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Paul Begala: When can you protect your life against the Government?
Gun Watch ^ | 29 October, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 10/30/2014 2:44:10 PM PDT by marktwain




On CNN, "progressive" operative Paul Begala reiterates a question asked by leftist Ed. Kilgore:

The Washington Monthly blogger Ed Kilgore has asked the right question -- the one any Iowa voter should be putting to Ms. Ernst: "Since you brought it up, exactly what circumstances would justify you shooting a police officer or a soldier in the head?"
If he wanted the standard political answer for these questions, it is found in the Declaration of Independence.  The actual shooting started when the British crown attempted to confiscate arms and military stores from local governments.

But we do not need to look that far back in history.   In 1946 local veterans took up arms against a corrupt local government in Athens, Tennessee, when the  sheriff would not allow an honest vote, shot a man who tried to legally vote, and refused to give up power.

In just the last few years, there are three examples of people justifiably shooting at local police when they broke into their home in the middle of the night, without warning.   It happened in Minneapolis in 2007, and twice again in Texas in 2013 and 2014.

So the answer is fairly simple, even for those "progressives" who worship state power.   It is legitimate to oppose governmental force with force when the government refuses to be bound by the rule of law and when they threaten innocent life with illegitimate deadly force.

I do not see Paul Begala criticizing President Obama for giving aid to the rebels in Libya.   The left has vigorously supported armed revolution, when they thought it advanced their agenda.   

Begala  set up a straw man in an attempt to demonize Joni Ernst, who is stating an obvious political truth that this country was founded on.

 ©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch


TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: banglist; banglists; begala; constitution; secondamendment
Begala attempts to demonize and belittle Ernst for telling the truth.

His tactics do not seem to be working.

Even the Quinnipiac poll quoted by CNN, shows Joni Ernst ahead of her Democrat opponent by 4 percent.

1 posted on 10/30/2014 2:44:10 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain
"Since you brought it up, exactly what circumstances would justify you shooting a police officer or a soldier in the head?"

Although stated in typical inflammatory tone, it's a legitimate question.

For me, it's when I determine that the officer or soldier has become my enemy instead of my guardian. When they knowingly violate their oaths to protect and defend, and instead become something against which I must be protected and defended, they are legitimate targets.

I yield certain of my liberties in favor of the collective, in return for which I am given certain guarantees and provided certain services. That is the definition of social contract. When the other party abrogates the contract, it is no longer binding on me either.

This administration has violated that contract on any number of occasions, and for the paltriest of reasons. It has lost its legitimacy.

2 posted on 10/30/2014 2:57:20 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: IronJack

When they barge into your house without a warrant......


3 posted on 10/30/2014 3:12:26 PM PDT by wny
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To: marktwain

It was just fine in the liberal mind when Che protected himself against an oppressive and corrupt government. But when the Founding Fathers put a clause in the Declaration of Independence that it when the government becomes a tangible and urgent threat against life and property, that it is not only the right but the obligation of a free people to throw off that government, well that is right wing hate speech. Nobody in their right mind would think that to be rational, except people like our hero Che. And Mao-bama.


4 posted on 10/30/2014 3:24:20 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: wny

“When they barge into your house without a warrant......”

It is only a matter of time when warrantless peek search meets castle doctrine in the dark.


5 posted on 10/30/2014 3:25:38 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: IronJack

“”Since you brought it up, exactly what circumstances would justify you shooting a police officer or a soldier in the head?”

When I ask a liberal if the law he just proposed is so important that would he shoot his own grandmother in the head should she peacefully decline to obey it, well, sometimes I see a head explode, metaphorically speaking. Stammer, stammer, well, that is the price we pay for having a civil society, comes the reply.

I just say, if you as concerned about personal rights as you claim, then you would only want laws to address crimes that are so egregious that the potential bloodshed their enforcement implies is comparable to the crime. But liberals are all about forcing people to obey them, and every way they think people must think and act. It is never about civil society, or else they would be outraged when, for example Earth First activists put ceramic spikes in trees to prevent lumbering, an act that could result in serious injury to the operator of the chain saw. But they never are. Quite the opposite.


6 posted on 10/30/2014 3:31:19 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: theBuckwheat

That is very well stated. I may steal parts of it, if it is ok.


7 posted on 10/30/2014 3:36:14 PM PDT by marktwain (The old media must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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To: marktwain

She should turn the question around to Begala: “Do you believe that there is EVER a time to protect your life against the government?”

