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Voting Isn't Revenge, It's Resistance [Sultan Knish]
Sultan Knish ^ | Nov 5, 2012 | Daniel Greenfield

Posted on 11/06/2012 5:46:01 AM PST by expat1000

There are plenty of ways to cast the divisions between parties and movements, but the elemental act of voting divides rhetoric from motive.

Obama called voting the best revenge, because for a sizable portion of his base that's exactly what voting is. Their votes are a violent act, a spiteful assault on a country that they can never participate in for economic or cultural reasons. Change for them is not a positive program, but a negative assault on the national majority. Bankrupting the country by robbing it for their own benefit is their revenge.

Voting for us isn't revenge, it's resistance. It isn't a choice that emerges out of reasoned debate between two sets of values, it's an act of resistance against the revengers, the looters and the destroyers. The voting booth is a form of sabotage against their regime, their corrupt interests and their oppressive regulations.

These last four years we have endured an intensified occupation of our political, religious and personal freedoms. We have been robbed, lied to, ordered around and in some cases even killed. These crimes have been carried out by elected officials and the election will allow us to remove some of them. It will not end the reign of terror, but if successful, our act of electoral resistance will inflict a severe setback on the plans of their ideological movement and the unelected officials who rely on them for funding and political support.

The election will not end the occupation, but it will interrupt the forward momentum of the occupiers. It will force them to fall back into their think tanks and formulate new strategies for dismantling the Constitution, eliminating our civil rights and ending elections as anything but empty shows with no meaning.

Some of us act as if elections will be here forever so that we can wait for the next one to come around and the one after that when the right candidate will lead us to victory. They won't be. The ideology that we are resisting believes in populism only when it serves its ends. Its judicial appointees have acted repeatedly to neuter referendums when the results do not go the right way.

The ultimate goal of the occupation is to shift power away from elected officials and into the infrastructure of unelected officials, so that their elected officials can draw on nearly unlimited powers by dictating to the bureaucratic oligarchy of the state, while elected officials not aligned with their movement will be narrowly constrained and have very little influence over the bureaucracy.

The occupation is not here to take power for another four years, but another forty years and another four-hundred years. It is not playing a short term game in a system where power shifts back and forth, but putting in place the infrastructure for the permanent occupation of the United States of America. But despite all its power and control, the miles of video screens that spew forth its propaganda, the billions of dollars that flow from its coffers into the pockets of its supporters and the cultural control that its proponents wield-- it still has one vulnerability.

A piece of paper, a push of a button, and the occupiers have to fall back, gritting their teeth and planning a renewed offensive in the spring.

The left overreached itself in the last four years. Its occupation was poorly managed and the native population has been alienated. While its Chief was sacrificing thousands of American lives to win over the natives in Afghanistan, his occupation of the United States was crumbling. The economy is rotten and the people are tired of being lied to. The resistance is popular and the community organizers are running scared.

This is our moment and in a single day we can push the occupation out of the countryside and back into the cities. We can undermine its morale, strip it of the money with which it bribes collaborators and force it to rethink whether it really wants to spend the next few decades battling to control an unruly population. We can make men like George Soros and Ted Turner decide that their money would be better spent terrorizing Eastern Europe or Africa, instead of America by making oppressing us seem like a bad investment.

The tug of war between the occupiers and the resistance comes down to morale. The occupiers are fighting to impose their will on us. To do that they have to believe that they can win. Each defeat forces them to reevaluate their tactics and each act of resistance drives them to greater acts of ruthlessness which cannot help but make them more unpopular until a point is reached where even they are forced to recognize that their plans are unfeasible.

Our goal is not an absolute victory, but like all resistance movements, it is to remain viable, to be there sabotaging their latest initiative, undermining them and remaining free of their control. The potency of a resistance movement derives from its sense of freedom. The occupation seeks to impose control while the resistance negates it. Our task is easier than theirs and every election is a chance to remind them that they have no won and that they will not win, that they must despair of going the electoral route and must impose their will without regard to popular sentiment. And once they accept that premise and abandon their facade of moderation, then we will be on the road to a true victory.

