This article is directed at those in the conservative movement who find my existence grotesque. You know who you are.
This article is directed at those in the conservative movement who find my existence grotesque. You know who you are. You are the people that do not know how to get from point A to point B without being led around by the nose. You are the people who might be able to recite Jefferson, Madison, Washington and other founding fathers but cannot understand what you are quoting and the meaning of those words. You are the people that want to stop one step short, take options off the table and who think that when push comes to shove, there is still always more talking that can be done. These words I am about to write come forth because of an email exchange I had with a friend of mine who is a retired Marine and also made necessary because of wishy washy comments I have heard coming as of late from some on the right who think that I am far too radical, being too realistic, too rational in reviewing historic facts and in the process offending their sensibilities which have been generated by false beliefs.
Last week my Marine Corps. buddy and I were discussing the current state of America and the exchange eventually led into what the options for the nation were moving forward. He, like myself, has become very concerned about the direction this great nation is heading and he foresees America as quickly becoming far too weak to correct its course. He asked me straight, “What do you think needs to be done?” I responded, without even a second thought, that I thought there were three options that faced us; convert the hearts of Americans to embrace liberty through proselytizing on its virtues and retake our government through peaceful means, acquiesce to the current majority and join them in socialist misery or, lastly and ultimately, have an armed revolution that would either allow those of us that believe in liberty to part ways and divide the nation or that would retake the entire nation. I added that I did not believe that those who are currently destroying America would let us leave willingly and without a fight making that last option inevitable should they not be converted and considering that many Americans would never chose to join them willingly and would need to forcibly defend their right to cease being part of yet another failed socialist non-utopia utopia.
He then responded with what was obvious surprise, but relieved surprise, that I even mentioned that last course as an option. I made sure that he understood that it was not my favored option and that I certainly believed that we had not come to such a point in this nation yet even if I did fervently believe that we were rapidly approaching it. But he was still none-the-less very happy to hear someone else say what he told me he was also thinking might be a necessary path to walk. Talking about this further it became clear that he had been scorned by some of his other friends, so-called conservatives, for bringing up such an option when he and they had a similar conversation last month. They had scolded him for even mentioning such a thing. Revolution? Violence? How utterly droll! The problem was that they misconstrued his statement of such as a possibility as his endorsement of such an option even, according to him, after he made it clear that he certainly did not want it to come to that.
I can relate to all this because I get the same sort of response when I tell people that an armed revolution in America may be coming our way. Whether we want it or not is a moot point. If we do not correct ourselves and right this sinking ship it may become the only tenable option left to those that seek liberty for themselves and their fellow man. A few weeks ago I wrote an article titled, “This Power Keg Has Long Sought A Spark,” in which I discussed how America just needs a single event to set us off into what was not at all a thinly veiled reference to civil war where citizens would no longer take governmental abuses of power and begin to fight back violently. Most of you that read my weekly articles cannot imagine the amount of visceral hate mail that I received from so-called conservatives for even broaching the topic.
I was called everything from a, “dangerous radical,” to a, “trigger happy lunatic whose blood lust for innocent life was insatiable.” And that was just for putting forth a lesson on how Americans have long looked the other way as the federal government has overstepped its bounds and trampled the rights of citizens in exceedingly violent manners. Shattering urban legends and popular myths about what actually happened leading up to and during events like the raid on the Branch Davidians in Waco to Ruby Ridge was also not taken at all well by those with their blinders on. And remember, these were the responses from people that called themselves conservatives! You can imagine what the responses were from the lefties that stumbled blindly upon my article with their guard down.
So believe me, I can relate to my retired Marine Corps. friend. When I shared with him some of this, his next sentence to me in the conversation was a reworking of some lines from the movie, “A Few Good Men.” It was something that I had not thought of. He said, “Believe it or not, and not to sound cliché, they don’t want the truth because deep down in places they don’t talk about at parties, those people that claim to be conservative and who attack you don’t know what to do when liberty is under attack and they want you guarding the wall. They need you on that wall. They need you rattling the cages, sounding the horn and standing that post with a pistol on your hip and a rifle within reach reminding the tyrant class that if they push too far there are patriots who will rise up against them using more than just words.”
