Connecting Conservative Dots

What’s Wrong Today:


Let’s connect a few dots today.



Dot #1: Salon
reported that a group armed with loaded rifles, led by former marine Adam
Kokesh is planning to march in Washington DC on July 4th. From the
groups’ Facebook site:



On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we
will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march
across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the
Supreme Court, & the White House, then, peacefully return to Virginia
across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a
permitted event.



The Facebook site warns: (emphasis by the Wrongologist)



This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent.



Kokesh is a former Marine who was discharged in 2007 after violating
the military’s code against engaging in political activity while in uniform. His
recent tweets include:



It’s time to abolish the US federal government



When the government comes to take your guns, you can
shoot government agents, or submit to slavery.



So, Kokesh’s message is: We dare you.



This is sure to go well.



Dot #2: You may have seen something about the Fairleigh
Dickinson University poll
reporting reaction to the statement: “in
the next few years, an armed revolution may be necessary to protect our
liberties.” From strongly agree to strongly disagree:



The poll found that just 18% of Democrats agreed
with the statement, as opposed to 44% of Republicans. Overall, fully 29% of Americans
think that an armed revolution in order to protect liberties might be necessary
in the next few years, with another 5% unsure.



The survey was conducted by phone from April 22
through April 28, 2013 using a randomly selected sample of 863 registered
voters nationwide. Fairleigh Dickenson says that the error attributable to sampling
has a range of  +/-3.4 percentage points.A



You can dismiss these results due to small sample size, but when
nearly half the self-identified
members of one of our two major political parties in any poll thinks there is a
real possibility of “armed revolution”—particularly when it’s the
supposedly conservative party—we’ve got real problems.



Dot #3: The NRA’s new president, James Porter, talks about
the importance of the 2nd Amendment as a way to ensure the American
people will be able to “resist tyranny” (i.e., shoot and kill law enforcement
officers, members of the U.S. armed services) who might disagree with their
definition of their essential “liberties”, at some undefined point in the
future.



Mr. Porter has called Barack Obama a “fake president”.



What’s with
conservatives who combine extremist language about their political opponents
with violent language about their political options? The absolute minimum
we should expect from the Republican Party and the leaders of the American conservative
movement is to condemn this “right to revolution”, and those who espouse it.



Should we conclude that the GOP is a fascist, treasonous
organization, an enemy of American democracy? They can walk us back from
that judgment if the Republican leadership says:



Let’s be clear: the kind of ‘tyranny’ we need to
protect ourselves from will come from outside America. We’re not talking about
the current administration, or either major political party, representing a
threat of tyranny.



It’s ironic that people who surely think of themselves as patriots
are busily building an impression that loyalty to their country is strictly
contingent on following only the laws and policies they favor. And if it can’t
be achieved by ballots, then they are fine with achieving it by bullets.



Republican politicians of all stripes should be repudiating these
people instead of celebrating them. They should not accept their money and
support, and should never use their rhetoric.



We need to get right in the faces of people who assert a “right
to revolution” and make sure they explicitly acknowledge that armed revolution is not an
Independence Day parade. It means spilling the blood and taking the
lives of Americans, police officers and members of the military.



The thing these would-be traitors hang their hats on is the first line of the Declaration of
Independence: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected
them with another . . .”



But that doesn’t apply. There is no “right” to revolution in a
200+ year old democracy with functioning democratic institutions, where
presidential elections are held every 4 years and congressional elections every
2 years. You get to elect almost every public official from the school board (directly)
to (indirectly) the Supreme Court.



These conservative extremists confuse “tyranny”, that
is, oppression by a dictatorial regime, with being outvoted by a majority in a
democracy and having to live with the consequences. They didn’t get what they wanted at the ballot box, so now they want
to resort to bullets.

Conservatives have to repudiate this crap. They have to separate
themselves from those who wrongly believe they are vindicating the “original intent”
of the constitution, or defending their property rights, or exalting their God,
or protecting the unborn, all via armed revolution.



Wherever it’s coming from, it needs to stop, and you know who
you are.


If William F. Buckley could “excommunicate” Robert Welch and the
John Birch Society from the conservative movement back in the 1960s, today’s conservative
leaders can certainly do the same.


 

Facebooklinkedinrss