The occupation needs to believe in its own morality and its own popularity. Every time we take that away from it, we are embittering its leaders and its activists, we are teaching them to hate the people that they claim to want to help and distancing them from the people by making the people into the wedge that denies them power.

Elections must be used to humiliate the occupation, to rub its nose in its own unpopularity, to show that no matter how much it controls the means of communication, its agenda will always be rejected over and over again.

Every form of rejectionism of its agenda further drives home the message that the left can never wield power over the native population except by force. Each vote cast against it, even in blue states, even in places where the left can never lose, is an act of resistance because it reminds the left of the limits of its power and warns it that even in its own heartlands, it is not completely in control.

The left derives its power from the human impulse to conformity. No matter how many people may take issue with its insane and vicious program, most will not dissent from it in public, especially if they are barraged with countless media messages that appear to show that the vast majority of the population is in favor of it.

This national Milgram experiment is aborted every time the left loses a referendum, every time it is defeated in an election, every time it is saddled with another Carter or McGovern, every time the American people wake up and see that the rest of the country is not a hive of Obamanoids, but free people just waiting to find their voice.

Even if we lose this election, it will have been worthwhile to make it as close as possible, to bring out massive rallies of people who are waking up out of the daze and realizing that they don't have to take the occupation and that there are tens of millions of people out there who feel as they do. It will have been worthwhile to deliver a message to the left that its occupation stands on shaky feet and that the next gust of wind may tip it over. It will have been worthwhile in order to remind the left that the people are rising and that while this uprising may not have toppled over their golden throne, the next one might. It will have been worthwhile to remind the left that it is not on the path to a thousand-year world-state but to a collision with growing numbers of people who want their freedom back.

Our vote at its most potent, is not just a protest vote, but a blow aimed at the political heart of the occupation. But even if the blow does not land, then the protest vote reminds the occupation that we are united, not so much behind a man, as against them, and it will remind us that when we come together, we have the power to terrify the occupiers.

Mitt Romney is a symbol, a convenient shorthand for freedom of expression, enterprise and faith. Whether or not he embodies these values is a secondary concern. As Obama became a vehicle for the left to express its identity, Romney has become a vehicle for traditional Americans to express theirs. If Romney wins, then he will become a politician and if he loses, then the symbolic identity, which transcends him, will go on, because it is an expression, not of one man, but of the values of a country.

Resistance is grounded in values. It is grounded in the greater identity of who we are and how we want to live. That refusal to abandon who we are, to resist the political, cultural and religious assaults on our way of life is what determines the potency of a resistance. And though refusal is a negative word, it comes from a positive vision, an inner fire, the glow and light of the values that make us who we are.

The occupation does not have these values. It is a disruptive force that can borrow and mimic warped versions of these values, but it cannot put them forth except as a mockery of the values it has displaced. It urges its followers to vote for another four years of repression as a form of revenge against us because it has no inner light, no goodness and no truth. Inside it is a heart of darkness with no hope, only a ceaseless turmoil of change for the sake of change and destruction for the sake of destruction, power for the sake of power, and revenge for the sake of revenge.

Our resistance is a form of love, love for our country, our communities, our families and our values. That love has motivated us to spend the last four years fighting to preserve these things that we love. It will take us into the voting booth and whatever the outcome, it will keep us warm even in the coldest winter, as we go on fighting through our own Valley Forge for the redemption of our nation.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: danielgreenfield; sultanknish
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To me, the context of this article is that this election, win or lose, is but one battle in an ongoing, and uphill struggle.
1 posted on 11/06/2012 5:46:04 AM PST by expat1000
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To: arasina; daisy mae for the usa; AdvisorB; wizardoz; free-in-nyc; Vendome; Louis Foxwell; ...


Sultan Knish/Daniel Greenfield Ping List (notification of new articles). FReepmail or drop me a comment to get on or off.
2 posted on 11/06/2012 5:49:33 AM PST by expat1000
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To: expat1000

Wonderfully written, as usual.


