent on paying off his political supporters."

People with a stake in the specific fight, regardless of "standing", need to make an issue of the lawbreaking and if necessary force the issue.

As long as we sit idly by, waiting for someone else to do something, they will continue to roll over us.

[broncobilly]

I think this is an extremely important article.
Having this issue in mind, to me tops promoting any other single issue. If we can keep our “operating system” we can work the other issues out in a democratic way.
That is why I am so distressed by those who want to stir dissention among those who could be supportive in this cause. There is so much slandering of imperfect people, as if we aren't all imperfect. We need the support of every one who wants to preserve the republic.
The author says we still outnumber them. But I wonder if that will still be true if amnesty is allowed.
It is so important to hold the line until the next election and increase our representation drastically in 2010.

[mapmaker77]

I think you make a good point. I keep thinking that what zero and the left are really trying to do is pick a fight that will spark a fire that will spread, and this will give him the excuse to send in the acorn brownshirts.

But, This isn’t Germany or Russia decades ago. Americans, if pushed far enough, will fight back and the last thing you want after you is a pissed off yanqui.

[Lexinom]

This is a rare, plain-speak essay of what is happening. So many of us are confused, and this essay provides not only clarity but direction. Want to know what to do? It's in there.

[plsjr]

It's a "responsible adult" decision.

Knowing you can steal from your neighbor and choosing not to is what an honest citizen would do. You've got to be a democrat, a RINO or an evil adult-child to use the government to steal from everybody and give it you yourself and your partners in crime friends.

You're right, that is a problem that appears to be getting worse.

[21twelve]

Thanks for the prompt to learn something “new”. (Some things NEVER change).

http://www.amerikanexpose.com/hegel/

Excerpt:

Why is it important for you to understand the subject of the Hegelian Dialectic? Because it is the process by which all change is being accomplished in society today. More importantly, it is the tool that the globalists are utilizing to manipulate the minds of the average American to accept that change, where ordinarily they would refuse it.

The Hegelian Dialectic is, in short, the critical process by which the ruling elite create a problem, anticipating in advance the reaction that the population will have to the given crisis, and thus conditioning the people that a change is needed. When the population is properly conditioned, the desired agenda of the ruling elite is presented as the solution. The solution isn’t intended to solve the problem, but rather to serve as the basis for a new problem or exacerbate the existing one.

When the newly inflamed difficulty reaches the boiling point of a crisis, it becomes the foundation upon which arguments may again be made for change. Hence, the process is repeated, over and over, moving society toward whatever end the planners have in mind.

[wintertime]

We should also stop using the metaphors: liberal, progressive, leftist...etc.

The philosophy and political action we are fighting is COMMUNISM!

[FreedomPoster]

CWII Ping.

Click through and read the whole article, this guy gets it.

[wintertime]

This will include city council members, county commissioners, school board members, judges, sheriffs and even members of the local parks commission.

Great article until I came to this line. Wow! This author just doesn't "get it".

The school board is the very first step in my state in working your way into the political pipeline. So?...Who controls who get elected to the school board? Answer: Our corrupt Marxist dominated teachers union. Without their support it is impossible to get elected.

What's needed here is a complete dismantling of government education.

Marxism is our nation's **most** serious threat. SCHOOLS are the Marxist's most powerful weapon. The government schools must be shut down and conservatives must set up private alternatives.

[redgolum]

For later read

[sergeantdave]

“here are movements growing for States’ rights.”

People can’t just concentrate on the federal government. Citizens need to take back their local governments.

Run for your local council seat. Volunteer to sit on the planning and zoning boards, where liberals cause damage to our property rights.

Read your state open meetings law. Liberals in local governments are constantly holding illegal meetings. With your open meetings law, you can sue liberals, nullify ordinances and even throw them in jail.

There’s no reason conservative communities should be under the thumb of liberals. Take back your local neighborhoods.

If you’re going to be revolutionary, start local.

[Vigilantcitizen]

Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council. He holds the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, which is the Intelligence Community's highest honor.

Yeah, he gets it.

[Gilbo_3]

He nails it, up to the point of thinking that there is still time to muster electoral success from county dog catcher, to washington...

inside 4 months since the commie throttle was mashed to the floor, look how fast were going now...

IF this had been written and believed 30, 40, 60 yrs ago, we would still have multiple boxes to choose from...

but the monster truly is roaming the countryside, and will devour everything in its path until the people truly muster at the grass roots level...

[sergeantdave]

“here are movements growing for States’ rights.”

People can’t just concentrate on the federal government. Citizens need to take back their local governments.

Run for your local council seat. Volunteer to sit on the planning and zoning boards, where liberals cause damage to our property rights.

Read your state open meetings law. Liberals in local governments are constantly holding illegal meetings. With your open meetings law, you can sue liberals, nullify ordinances and even throw them in jail.