At first I cringed at being compared to the maniacal Colonel Jessep who in the movie used much of his speech about walls and the need for them to be guarded to justify in his own mind how he had not been complicit in the murder of a young Marine and then the conspiracy and cover-up of such an act. But I quickly realized that this part of the speech is right even if the whole of it was meant to be self-serving. Those that react so viscerally to the truth seem to forget that from time to time, as Jefferson once said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” They either have no idea what must at times occur for their own rights to continue on or are simply unwilling to accept such costs.
Any talk of taking to the streets and any warning that blood may be required to be spilled in the defense of liberty causes them to wince and turn up their noses in either pretend or real anger at anyone that even says that such actions may be necessary. Not that they are necessary mind you; just the insinuation that that they may become necessary. Perhaps they agree to allow the people to take to the streets but remove from the table any acceptance of further action and wring their hands at the very thought that some citizens may decide that a line in the sand has been crossed while the wishy washy continue to think more talking is needed. Those that do so in pretend anger do so because they know the truth and that history has shown us this truth over and over again. But they and their circle of friends have chosen to simply ignore it. Those that do so in real anger do so because they think that they are smart enough to never have to resort to such, as they see them, barbaric actions. To do so would cause them to have to break a nail or mess up their finely quaffed hair and offend their metrosexual facade.
But when push comes to shove both of you sorts, I firmly believe, want me on this wall banging the pots and pans and shouting from atop it as the hordes from without are assaulting it with weapons of ever increasing power. For you do love liberty. Yes you do, even if you are not willing to say so and perhaps even do what is necessary to defend it from time to time when your back is against the wall and the hordes are rushing at you with their own weapons drawn. You are like leaches and leaches are often content to let the host do all the work while they drawing off your own sustenance from it. They, like you, remain unaware of trouble until the host has been killed and the blood stops flowing. You may not listen to me as you sit around the table at the local tavern sipping your wine and pontificating about how strong the wall is and how it can never be breached. But you do so while ignoring that at the table next to you sits a group of the enemy who have already breached the defenses and who plot your demise openly and loudly. But once those men plotting your demise finish their planning and begin to strike you will cry out for those of us on the wall to come save you without fail.
The thought of blood may be grotesque to you. The mere thought of me speaking of it perhaps at some point being necessary may cause you to wretch and require the fainting couch to be fetched for you to fall upon. But as long as the enemy believes that the option for revolution and a violent defense by the people of their liberties is off the table, they will run roughshod over all who stand in their way. Yes, even you as you try to talk to them and make agreements and capitulations. It is not you that will say when that one spark hits the powder, cause this nation to explode and the citizens to do what is necessary. It is not you that keep the enemy from complete control and who keep the wall from crumbling entirely. It is not you who will make the hordes think twice about how far and how fast to advance. But it can be you who will make them think that we no longer guard the walls and give them too much comfort, even when we are still guarding vigilantly, and encourage them to make their final move.
And to tell the truth, there may not be enough of us guardians upon the wall any more to stop them. So rest well under the blanket of the very freedom I and others provide by keeping the hordes second guessing whether it is finally safe to begin their final assault. For tonight may be your last night underneath that blanket if you continue to undermine the guards.
J.J. Jackson is a libertarian conservative author from Pittsburgh, PA who has been writing and promoting individual liberty since 1993 and is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. He is the Pittsburgh Conservative Examiner for Examiner.com. He is also the owner of The Right Things - Conservative T-shirts & Gifts http://www.cafepress.com/rightthings. His weekly commentary along with exclusives not available anywhere else can be found at http://www.libertyreborn.com
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