3 posted on 11/06/2012 5:56:39 AM PST by Excellence (9/11 was an act of faith.)
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To: expat1000

Thanks! THAT WAS GREAT!


4 posted on 11/06/2012 6:06:53 AM PST by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewis)
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To: expat1000
Even if we lose this election, it will have been worthwhile to make it as close as possible...

That's like saying "Oh well, we almost kept the barbarians from battering through the castle gates. We'll fart in their general direction as they sell us into slavery".

5 posted on 11/06/2012 6:31:18 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: expat1000

WE are the RESISTANCE!

Great Article!


6 posted on 11/06/2012 8:01:48 AM PST by left that other site (Worry is the Darkroom that Develops Negatives.)
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To: expat1000

Great article.

Obama = tyranny,socialism, evil, lies

Our vote today is against evil


7 posted on 11/06/2012 8:11:29 AM PST by Democrat_media (limit government to 5000 words of laws. how to limit gov Quantify limited government ...)
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To: expat1000; ExTexasRedhead; cindy-true-supporter; Jimmy Valentine's brother; BufordP; EDINVA; ...

This brilliant writer makes it very clear that our elections can no longer be taken for granted as a way to endorse different approaches to the same Constitutional goals.

We are now, for the long foreseeable term, joined in a battle for the defense of our Constitution; and every election, as long as we can continue to have elections, will be between the traditional Americans and those who wish to overthrow the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in favor of the tyranny that inspired them.


8 posted on 11/06/2012 10:05:43 AM PST by Albion Wilde (If God can send millions of ordinary folks to preserve a chicken store, He can fix this mess.)
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To: expat1000; ExTexasRedhead; cindy-true-supporter; Jimmy Valentine's brother; BufordP; EDINVA; ...

This brilliant writer makes it very clear that our elections can no longer be taken for granted as a way to endorse different approaches to the same Constitutional goals.

We are now, for the long foreseeable term, joined in a battle for the defense of our Constitution; and every election, as long as we can continue to have elections, will be between the traditional Americans and those who wish to overthrow the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in favor of the tyranny that inspired them.


9 posted on 11/06/2012 10:06:37 AM PST by Albion Wilde (If God can send millions of ordinary folks to preserve a chicken store, He can fix this mess.)
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To: Albion Wilde

This may be our last election so make it count.


10 posted on 11/06/2012 10:14:37 AM PST by bgill (Evil doers are in every corner of our government. Have we passed the point of no return?)
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To: Albion Wilde; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; ...

Thanks Albion Wilde.


11 posted on 11/06/2012 10:37:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

-^^^^^-

We are the resistance.
Restore the Constitution!


12 posted on 11/06/2012 10:47:27 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Albion Wilde
This brilliant writer makes it very clear that our elections can no longer be taken for granted as a way to endorse different approaches to the same Constitutional goals.

I would submit that, in this stage of our system none of the groups approach the constitutional precepts as laid down by the Founders.

      Socialism - in its proper sphere - is a very good method of governance!
If it weren't for socialism, capitalism would not succeed. Can you run a company efficiently as a true democratic enterprise? I don't see how. A successful leader of a company guides its course, hires and fires as needed, and selects the proper placement of both men and materiel needed to accomplish his aims - and gather as much profit as available lawfully.

Where it all fails is by putting those same ideas into practice for our governance. That can only enable despots and tyrants to ascend the gauntlet. True that some, maybe most of those who lead us have noble, altruistic aims, but the necessary bureaucracy for enabling and enforcing the rules and regulations will of themselves become an overbearing burden, as none of them are conditioned to eliminate their function.

Yes I'll pick Republican against the Democrats at this point, but make no mistake - they too are socialists! Even President Reagan, who I dearly loved, was too socialistic in his governance to my desires; and don't get me confused with the libertarian idiots that believe all-drugs / no-borders is the way to stay safe.

Thanks for the ping, AW.