Do you believe that the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto had that right?

Do you believe the people of the Soviet Union, and all the other countries under Marxist enslavement, had that right against the Communist government?

Do you believe that America’s founders had that right when they picked up arms in defense of their liberties?

Do you believe that slaves in America had that right when the government made their enslavement a matter of law?

If you want debate exactly when the line is crossed where people are justified in resorting to force against an out-of-control government determined to crush their liberties and steal their property, Mr. Begala, that is certainly a debate worth having.

People can disagree on when that line is crossed.

But that doesn’t justify your own apparent position that people are the government’s property and must bow down in slavish obedience to whatever outrages the lawless perpetrators of government-imposed tyranny cram down our throats.

Or maybe you agree with your buddy Bill Clinton, who famously said: “The purpose of government is to reign in the rights of the people.”

Well, Mr. Begala, the people await your answer.


8 posted on 10/30/2014 3:49:13 PM PDT by Maceman
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To: marktwain

What kind of government have you given us?

A republic, if YOU can keep it.

emphasis added.


9 posted on 10/30/2014 4:07:47 PM PDT by LoneStar42
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To: IronJack

When they violate the Bill Of Rights.


10 posted on 10/30/2014 4:12:54 PM PDT by cowboyusa
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To: Maceman

” . . Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” Revelation 13:4


11 posted on 10/30/2014 4:24:38 PM PDT by captmar-vell
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To: marktwain

Double standard and hypocrisy exist for most of us on this question.

Prior to Ruby Ridge,the most infamous assassination was of my neighbor Fred Hampton of the Black Panthers. He wasn’t the only one, just the one who got the headlines. The 31st ward Republican committeeman Gross and his expected successor Barretto were both murdered on orders from the #2 power in Chicago’s political machine. Then there were the 2 guys who left my house about 4:30 pm and were shot in the back with no warning by Chicago police 2 blocks from my house in full daylight with dozens of people on the hot afternoon watching the whole thing and unable to do anything about it.

Are local police abuses in the inner city justification for self-defense against the police? I just mention those politically ordered that touch me directly. There were dozens, maybe hundreds throughout Chicago during the same period.


12 posted on 10/30/2014 4:28:55 PM PDT by spintreebob (()
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To: marktwain
Paul Begala: When can you protect your life against the Government?

When they threaten my life or the lives of others without just cause.

I have an unalienable right to life. The government has authority temporarily ceded to it by The People.

13 posted on 10/30/2014 5:40:03 PM PDT by TigersEye (ISIS is the tip of the spear. The spear is Islam.)
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To: spintreebob

Of course it applies in big cities as well. Many here on freerpublic have pushed for removing Chicago’s ban on self defense firearms. Many here applaud Detroit’s Chief Craig.

The large change now is that the word can and is getting out. Police abuses are much harder to cover up.

If police murder a citizen in front of dozens today, there will be video of it.

Video and audio recorders are as much freedom fighting tools as are handguns and rifles.


14 posted on 10/30/2014 5:44:55 PM PDT by marktwain (The old media must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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To: theBuckwheat

Because there is no right and wrong in the world of the Liberal. The end justifies the means.


15 posted on 10/30/2014 7:31:35 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: cowboyusa

You mean the one they’re sworn to uphold?

Yeah, that’s as good a time as any.


16 posted on 10/30/2014 7:32:55 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: marktwain

If you get caught between two deputies in a hotel?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3220701/posts


17 posted on 10/31/2014 8:02:21 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: marktwain

Texas
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/SOTWDocs/PE/htm/PE.9.htm

Sec 9.31(c), 9.31(d)

(c) The use of force to resist an arrest or search is justified:

(1) if, before the actor offers any resistance, the peace officer (or person acting at his direction) uses or attempts to use greater force than necessary to make the arrest or search; and

(2) when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the peace officer’s (or other person’s) use or attempted use of greater force than necessary.

(d) The use of deadly force is not justified under this subchapter except as provided in Sections 9.32, 9.33, and 9.34.


18 posted on 10/31/2014 8:27:41 AM PDT by 1066AD
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To: marktwain
When can you protect your life against the Government?

When the government is trying to take it.

19 posted on 10/31/2014 11:40:55 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: IronJack

Well said. +1


20 posted on 11/02/2014 4:50:05 PM PST by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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