Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Next American Civil War: The Populist Revolt Against the Liberal Elite
Newsweek's We Read It So You Don't Have To ^ | May 17, 2010 | "We Read It" Reader: McKay Coppins

Posted on 05/17/2010 10:20:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The Next American Civil War: The Populist Revolt Against the Liberal Elite
Lee Harris

Remember those rowdy Town-Hall meetings last summer sparked by President Obama’s proposed health-care reform? Harris wants to make the case that those eruptions of populist anger could prove to be the beginning of the next American civil war. Yes, that kind of civil war. Drawing from a wealth of history and political philosophy, he contends that the philosophical divide between the Tea Party populists and the liberal intellectuals is so deep that nothing short of a “civil breakdown” is likely to mend the rift. And he says that’s healthy American politics. The Tea Party may be a fledgling political outfit, but it’s already flexing its muscles in advance of the midterm elections, especially in Senate races in Utah, Arizona, and Florida. The big question, of course, is how disruptive will this third party be? To Harris, the answer is “very.” He argues that if the liberal intellectuals and populist conservatives don’t come to an understanding, it could spell violent revolution and lead to an overthrow of the government.

--snip--

1.Either take up arms, or drop the rhetoric. The 18th-century Sons of Liberty, who drove the populist uprising against the British crown, sparked violent riots, committed serious crimes, and fought against the government. The cause? Taxes, of course! Harris says that today’s Tea Party activists may echo much of the same language as the Sons of Liberty, but they haven’t backed up all that talk with action: “If those who claim to be fighting in the name of liberty are not prepared to go to extremes, if they are reluctant to break either laws or windows, then perhaps it would be best if they just dropped their pointlessly inflammatory rhetoric, and got back to reality”(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: 2010election; 2010midterms; bookreview; civilwar; civilwar2; crushliberalism; cw2; cwii; cwiiping; democrats; donttreadonme; elections; liberalelite; liberalfascism; obama; obamacare; remembernovember; sonsofliberty; sonsofliberty2; teaparty
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-127 next last
To: stephenjohnbanker

LOL...I lasted til my blood pressure was boiling. I have a very hard time not absolutely hating progressives....which makes life very difficult when you are surrounded by them.

I was going to post it as a separate thread, but don’t want to give them the satisfaction of a bazillion hits ;)


81 posted on 05/18/2010 8:05:50 AM PDT by Kimberly GG ("Path to Citizenship" Amnesty candidates will NOT get my vote!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring; stevie_d_64; Dem Guard

>>Ghandi succeeded because he had civilized opponents.
>>
>>We have no such luxury.

It is amazing how many bring him up who do not in the least bit understand how unique that situation was in history.


82 posted on 05/18/2010 8:16:21 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (No Representation without Taxation!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Kimberly GG

“I was going to post it as a separate thread, but don’t want to give them the satisfaction of a bazillion hits ;)”

Good girl!


83 posted on 05/18/2010 8:25:55 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops....and vote out the RINOS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Liberals/progressives can eloquently (in their own fashion) talk about how they don’t want government in their bedroom, at least when they are expressing their neurotic paranoia about the “Christian Right” and their support for hot man love ...

Well, it is the same for me, except I want government, all government, not just Obama/Clinton government, but also Bush/Bush government out of my bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, and home office. I want them off my roof, out of my cellar, and off my lawn.

The issue for me isn’t that I am against government. I recognize the need for government, and feel that we have a once in history chance to have a government that is of, by, and for The People as codified in the Constitution.

But what we have now is a government that never misses a chance to grab more power, and more control, and more of our money, Which is bad in and of itself, but could be somewhat ameliorated if the government ever managed to do something well. And this, oddly enough seems to be a point of agreement in a way between left and right — government does a crap job at most things, whether we are talking about education, responses to disasters, use of the military, VA hospitals, the Post Office, respect for civil liberties, etc.

If we step back from the false dichotomy of Bush v. Obama or the over-simplified “Left v. Right”, and look strictly at the scope and scale of government, and its intrusion into our lives, we see the inexorable course is to more intrusion, more cost, and more bureaucratic sludge minimizing the possibility of effective, efficient Constitutional government services.