13 posted on 11/06/2012 10:53:07 AM PST by brityank (The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional !!)
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To: expat1000
Our goal is not an absolute victory, but like all resistance movements, it is to remain viable, to be there sabotaging their latest initiative, undermining them and remaining free of their control.

Spoken like a person who has faith in liberty but no idea how it works.

Our goal is absolute victory, but it requires a workable plan. That starts with creating the room in the law for the start-ups that will become the free enterprise system with which the justifications for these bureaucracies are eliminated. Even the existence of a parallel and competing system will cause them to behave very differently toward the public they supposedly serve.

14 posted on 11/06/2012 11:12:21 AM PST by Carry_Okie (The Slave Party: advancing indenture since 1787.)
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To: Albion Wilde

Well stated Albion. It has come down to that in essence.


15 posted on 11/06/2012 11:42:59 AM PST by Marine_Uncle
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To: expat1000

“Our goal is not an absolute victory”

Yes. It is. Had the Revolutionary War not ended in absolute victory, we would still have a king and tyranny. THEY didn’t want a king then, and WE don’t want one now. We will never settle for tyranny...no matter WHO tries to impose it or whether it comes from without or within.
AMERICA was born out of overt rebellion and we will keep it by rebellion if necessary. We have but two choices. Absolute victory or absolute defeat. Defeat would mean we are all dead and I do not intend to die slowly under tyranny.


16 posted on 11/06/2012 12:04:25 PM PST by MestaMachine (obama kills and none dare call it treason)
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To: expat1000

The occupation is not here to take power for another four years, but another forty years and another four-hundred years. It is not playing a short term game in a system where power shifts back and forth, but putting in place the infrastructure for the permanent occupation of the United States of America. But despite all its power and control, the miles of video screens that spew forth its propaganda, the billions of dollars that flow from its coffers into the pockets of its supporters and the cultural control that its proponents wield-- it still has one vulnerability.

A piece of paper, a push of a button, and the occupiers have to fall back, gritting their teeth and planning a renewed offensive in the spring.

And that is just it, isn't it?  We need to organize around a vision that has a longer view than an election cycle.

 

 

 


17 posted on 11/06/2012 12:44:40 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: Albion Wilde; expat1000

Thank you for pinging me to this Albion.
I voted for Romney last Thursday.
May God hear our prayers.

http://domania.us/Oaccess/POLITIC/RomneyBannerPlane.gif


18 posted on 11/06/2012 12:47:34 PM PST by potlatch (~One Heart Less In My Life~)
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To: brityank
"our elections can no longer be taken for granted as a way to endorse different approaches to the same Constitutional goals."

...in this stage of our system none of the groups approach the constitutional precepts as laid down by the Founders.

Granted; that's why my post applied to all campaigns and voting, including local elections and primaries, not just the presidentials.


If it weren't for socialism, capitalism would not succeed. Can you run a company efficiently as a true democratic enterprise? I don't see how.

This is a straw man argument. A company is not a government; so the comparison isn't valid. And even a company can, in the spirit of free enterprise, introduce ways for employees to shine as individuals, create innovations and be promoted on merit.

Secondly, what is a "true democracy", in your frame of reference? Especially the Founders did not want "pure" democracy: one man, one vote. That's why the Electoral College was put in place. Early on, voting was restricted to landowners. I wish it were still granted only to real property holders or bona fide taxpayers.

19 posted on 11/06/2012 1:25:39 PM PST by Albion Wilde (If God can send millions of ordinary folks to preserve a chicken store, He can fix this mess.)
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To: MestaMachine; Carry_Okie
“Our goal is not an absolute victory”

Maybe he meant, in light of Romney being the lesser of two evils but still a card-carrying RINO, that a step in the right direction is the best we can hope for in this election. He seems to have focused the article on this particular race.

It is my fervent hope that the nation start TOMORROW to groom presidential candidates and other top-echelon leaders for 2016; and certainly to prime the conservative pump for the mid-terms in 2014.

20 posted on 11/06/2012 1:30:30 PM PST by Albion Wilde (If God can send millions of ordinary folks to preserve a chicken store, He can fix this mess.)
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