There’s no reason conservative communities should be under the thumb of liberals. Take back your local neighborhoods.

If you’re going to be revolutionary, start local.

[Travis McGee]

I don’t think you are splitting hairs at all. You are exactly correct that the Constitution is a societal contract. One side does not have the right to ignore or change it without the other side’s permission and approval according to the terms of the contract. If one side (the fedgov) abrogates the contract, the contract is null and void.

[Does so]

The latest "American Rifleman" magazine has an account of the end of British fighting during the Revolution. Just two fatal shots from one sharpshooter so demoralized British officers, they gave up the war shortly afterwards.

Likewise, we've been demoralized ourselves, with successes in forcing Socialism and Gay Marriage on us, the end could be in sight.

Short term, we need a "Star" as a candidate, and a change of party name.

[DuncanWaring]

(Yes, of course I realize it's explosive to keep bringing up the Nazis and the Bolsheviks in an essay about the Democrats. I'm not doing this to be incendiary; I'm doing this to be accurate.)

With this line, the author puts himself into the league of Mark Steyn and Ann Coulter.

[Sig Sauer P220]

But, This isn’t Germany or Russia decades ago. Americans, if pushed far enough, will fight back and the last thing you want after you is a pissed off yanqui.

Well, half of America anyway. The other half will be curled up in the fetal position whimpering.

[Kozak]

‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the Plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader the barbarians enter Rome.... Mine was a lovely world till the parasites took over.

Robert Heinlein

[MrB]

Let ‘em cower.

The thing we’re facing, this time, isn’t that the oppressor group is, by its very ideology, dependent on the “elites” and those in government to do things for them.

So, we’ll only be facing said elites, and those willing to follow their orders, and not the general leftist citizen. They are simply sheep that will bleet and whine.

[Centurion2000]

bttt

[Noumenon]

"It's going to get much worse, fast. President Obama has told us time and again that among his criteria for choosing Federal judges will be "empathy." Empathy is a wonderful quality in any human being, but a judge's job is to rule according to the law. Once our courts are presided over by judges who will reach verdicts based on how they feel about an issue -- such as abortion or the right of citizens to bear arms -- the law will be whatever the judges wish it to be; the rule of law will become an empty phrase rather than the architecture of our civilization."

The author understands what's happening to us with a clarity I seldom see these days. But the author shies away from the final destination of the process that he's described so well. So here's why I think that we should be afraid - we should be very, very afraid. Because the same ideas that have animated recent history's mass murderers now have a happy home in the White House. Obama's just another worshipper in the same pew as Stalin, Castro, Mao, Chavez and Pol Pot. They bow before the same altar of human sacrifice and power for power's sake.

These monsters would rather rule in hell as barbarians sitting on top of a stinking heap of rubble and corpses than leave the rest of us alone to live in peace. I believe that enough patriots still remain to prevent this from happening. But it will come at a terrible cost.

Titus Livy, in his introduction to his monumental history of Rome remarked that his purpose in writing was "to trace the progress of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them."

Now we must face the remedies needed to cure ourselves of the Marxist totalitarian rot that has overtaken us. That we have allowed to overtake us. The cure will not take place in the voting both nor will it come from the forums of public debate. Those have been lost to us, as any observant individual well knows.

The honest answers to the following questions won't be pleasant to contemplate.

When your opponents lack the price of admission to civilized debate: a respect for reason, belief in objective truth, and a willingness to admit they're wrong when the facts prove it so - what then?

When your opponents' goals are to destroy the very foundation of your culture and your society - and to offer nothing in return but the howling nightmare of a society of cannibals and looters - what then?

When your opponents seize and indoctrinate your children's' minds in the politics of victimization and the nobility of human servitude and sacrifice - what then?

When the institutions of higher learning are occupied by Marxist multiculturalists who despise the very philosophical foundation upon which the architecture of liberty and human dignity have been constructed and seek to destroy it - what then?

We know the answer - as historian Samuel P. Huntington said, "History shows that no country so constituted can long endure as a coherent society." And now we must pay the price for Livy's cure in fire and blood.

[Dead Corpse]

Yes. We know where we are going. We know how we are getting there. We even know why this is a very, very, very bad thing.

Now...

What are we going to do about it?

[Noumenon]

Another great Heinlein quote: “You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.”

[ctdonath2]

True. People are often confused as to who is on what side.

WE are the ones trying to preserve our government as established by our Constitution. We are not revolutionaries.

[antisocial]

BTTT

[ctdonath2]

We still haven’t used the “third box”. Court filing fees aren’t that high. Get busy.

[mick]

Excellent post. That quote from Livy is dead on. One of my all time favorites.