What we have now is a government that grows based on its own failure.

The “immigration” debate is a perfect example. We had this debate in the 1980’s. And the decision was made to grant amnesty to the several million illegal aliens already in the country in exchange for strict border and workplace enforcement. So the amnesty was granted, the political class gained several million largely uneducated, non-English speaking wards to care for, and promptly forgot about any enforcement of the laws.

So the borders were a sieve, employers were free to hire illegals and pay under the table, and the tide of illegal immigration grew such that now, in addition to the tens of millions of illegals, we have multi-billion dollar industries devoted to people smuggling, document forgery, and identity theft, all due to the failure of the government to enforce its own law and properly administer the variety of immigration visas designed to fill labor needs.

And now, the same government that failed to do its job for the past 25 years wants to ride to the rescue with “comprehensive immigration reform”, and grab more power, more money, and have 10s of millions of largely uneducated, non-English speaking wards to care for. Growth through failure ... like cancer.

What I want is for all those who feel the need to socially engineer our society through government intrusions and endless government growth to wither and die, figuratively of course, because We The People grew the hell up and decided we could live without them and their ever growing federal leviathan.

I want the government to enforce the laws in place, not selectively ignore the ones that benefit political patrons. I want representatives to represent “We The People” with an eye to the constitutionality of what they propose.

I want us to vote the Big Government political class out of power and run them out of DC. I do not want to run in the streets smashing windows and other such anarchist bullshit. And I especially do not want to have to take up arms against them. Anyone sane person would prefer that we handle this through the ballot box as opposed to the cartridge box.


84 posted on 05/18/2010 8:26:31 AM PDT by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring

True...


85 posted on 05/18/2010 8:26:51 AM PDT by stevie_d_64 (I'm jus sayin')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Dem Guard

I didn’t say overthrow this government...

I kinda like the thought that it would get back within the confines and operational parameters of the Constitution...Remember that document???

And I am not alone, cowgirl...

That’s fine, I think we can count on you to not want to get your hands dirty if it ever comes to that...


86 posted on 05/18/2010 8:31:36 AM PDT by stevie_d_64 (I'm jus sayin')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: FreedomPoster

Unique, and lucky...


87 posted on 05/18/2010 8:32:54 AM PDT by stevie_d_64 (I'm jus sayin')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: Texas Fossil

“This is not about “Revolt”, but about “Restoration” of a Constitutional Government....”

the Rinocratic Party and East Coast liberal elites truly find that idea revoltin’!!!!


88 posted on 05/18/2010 8:49:06 AM PDT by mo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

Just got this book. I’ll review it after my second run through it. for those who discount Harris, I’d suggest a more thorough reading. He raises some genuinely tough questions concerning the nature of liberty. It takes a certain tough-mindedness (as opposed to wooden-headeedness) to consider some of the apparent contradictions inherent in the human quest for freedom. Yes, thare are eternal principles. Yes, times have changed from the days of our Founders.

The difficulty lies in reconciling what we believe to be our desire for liberty with the kind of society in which we’d like to live. How do we define ‘ordered liberty’?

I believe that America’s founders had an answer that still rings true today. I also believe that some of the underlying assumptions that they made with respect to restraining the power of the State - such as an educated and a moral populace, for example - do not hold true today.

What else would account for the Gramscian assault on our schools and religious institutions? One third of high school and college kids think socialism’s a great idea. Most church websites are only a click or two away from other sites advocating ‘social and economic justice’.

Harris also spends some time on the contradictions of the Locke / Burke view of freedom and government. More on this later. I need to re-read the book, do a bit of research and think about this a bit more.


89 posted on 05/18/2010 8:50:55 AM PDT by Noumenon ("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: spodefly
What we have now is a government that grows based on its own failure

What we have now is a government that grows based on its own sick desire for power. That's what lies behind the pedigree of the ideas that animate the monsters who woudl rule us now. the will to Power. It's a deathwish.

90 posted on 05/18/2010 8:53:32 AM PDT by Noumenon ("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: FreedomPoster
Education is the key, and the one ray of hope is the increase in private schools and especially home schooling. The theme I really believe in is separation of School and State. There’s a concept that really causes Liberals serious alarm.

