There is no “right” to armed revolt. But, in some cases, it is the only solution. Always remember that rebellion begins as treason. You only become a patriot or freedom fighter if you win and get to write the history books.
Our Founders stated in the Preamble to the United States Declaration that
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.
You only become a patriot or freedom fighter if you win and get to write the history books.
You get the NAIL ON HEAD award.
As a Historian, all history is written by the "guys who won!"
Those bozos who "stood on their PRINCIPLES, and who REFUSED TO STOOP TO THEIR ENEMY'S LEVEL, came in SECOND BEST.
Their history has been whited out and long forgotten.
IMHO the right to revolt against a repressive government is found not in the Constitution but in the Declaration of Independence. The opening sentence, while not as famous as some other sentences, clearly states that the people have the natural right to dissolve an existing political system.
All the Second Amendment does is to give the people the ability to enforce that breakup by giving them the same military capabilities as the stand Federal Army (musket verses musket). If anything, the real impact of the Second Amendment has been severely weakened over the last 200 years.
Armed revolt is both a right and a duty. Whether you’re marching on Washington or shooting a home invader, it is the same principle. Your life, your liberty, your gun, your responsibility.
“Treason doth never prosper; what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
John Harrington
Well, see, that’s superficially true. Certainly the side in power has an advantage. But there are plenty of books defending the Torries, blacks, injuns, women, etc., against the Founders. Entire libraries are filled by Lost Cause books, despite the near monopoly of Lincoln worship within respectable opinion. The “winners write the books” thesis is truer of countries without natural rights traditions like ours.
History gives perspective, and allows us to be hanging judges, in Lord Acton’s formulation. Nevertheless you are free to say it’s bunk and one damn thing after another. Might makes right, and so forth. Just don’t whine when the strong man turns on you.
“rebellion begins as treason”
I follow Lysander Spooner in declaring that if popular sovereignty is true and natural rights exist there is no such thing as treason.