Ready to Resist?
One of the things revealed by the ongoing story about Governor Beverly Perdue(D-NC) is that she’s speaking for the core constituency of her party. They are tired of hearing from Tea Party patriots, and frankly anybody else who dares to question their actions, laws, policies, and regulations. It’s symptomatic of the terror the left now feels, and the truth is that while some have attempted to paint her statement about suspending Congressional elections as a joke, most Americans sense of distrust of government and politicians has been heightened to an extent that even if she had been joking, none seem to consider it a laughing matter. More than just the left, however, it’s both of the parties in the form of a permanent political class that shares a basic contempt and disdain for the American people.
What any relatively attentive person should have realized long ago is that many politicians hold we voters in contempt, all the while seeking our support for their re-election campaigns. Governor Perdue is expressing a frightening contempt for the American tradition of self-governance in the most fundamental sense. Without elections, and without politicians being held accountable for their actions, the United States suddenly looks like any other banana republic, magnified and multiplied by our sheer size. The more one listens to this, the less it sounds like a joke:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-govx9CdOA]
If you can’t understand the audio, here’s what she said:
“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover.” “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.”
The question I receive from comments on this site and from emails is almost always the same: One part outrage, and one part frustration; outraged that an elected official could even consider such a thing, joking or not, but also frustrated with the fact that these entrenched politicians are not easily removed. “What shall we do, Mark?” This is the same question I receive again and again, and it’s as though some people have adopted the idea that we can either do nothing, or we can mount some sort of armed revolt. Let me suggest that until something changes, neither of these is the correct answer. Doing the latter cannot be justified until such time as we run out of all other options. The best option we have is immediately before us: We must engage and become involved. Some will pull an Obama-to-CBC on some of you, but the fact is that I don’t think that would work on you. I think you are open to reason, so let’s consider this carefully, and let me offer you this: The moment they actually suspend an election, then does the question of violence become reasonable.
Otherwise, what we must do is stop waiting for the Internet, single-click solution. You can’t send emails as a proxy for writing letters. Typing a few outraged words isn’t enough. Clicking the “send” button simply won’t suffice. You can’t place phone calls as a substitute for showing-up. You must speak to your elected officials, at their offices in DC and in their districts, and in your statehouses and legislatures, at town hall meetings. Sending them emails is great, but you should take the text, paste it into a file, and snail-mail the contents to them also. Most importantly, you need to talk to your neighbors and show them what these people are trying to do, and show them the sorts of trial balloons they are now floating. If you are sincere in wanting to prevent the sort of tyranny these leftists intend to install, you’re going to need to take every available step in a peaceful form to oppose them. The time for a bunch of posturing is over, and we can’t afford violence, so rather than claim that “there’s nothing we can do,” and in dejected, frustrated impotence, shrug our shoulders and walk away, we still have the freedom to become involved. We should for once begin to make full use of it. We shouldn’t even entertain talk about “ammo box” until you’ve fully utilized the “mail box,” the “soap box,” and the “ballot box.”
It’s time we clear something else up, while we’re at it: There are a few Democrats who are of the old school, who do not believe in this sort of big-government takeover we’re seeing across the board. Remember that while you and they may disagree on many things, there are some Democrats who are every bit as outraged by this as you are, and for precisely the same reasons. At the same time, be careful of those establishment Republicans of the permanent political class who would quietly agree with the sentiments expressed by Perdue, Orszag, and others. What Orszag contends, and Perdue’s alleged “joke” expresses too, is that “gridlock” is obstructing business in Washington. Here’s the answer: Gridlock is the result of the American people deciding to obstruct the big-government reflexes of progressives in both parties. We are demanding gridlock, until such time as we can get the people in power to reverse course and rescue the country, its economy, and its people.
In truth, this is what Obama’s speech to the Congressional Black Caucus was all about: He’s trying to exhort them to oppose you. He’s trying to get them up and out to face off with you. Don’t fall for that sort of confrontation. Violence plays into their hands, but not yours. Instead, focus on what these people are doing, and talk to your neighbors, your family, you church congregations, and get them on the same page. Chances are, they’re already in agreement with you, but our culture has been one in which we’ve been led to remain quiet. The Tea Party is the first harbinger of the sort of people we must become. If you want to defeat the statists, we will do it peacefully, and at the ballot box. From now until then, don’t expect it to get any better.
Even on the local level, these politicians deserve an electoral comeuppance in the form of finding themselves on the sidelines in the future. This is also a great way to develop the next generation of state and national leaders and legislators: At the local level, find people worthy of your support and put them in. City Councils, Mayors, County Commissioners, Judges, School Boards, Sheriffs, and anybody else must be made eligible for replacement if they cross these lines. You mustn’t fear them. You mustn’t permit them to scare you into quiescent, silent submission. The idea in this issue must be to continue to wake up our less-attentive fellow citizens, while simultaneously helping them come to grips with what is going on. There should be no confusion among the people on our side: We must defeat the statists at the ballot box in 2012, and for all the years thereafter, or we will see the country fall. It will happen within our lifetimes, and maybe sooner than that. If you want to preserve your country, it’s going to require you to lead. Politicians who fit within our ethical, moral, and philosophical worldview are great, but we must get them into office to affect any change. That starts by evaluating their records, rather than a reflexive reference to the “D” or the “R” adjacent to their names on our ballots. Don’t fall for the trap that these things are happening only on the state or national level. We’re seeing arrogance among public officials at all levels. Consider this story from Peekskill, NY, where citizens have been prohibited from clapping, and where the public comment section of City meetings have been eliminated, or this one from Quartzite, AZ, where citizens took action to remove their mayor from office, who had attempted to enforce martial law.
These situations are dangerous in their meaning, but the hopeful view is to be derived from Quartzite, AZ. Don’t ask what you can do, when the answer is already in front of us. These politicians, at all levels, are terrified because you’ve discovered the first bits of their game. There is much more yet to be uncovered, perhaps in your own community, or in your own statehouse. They’ve run us into the ground, almost all of them, and it’s time we begin to look at all of them as suspect unless they have a lengthy record of defending liberty and upholding their oaths of office with scrupulous dedication. When a sitting governor in a state in this union proposes that we should suspend elections, there should be no shortage of outrage, but particularly among the people of that state, there should be no ambiguity. Elections are not theirs to suspend, but yours to exercise, and I hopefully look to the people of North Carolina to sit her down at the next opportunity.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are not helpless, and we have no need of violence. If you’re reading this, you already possess everything you need to begin your own campaign of opposition, and join with others already in progress. Slowly but surely, the worst thugs and tyrants in our midst have begun to unmask themselves. It’s not a crazy conspiracy theory. It’s not an urban legend. It most certainly isn’t a joke: We now have people who run wide swaths of our governments at all levels who view us as irrelevant, or worse, as the obstacle to their continued power. They will not go away simply because we wish it, or because we dream or hope for it. Instead, we will be the people who pick up their fumbles and run them back for touchdowns at every opportunity. We must educate our friends, family, neighbors and parishioners about the truth of the matter. “Duck and cover” is no longer a viable response. You will need to begin to make some noise, and organize starting in your own communities, and working along to stop this cold.
They’re frightened. They know you’re onto their game, and they’re not quite ready yet, which is why they now float such trial balloons as “jokes.” The Tea Party and you constitute the counter-insurgency upon which they hadn’t planned. You’re outraged? Good! Now that you’re sufficiently motivated, and know where to begin, let us get started and bring along friends.
Update: Now Governor Perdue is claiming it was sarcasm. Yeah.
