Idealism is great. I have ideals, and others have them.
Unfortunately, your ideals, while admirable, are naive. We have a government that is corrupt and irrevocably broken. The Tea Parties are being demonized by the DBM, and the editors ARE the DBM.
My co-workers already KNOW what’s happening and conservative organizations are full of people who are willing to stand around and talk, but NO ONE has a plan!!
So, you want to know what I would do with guns and ammo? Let me ask you first if you understand why the Founders believed in the necessity of adding an amendment to the Bill of Rights that granted the citizens the right to keep and bear arms? And, do you understand why they felt that that right was so important that they made it the SECOND Amendment to the Constitution, right behind the one we are exercising right now; Freedom of speech?
It’s about the balance of power. The balance of power is the central theme behind EVERYTHING that the Constitution establishes. That’s why there are 2 political parties, 2 houses of Congress, 3 branches of government. The Founders understood the abuses that eminate from an overbearing, bloated, tyrannical central government such as we have today. The Founding Fathers understood quite well the human psyche and the concept of “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. While I’m not sure they envisioned the types of abuses we are seeing from our government today, they understood the propensity and potential for those abuses to occur.
They created a government system that didn’t need a Congress in session year-round. Greedy, power hungry politicians did. The Founding Fathers created a government system that shared power with the states and the greedy, power hungry politicians have gradually taken that away.
So, inspite of all the rhetoric today, we are reaching a standoff. The people are opposing the politicians in greater numbers, but the politicians are selectively deaf and refuse to hear us. IMO, the Founders NEVER saw that one coming because they believed in man’s greater good, than his evil. Still, they anticipated the potential for abuse by a powerful central government and granted MANY rights to the states in the Tenth Amendment.
But, for the most part, the states are not exercising their rights. Arizona is the most prominent example of one that is and Wyoming or Montana is another. The majority of states and the majority of American people are cowed by the federal government and believe it to be all powerful. That’s why we have guns - to maintaion the balance of power.
Only an idiot would believe that IF we enacted the plan I described that the government would not immediately call out the military to respond. Balance of power. The military has guns and ammo, so do we. Now the question becomes, will the military actually fire on Americans?
IMO, some will. They will follow the orders they are given and, if ordered to shoot, they will shoot. But, what will they shoot? Guns? You betcha. Tank and artillery shells at the Capitol or the WH?? I’m not so sure. Those are treasured icons of America and everything that our proud history represents. The military isn’t comprised of mind-numbed robots. Sure, they have been well trained, but let’s remember who the military is - for the most part, it is kids 18 - 26 who grew up playing with you or your kids (depending on your age). They attended the same schools, churches, movies, athletic events and the rest that you attended. It’s Donny, who sat next to you in Algebra; Shanecqua who walked with your kids to school (or rode the bus with them); Brittany who is/was your daughter’s BFF; and James who played in the band. THAT’S who the military is.
And, the military doesn’t like this president any more than we do. So, they have guns; we have guns. Will we both use them? It’s questionable, but I believe that there will be SOME violence on both sides. Balance of power.
But, at the end of the day, I believe that the majority of the military will ignore their orders and will join us to fight FOR America - the very job they are sworn to do.
One of the things yoyu wanted me to do was talk to my coworkers. AFIK, I just did. You could be in the next cube, or the cluster of cubes down the hall.
So, we both win.
I respectfully disagree with one or two of your points. You say the Founders didn’t anticipate elected leaders becoming detached from the electorate because they saw man as more good than bad. Yet the entire system of checks and balances was designed around the Calvinistic presumption of a universal defect of selfishness in the human spirit, that the resulting power-lust was so pervasive and predictable it had to be checked via a divide and conquer methodology. People could not be trusted.
So I say they did see it coming, because by design these wayward and insular politicians were to be chastised through elections at relatively close intervals. Where they might have faltered was failing to fully anticipate the extent to which the electoral process could be corrupted. The first line of defense is freedom of the press and free speech, true, because free elections aren’t really free in an informational vacuum. But we are dealing with an ever-growing non-elected body, the Administrative State, immune to the feedback of the voice of the people. Add to that the failure to account for the potential for manipulation of the press, and even more insidious, the dulling and diffusing of the popular voice through statist control of the educational system, and you have to say they may have left a few exploitable weaknesses in the constitutional “Operating System.”
One more thing. The Founders did not institute the two-party system. That was a later innovation, and one which George Washington himself opposed as detrimental to the Republic, precisely because it could create the very kind of quasi-tribal mentality that works against effective local representation.
These Founders of ours; pretty smart people, imperfections notwithstanding. I continue to be amazed.
IMO, some will. They will follow the orders they are given and, if ordered to shoot, they will shoot. But, what will they shoot? Guns? You betcha.
I agree. Some will. And the others - the one's who won't will be moved to non-confronting units. But, our odds increase for success the more Obama's army sees us as Americans and not as 'the other'. In Iran - at one point - the ruling thugs had to bring in outsiders to shoot at and arrest young student protesters. Too many were known to the regular police and army - and they wouldn't shoot the kids. That's a lesson for us.
We have to create that mindset. The Tea Parties have been a wonderful psychological safeguard for us. Our side has been demonized - effectively. The radical elite left can't work their lies easily when Tea Party members are everyday Americans wearing light pastels and carrying homemade signs. Even the brain washed press has been able to see Tea Party members are their friends, neighbors, and family. It would be hard to shoot into a Tea Party.
And that's where the psychological units on our side need to focus... Elite radical liberals are working to present us as "the other". Kind of what Hitler did to the Jews before extermination camps were set up. Liberal elite groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center are behind much of this type of propaganda - they work to create the appearance conservatives are "sub-humans - the other - not worthy of civil protections... That's wrong of them. If we don't counter this, we're going to lose no matter what...
Statements of "this far and no further" must be written. If radical liberal elites start killing people on our side - Rush, Hannity, Supreme Court conservatives, FOX News people - that's a "crossed the line" act. If radical liberal elites start opening re-education or death camps - that's also a 'crossed the line' act. All our positions need to be acceptable to the vast majority of citizens. It won't work otherwise. Forewarned citizens are a safeguard. Waiting until groups are being loaded on trains won't work. Citizens will justify it just like they did in Germany.
Our fellow citizens need to be on board BEFORE something happens. Psych-teams can work out details.
Now's the time to clarify values. I have mine - but strength comes in numbers. Here's what I will NOT fight about... If there's a duly elected group - liberals - and they make laws I hate - that's their right. When we're in office, we'll make laws they hate - and expect them to follow those laws. It's a free country. Election winners get to call the shots. It's how the system works. I like that - I believe in our system of government. If we don't like what liberals are doing (legally) then we can work harder and VOTE THEM OUT. That's how a free culture - rule of law - country works it.
So let me know, where's 'your line' - what's your plan... details for the future - not history...