December 21, 2009
Is There a Breaking Point?
To say that the American political landscape has become highly polarized is to describe our nation's current state of affairs mildly. Debates over health care, climate change, the economy, terrorism and war have revealed increasingly great divides not just between the radicals on the left and right, but the vast rift between the citizenry and a political class that seems to fancy itself as a permanent ruling class.
The debate over health care is just one example how radically different the left and right view the essence of the United States. The widening gap between the will of people of this nation and actions of our elected representatives is an example of this gaping void.
Conservatives, moderates, and independents are overwhelmingly against the current rushed scheme of Obamacare, where votes are purchased with publicly-funded bribes, with one senator reaching into our wallets to pay off the vote of another. The American people wold rather no vote pass than a rushed hidden bill that no Senator has read, but the political class doesn't care. The big debate in Congress and the Senate between Democrats and Republicans isn't specifically against stealing our tax dollars, but instead over how much to steal, and how long they think they can tax us before we break as a nation or revolt.
We all read blogs (or you wouldn't be here) and follow news stories from the major media, many of which have comment sections. Increasingly, calls to violence and cries for revolt are becoming more commonplace. People rightly fear a federal government that seems to be usurping our freedoms at a great pace, and with a growing appetite.
The very government feeding on this corruption has responded by labeling those who feel this way as fringe extremists, and attempts to marginalize them. It appears that the rhetoric will only get worse on both sides... but will it stop at rhetoric?
As we are all well aware, there has been a tremendous surge in the sale of firearms and ammunition that started in mid to late 2008. Part of the reason for the surge is a growing desire for personal security at a time where the economy is faltering and criminal activity is on the rise. But a significant number of the firearms being purchased—and much of the ammunition being hoarded—are potentially military in nature. Semi-automatic rifles based upon the world's most popular military arms are sold out in many locations, and those stores with access to AR-15 and AK-47 clones are busy filling orders for customers that don't even seem to blink at the premium prices these firearms demand.
In a time where the real unemployment rate is north of 17% (and the official number is still more than 10%), people are buying weapons that regularly approach or exceed $1,000, only to follow that up by stockpiling thousand-round cases of ammunition. It is a pattern that has continued now for more than a year, and shows only little sign of slowing.
Americans are armed to the teeth, are increasingly marginalized by their government, and rightly fearful of the sweeping changes being pushed with a breakneck pace by legislators who don't even bother to read the massive and costly plans for encroachment and expansion they pass. Presently, Democrats are attempting to seize one-sixth of the U.S. economy and put it under government control. Could this massive power grab of the health care system by Democrats trigger violence? Could the economy-killing cap-and-trade legislation become a trigger? Something else?
The simple fact is that it is almost impossible to know the future. No one understands beforehand the precise moments where grumbling dissent becomes open revolt, governments collapse, and nations fall. Nor can anyone predict what kind of state and governance would arise in the aftermath of such an upheaval.
We simply don't know if we are close to a breaking point, because such events are rarely predictable. What we do know is that governments that begin to treat armed citizens as servants are typically faced with the choice of disarming them or being deposed by them. It's been quite a few years since blood has been shed is a major revolt on American soil, but it has happened, and there is no reason to think it will not eventually happen again.
When. Why. How... We simply don't know. But we do know in our guts as a nation we are flowing towards a confrontation, and we can only hope that it stops with a war of words, and the use of ballots instead of bullets.
" ... we can only hope that it stops with a war of words, and the use of ballots instead of bullets."
If the Soviet Union, the bloodiest tyranny the world has ever seen, can peacefully dissolve, then it is possible the United States can dismantle the increasingly unsustainable one-party system that's destroying government of the people.
Posted by: Old Rebel at December 21, 2009 12:29 PMeconomics is, I suspect the tipping point more than many other factors.
waves of seizures simmilar to farm forclosers in the 80's this time by the irs could be what sends many over the edge.
many will find relief by skirting the daylight economy and trading,, working under the table, we will end up with a vibrant black market.
also you may have farmers turning the water back on in defiance of the state and federal government (who turned it off to save a smelt fish) then backing that with guns. I.E. imperial valley california with a unemployment rate hovering around 40%
basically the scenerio will end up being one of survival and the government playing with peoples lives becuase they can, and the situation turns to open revolt not becuase of a concept but becuase of a concrete situation the people on the ground want to stop.
Posted by: rumcrook® at December 21, 2009 12:42 PMalso I would ask the question how tenuos is our modern lifestyle?
if we had an emp pulse from a natural occurrence or a nuke, both highly possible, we could be in the dark for maybe more than 6 months! it would take a herculean effort to replace all the transformers in our gird that got destroyed. and not just replace, many would have to be manufactured first.
really
contemplate what life would be like without electricity for 6 months.
we have been riding the wave of good fortune for quite a while. and as a culture we have boxed ourselves in as far as how we would survive if we had a disaster like im describing.
would a pulse from the sun effect tribal life in sub saharan africa? or most of afghanistan? no
we on the other hand could come out the other side with a 30% population reduction and sans a UNITED states....
Posted by: rumcrook® at December 21, 2009 12:52 PMThe catch 22 in all of this is the very fact that writing or talking about the possibilities instantly leads Liberals to scream (and I mean SCREAM!) that you're "inciting" or "promoting" violence against a lawfully elected government. Personally, I've written about this possibility for months...and shall continue to do so.
Talk of putting people in jail for failing to pay federally mandated health care premiums...and smiling while doing so, as Nancy Pelosi recently did, is not exactly the way to placate the people.
If trouble starts - or should I say WHEN trouble starts, that "lawfully elected government" will have no one to blame but themselves.
Posted by: Dell at December 21, 2009 01:06 PM" ....then it is possible the United States can dismantle the increasingly unsustainable one-party system that's destroying government of the people."
What planet do you live on? And, what do you mean by a one party system? Think back in time just a wee bit to the year 2008. If you'll recall we had an election. Remember now? It was Democrats vs Republicans. This time around the Dems won. Prior to that the Pubs were in power for 8 years.
It goes back and forth in our TWO party system. Though, I must admit there isn't much difference in the two parties. What appears to be striking contrasts are mostly a dog and pony show to divide the people.
Posted by: Dude at December 21, 2009 01:44 PMI worked extra hard all my life to create wealth for my family. When death arrives I want it to go to my kids, not the government to be given to others. My wealth has been taxed once, twice and many times thrice. IT'S MY MONEY!!!!! When I die, after the Unified Tax Credit is applied, 45% of my estate will be confiscated by my own government.
Yes there is a breaking point, and I have met it!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Rick at December 21, 2009 01:56 PMThis is just another in a long string of vile, racist attacks on our new Leader.
Apparently you racist hatemongers didn’t notice that we had an election last November. We won, you lost, and you will never get another chance.
President Obama rules this country now. He is leading us all forward into a new world of peace and justice.
You racist white male oppressors are finished. You would be well advised to just shut up and pay your reparations to your erstwhile victims.
Posted by: Yes We Did at December 21, 2009 03:33 PM"We won, you lost, and you will never get another chance."
At least you are honest about who you are, YWD. Your words show that you are a totalitarian. Obama does NOT "rule." He is President.
Racists like you would be well advised to learn how to count.
Posted by: Bill Smith at December 21, 2009 04:35 PMrumcrook, an EMP incident that affected the continental United States would mean the complete collapse of US society within a month, and most of the rest of the modern world would follow. This is a well-known "End Of The World As We Know It" scenario in science fiction. Electronic banking, sales, supplies and parts ordering, transportation scheduling, car and aircraft engines -- we're so heavily computerized now that we couldn't last two weeks without operational computers.
Posted by: wolfwalker at December 21, 2009 05:15 PMOh, and CY: But we do know in our guts as a nation we are flowing towards a confrontation, and we can only hope that it stops with a war of words, and the use of ballots instead of bullets.
Why?
Posted by: wolfwalker at December 21, 2009 05:17 PMPosted by Yes We Did at December 21, 2009 03:33 PM
Fantastic rendition of a totally racist whackjob! A little over the top--if there were really more than a handful of nutcases like these then declaring hunting season on them would be a great service to the gene pool.
you just forgot the /sarc tag for those who might have fallen for your spoof.
Posted by: iconoclast at December 21, 2009 05:59 PM>>"It goes back and forth in our TWO party system. Though, I must admit there isn't much difference in the two parties. What appears to be striking contrasts are mostly a dog and pony show to divide the people."
So what exactly are you objecting to here? Or is this just your built-in reflex to disagree with every single thing somebody on the right says?
"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed – where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."
Judge Alex Kozinski
Posted by: Stoddard at December 21, 2009 06:01 PMI can see from this post and several of the others that the high school kids are out and have finished there home work. Never having worked they don't understand where their tax dollars are going or how much they are paying and going to pay. Thus they are good little liberals.
I agree that we are headed to a confrontaiton. Many of the little liberals think that conservatives had their day with Bush. But if they go back and look at conservative sentiment, they will note that we only defended him on his war policy and only then because we feel once a commentment has been made that you carry through. Otherwise, Bush and the Rep. congress were about as liberal as it gets. At no time did they even make an effort at reducing the size of the government. Obama is much worse than Bush in the liberal spectrum as he and his group are definitely socialist who have an agenda on taking over the country. As it is we are definitely headed for bankruptcy.
Between Bush and Obama, about 50 to 60% of the country has been left without a voice in the political process and this group includes those who are being called upon to pay for all this trash.
As to being racist, it seems that all you need to get that tag is to be white or have an opinion.
Posted by: David at December 21, 2009 06:14 PMYes We Did shows up on PJM with the exact same message every time.
Yes you did win the last election,No you won't win another one for a very long time.
Obama et.al. have ensured democrat minority for the next generation.
Trying to steal elections in 2010 and 2012 will result in a new shot heard 'round the world.
Americans will not tolerate a tyrannical gov't.
EVER!
NO We Won't.