Sorry, that's just never going to happen. The numbers are forever too skewed in the wrong direction. I speak as a public school teacher with 20+ years of experience. The liberal agenda began it's creeping incrementalism back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was apparent that the satanic (that's the only way to explain such total success across the nation over so many years--the father of lies) scheme was utterly complete in the election of Jimmy Carter. It has only grown worse. Madelyn Murray O'Hare was successful in tossing God from the classroom so Satan could do his work in peace.

Look at the average world history textbook today. If it's anything like the one from which I taught several years ago, there will be four full chapters on Islam and a portion of a section of one chapter devoted to a bare bones description of Jesus Christ and the roots of Christianity and those will be carefully nuanced so as to promote a sense of futile myth.

That's why I generally refuse to teach world history these days and instead concentrate on American Government and Politics for the seniors. Even that has become a struggle to overcome the liberal agenda with this current administration since I teach in an inner city school. In fact of my 20+ years in the system, I have taught almost 15 in inner city high schools. These kids are among the most devout Christians I've ever seen and to them Obama IS Messiah! Still, I seem to be making inroads, especially in critical thinking exercises. The secret is in defining the framework of learning into three parts: Subjects, Issues and Agendas. See my FR home page for more.

91 posted on 05/18/2010 9:04:13 AM PDT by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Noumenon

You are right of course. The failure I described is a deliberate, engineered event, specifically designed to realize power for the political class. But in the course of a post that is meant to be reasoned and conciliatory, I chose not to emphasize this fact. I acknowledge that should we fail to dislodge the power-lusting social engineers through peaceful means this November, we are destined to a violent and ugly future.


92 posted on 05/18/2010 9:04:14 AM PDT by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: spodefly
Do get Harris' book. I don't agree with all of his premises, but he's damnably correct in much of what he says. One of the better minds of our time.
93 posted on 05/18/2010 9:08:28 AM PDT by Noumenon ("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: BIGLOOK
I wish Giap had been fighting for us.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)

LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

94 posted on 05/18/2010 9:43:49 AM PDT by LonePalm (Commander and Chef)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: television is just wrong
It was not all about slavery.

Sure it was, and if there is another Civil War it will be about the government enslaving all of us.

95 posted on 05/18/2010 10:23:48 AM PDT by usmcobra (Your chances of dying in bed are reduced by getting out of it, but most people still die in bed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: jazzlite
Could it be that academia, especially Ivy League academia, and the leftist media are more to blame because they have thrown up the defense shield of propaganda around the usurpers of American freedom?

That is exactly the problem.

PC ultimately perverts and destroys.

Yes, PC destroys, but it does not destroy by creating elites. It destroys by putting idiots into power--people who have no elite powers of intellect.

96 posted on 05/18/2010 10:35:42 AM PDT by stripes1776 ("That if gold rust, what shall iron do?" --Chaucer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: stevie_d_64

Huhhh??? In one breath you talk about being willing to use violence to overthrow the government, and then you come back with my position of doing it peaceably under the Consititution??? Don’t even bother responding............
If your hands are dirty it is from slinging this sh*t.


97 posted on 05/18/2010 10:36:25 AM PDT by Dem Guard ("We're Coming to Take You Away, ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: I Buried My Guns
They are one and the same, Friend, like a hand and glove.

Again, the problem is not elites. I wish we had people in the government with elite powers of discernment. But we don't. We only have power-hungry idiots among the Democrats and Country Club Republicans. Democrats will whack off the head of any true elite, as will a Country Club Republican.

98 posted on 05/18/2010 10:42:25 AM PDT by stripes1776 ("That if gold rust, what shall iron do?" --Chaucer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

later read


99 posted on 05/18/2010 11:45:44 AM PDT by afnamvet (Patriots Rising)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SaraJohnson

What Good Can a Handgun Do Against an Army.....?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/2312894/posts


100 posted on 05/18/2010 11:54:48 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Don't care if he was born in a manger on July 4th! A "Natural Born" citizen requires two US parents!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-127 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson