If we are to believe what we learned in history class then our forefathers reached a point of revolution over the taxation of tea. Certainly there were many more issues, but this tea tax was the proverbial straw. Tea was a basic commodity of the day that was consumed by most colonialists and the tax had a direct impact on them all. When you consider what the colonial leaders had to put at risk and what their chances were, is the idea of revolting against our government today even a possibility any more? Surely today we are subject to much greater taxes, and some would say these taxes have a greater impact on our lives than the tea tax did on colonial life. With tis healthcare law we are looking at the prospect of such an increase in taxation that it will truly have a greater impact on our lives.
One of the things that made a revolution possible back in 1776 was that the colonialists were comparably armed. Over the course of our history we have let our government erode our ability to keep it contained. When this country was formed, the people were every bit as equally armed, or capable of being so, as the governing body that was created. Somewhere along the way we were convinced that this was no longer needed as we had a rule of law that allowed us to change the governing body every couple of years, and over the course of 6 years to completely replace it. That is, we the people could replace every house member every two years, the president and vice president every four years and every senator over a six year period. So, at most it would take 6 years to completely change the leadership of our country, far less than any revolution would likely take. This all depends on the leaders being of the mind that they would honor this and up to this point, that has been the case.
Consider however that with this body being only 537 people in total that it is conceivable that they could come together and change the rules such that the law no longer provides the mechanism for change that we rely on. That only a small number of people, relatively speaking, would be required to build a force that would be able to control this country. What would prevent this. Well, our second amendment rights is the most compelling tool that we have to prevent this, but that has already been “infringed” on to a large degree in the name of “reasonable” limitations that prevent citizens from owning military arms. For instance, we can not own a functioning tank, or a functioning machine gun, or an F16, Nuclear Sub… You get the idea. The balance of power that the colonialists had is no longer possible.
When we look around the world and see the conflict in Syria for instance and consider how the people revolting there are capable of coming close to a balance of power because of the limited power that the country itself has, there is no way that the strength of the US can be matched by its people. When you consider the governments attempts to further restrict our access to what they call “assault weapons” in the name of providing safety to us, it is easy to see a future where we would have no chance at revolting because the “sticks and stones” level of weaponry we would have would never be a threat to the power of the government. That is, limited capacity weaponry would be of so little offensive ability that they could easily oppress us and suppress any who attempted to object.
Our military would never allow this, right? Well, with a large military it would certainly be more difficult to prevent them from taking sides with the people. But, cutting it down to a smaller size and placing all that military equipment under strict access control, it would take a much smaller group to seize complete control over it and eliminate the possibility of our military coming to our rescue. With a diminished capacity of the people to protect themselves, it requires a much smaller force to keep them all in line. And, with our nuclear capability there is little or no chance that another country would try to take advantage of us simply because of a smaller military. And, there is little chance that they would try to come to the aide of the people should our government decide that they want to do away with our current form of government.
Also, I have had the good fortune to meet a number of people who have fled from oppressive governments to know that there is a phenomenon that helps the oppressive government maintain control. It is much like the loyalty that abused children or abused spouses exhibit toward their abusers. There is this idea that the abuser is doing all of this other stuff for them and that it is their own behaviors that result in the abuse. The abused find fault with themselves and try very hard to make the abuser happy. The people I have met tell stories that indicate that this happens on a national level as well. That many of the people being oppressed feel that they are doing something wrong and try very hard to meet with their leader’s approval as a way of repaying the leader for all that is done for them. They see all the services and such as things that they could not possibly provide for themselves and therefore must be thankful for. It is not hard to see how the recent rise in our welfare state could easily create such a mass of “followers” that would also oppose any who would attempt to revolt. The people in this country are the proverbial frog in the frying pan. Our government as an entity has been slowly increasing the heat and we are about to be cooked without even knowing it. We have been blindly accepting restrictions and limitations to our freedoms to the point where the governing powers are able to obtain more and more power over the people. Our Constitution which was meant to place limits on government is being inverted to where it places limits on the people and we are quickly reaching a point where the people will not have any power to do anything about it.
In addition to all the current attempts to further curb our second amendment rights, there are also other proposals to do away with term limits on the presidency which were placed there so that we did not create a monarchy of sorts by default. We should instead be adding term limits to the other power positions in our government such as the Senate and the House as well as a combined term limit on any and all positions in the federal government so that we do away with career politicians. The power that career politicians are able to obtain is scary to say the least. Furthermore, the combined power that like minded politicians could garner is what presents the greatest risk of creating an oppressive government. The idea that this seems to be the direction we are going in does bring to question our ability as a people to be able to revolt against such an outcome.
Do we need to revolt? Do we want to revolt? Can we revolt?…. Think hard about what you support when it comes to your federal government suggesting one course of action over another. Listen to their arguments and give careful consideration to what they are claiming that they are doing for you. “Welcome to my parlor…” could very well be a nice invitation to your own demise. And since we seem to have accepted so many infringements on our second amendment rights and are yet again considering more, we really do need to exercise the one right we have remaining to curtail government and keep it in check. Be sure you pay attention to what the politicians are doing and vote with the idea that giving up freedom for what you are being told is security may very well lead to you having neither. Our peaceful revolution is at the ballot box and it takes an informed and honest person to know when a politician is making a grab for power, of trading off your freedom for what they claim will be a benefit to you, security or some other shiny trinket of the day. We really should consider things like term limits, limiting bills in congress to a certain number of pages, limiting bills to a specific subject or to only one item. Ignore the complaints that it would impede government because in the end, that is really what needs to be done.