Now. What to do? I am a guy rooted in concrete reality. I look at the power of the State and ask form whence it comes. I read Burke and believe him when he says: "The revenue of the State IS the State". The IS is in fact it's only power.

And how does the State ( the US Federal Government ) get it's revenue, ie: money?

Directly from the Federal Reserve Board. That is the evil source of it's power!

Forget taxes. Forget borrowing. The Real Power of the Federal Government is it's monopoly power to create "fiat money" out of this air. It is the life blood of the Beast.

So, IMHO, we must cut off the supply of blood to the Beast. Kill the Federal Reserve Board and the Beast will be drained of it's power and unlimited ability to bribe companies, pay it's troops, both military and cultural. It is no longer constrained by normal balance between competing uses for the public'c money. It has unlimited money due to the Fed System

This is, I believe, the essential first step. BO is gaining power through his ability to spend fiat money issued to him from the Federal Reserve. If he had to rely on real money taken from the producers he wouldn't have even 10%of the "money' he is now using.

Kill the Fed and the fiat money engine and the Beast itself can be controlled again. It has almost been 100 yrs since the Beast has been growing on the food of fiat money. Time to pinch the tube that is feeding it and drain it's power.

[plsjr]

I'm sure the author would agree that school boards must be in the list. However, it can't be the first and only domino in the chain of events. All available venues that we can cover need to be used to contest the left. We don't have the time to do otherwise.

Think of all the things those who don't have real jobs do with their idle time.

I was unaware of what sergeantdave mentioned regarding "open meetings" laws. What other things are going on that we don't know about? "If you’re going to be revolutionary, start local." ... and do it as comprehensively as we can.

We all need to do what we think we can, and then push a little further - remember, ACORN is being paid to work against us.

[sport]

The revolution happened November4, 2008. The majority of the people that voted said via their votes that they wanted to be the property of the government. They also said via their votes that they wanted to live as governmental slaves with no rights only priviliges and they would prefer government security to responsibility, rights, and freedom.

What the stupid bastards did not realize is that the system of government they voted for cannot and will not support them. Instead of sustaining them, it will kill them. Instead of providing for them, it will deprive them.

Since they were stupid enough to believe the Democrat Party’s lies that came through Satan himself, they will be to stupid to realize what is happening. The only thing that they will not be too stupid to do is die, but they will die in their stupidity.

[bert]

BS.....to stop the coup there must be people and probably blood in the streets. There can be no peaceful solution in America just as in Israel. It is now all or nothing

[plsjr]

If what you say is true then it appears it's pretty much a done deal: RIP USA

I don't expect anyone will take up and begin using arms without a significant ignition incident that drives large numbers to start a conflict. (Not that there haven't been several that should have.)

So you're saying you've given up? ... or should I just stop asking questions?

[cpforlife.org]

I implore everyone to read this article, share it with family and friends and forward it as much as possible.

Also we should overload this into the emails of our favorite patriot talkers: Rush Beck Levin Ingraham Hannity et al.

Pro-Life PING

Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

ONE NATION UNDER GOD

[bert]

......So you’re saying you’ve given up? .....

Yes, they won the election and are working as fast as they can to completely transform the nation to a socialist state. They have the mandate of the urban left and are implementing it as fast as possible.

There is no turning back. They won. They are putting into place the Euro social democrat way as fast as they can move.

No amount of bitching and moaning will solve the problem. The elected Republican legislators, even if they were of a common mind, and they are not, are powerless to stop them.

There is no law that will be enforced. We know that because at least half of the cabinet are tax evaders. There is no evidence the President is legitimate, as in proof of compliance with the Constitution.

Those who have will not. Those who have not think they will but will be deluded. They too will suffer

[MHGinTN]

When your opponents lack the price of admission to civilized debate: a respect for reason, belief in objective truth, and a willingness to admit they're wrong when the facts prove it so - what then? You have defined what is the basis of the democrat party today! There is no objective truth to people who have no moral compass, no fundamental values beyond cannibalizing and looting.

When your opponents' goals are to destroy the very foundation of your culture and your society - and to offer nothing in return but the howling nightmare of a society of cannibals and looters - what then? Again, you are saying 'democrats' without saying it! Abortion on demand has been the democrat's favorite empowerment scheme for decades now, ushering tens of millions of alive unborn children to the trash bins. Now, democrats want embryonic aged humans to be freely cannibalized for tissue sources, as another empowerment scheme. Democrats are pushing 'cap and trade', a prime way to loot the individual over artificially established 'carbon credits'. Cannibalism and looting, the democrat ways to their own empowerment.

When your opponents seize and indoctrinate your children's minds in the politics of victimization and the nobility of human servitude and sacrifice - what then? While the parents are distracted with bread and circuses, the commies take the minds of the children and mold them into territory unfit for rational thought! Our own children are fed a diet of pap at public schools while in our homes they consume televised short attention span garbage, and listen to droning insanity from rap and rock 'stars'. All the while, the parents are distracted with pursuing their own gratifications, at the expense of raising up their children in the way that they should go. Frankly, as the catholic leap into the dead-soul democrat agenda teaches us--with even a graphic example at Notre Dame just the other day--the parents have not a clue the way that their children should go because the parents haven't trod the path! Until they do, it will remain a mystery, perceived as a hindrance to self-gratification.

When the institutions of higher learning are occupied by Marxist multiculturalists who despise the very philosophical foundation upon which the architecture of liberty and human dignity have been constructed and seek to destroy it - what then? Not all have sunken onto the pit of social transaction, moral relativism. But if parents do not choose to place their nearly adult children in the right hands, the end is clear and rushing toward US. Until recently, I would have believe Notre Dame to be a proper values based institution for higher education. But even before the affirmative action figure liar-in-chief was invited to hold services there, the behavior of ND students I've observed had me doubting values have any place at ND any longer.

America has put one foot down in the dung, allowing those of little or no knowledge of what America was to determine whom will rule America. Yes, we've allowed it, we conservatives. How many of our like minded neighbors and relatives actually bother to oppose the bastards by voting every time the polls open, so the lying cannibals and looters do not hold office? Not enough, obviously. Are there actually enough left? 2010 had better be about find out, else we the people will be serfs under a too entrenched federal oligarchy to ever escape it.

[ezoeni]

marker for later read

[STONEWALLS]

“The precise, technical word for what is happening in the United States today is revolution.”

....no, what’s happening is a small number of anglo-european/judeo-christian whites are becoming alarmed about what’s happening to the country....there’ll be no revolution...instead there’ll be a race war that will lead to a Balkan style breaking up of the United states.

[SunkenCiv]

sometimes -- quite often, actually -- revolutions aren't military conflicts, and the good guys are the ones trying to keep the revolution from happening. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by its elected president; he would spend the next two years consolidating his power with the legislative connivance of his political allies in the Reichstag. In October 1917, Lenin and his Bolsheviks took control of Russia from Kerensky and his Social Democrats -- who had overthrown the Czar earlier that year -- entirely through parliamentary maneuvering in Russia's fledgling Duma.

Thanks neverdem.

[Nowhere Man]

These monsters would rather rule in hell as barbarians sitting on top of a stinking heap of rubble and corpses than leave the rest of us alone to live in peace. I believe that enough patriots still remain to prevent this from happening. But it will come at a terrible cost.

I know, sadly, that is true. I'm willing to let the libs have the Boston to Washington DC Corridor with the Appalachians being the western border (or any super blue states) while we take our part of the country and part in peace as friends, they rule their part and we rule ours as we all see fit. Trouble is, they will never let us alone and keep pushing until we are backed in the corner. Any animal or person, when backed into a corner will be very dangerous. Nothing to lose, everything to gain and all that. Even a rabbit, a chicken or a day old baby chick will fight fiercely when faced with this situation.

The libs keep pushing us. I think Glenn Beck's 9-12 Project is the last peaceful attempt to stop this. I know what it is like to keep getting pushed, I was bullied as a kid, you can only take it so much before striking back. I hate to say this but I have to be honest, if they don't stop pushing us, it will end up where we shoot them and put their heads on pikes or they do the same to us. We have more guns on our side so I think we will win but I don't want to see anyone get hurt or killed over this plus I want to avoid the French style revolution Glenn Beck is warning about where revenge will flow like water in the Ohio River.

Some say that we should have crossed that line that triggers all of this a long time ago. I don't know where this line is but it is invisible. It could be a mile away or 10 miles but we are head towards it at 100 MPH.

I don't like to say this or think this way but it could be our future, both sides have irreconcilable differences and the left will not leave us alone since they are on top politically.

[Jean S]

You should post that as a separate thread.

[Billthedrill]

Third-party candidates, beware the operating system paradigm.

[Noumenon]

I want to avoid the French style revolution Glenn Beck is warning about where revenge will flow like water in the Ohio River.

No one in their right mind wants this. Trouble is, the Left has made it inevitable. You can't reason with someone whose idea of debate is sticking a gun in your face - that's the modus operandi of the Left. They just won't give up the idea that it's their duty to improve your judgement by force. They want to substitute a government gun for your conscience.

That's why we're going to end up killing most of them if we have any expectation of remaining free men and women. We didn't ask for that. They did. They set the ruls of engagement wit htheir take-no-prisoners Alinsk ytactics. Now let's see how they deal with a dose of their own medicine. Unintended consequences and all that. Yes indeed - change is coming. But it's not what they bargained for.

[redgolum]

The real question is, Now what?

Where do we go from here? Or do we go? (as in leave)