THE DEATH OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS RANT

     The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights created a ripple that not only set this nation apart from and above all others at that time but continues to do so to this day.  Our Founding Documents as they are properly termed literally turned the world on its head and defied all previous governing philosophies that had theretofore existed.  For the first time in recorded history, the theory of government changed radically and literally caused tyrants to tremble.  The Divine Right Theory of rule, hereditary privilege, and rigid class structure all began to crumble with the birth of the United States of America.  This country set forth the premise and promise that government was not, in fact, a top-down proposition but rather emanated from the bottom up and the will of the people reigned supreme.  Those who governed were accountable to those who elevated them to positions of power and influence.  They existed to do the peoples’ work and the will of the governed far outweighed the will of those whom the people chose to represent them.  For the very first time in world history, the power of government was limited and there existed parameters beyond which it was forbidden to go.  This amazingly radical concept of limiting the power of government ran completely counter to any previous concept of the relationship between those who govern and those who are governed.  Power emanated not from the top but instead filtered from the bottom up with and only with the consent of the governed.  Those who “ruled” did so only at the pleasure of those who gave them permission to do so.  Never before in planetary history did rulers ever need permission to do anything.  Not until we came along.

     Our Bill of Rights is particularly important in this regard.  It is probably the best example of political theory actually being practically and pragmatically practiced as a meaningful and relevant reality.  These ten amendments to our Constitution for the first time in the history of the world imposed clear and unambiguous limits upon what the powerful could and could not do to the rest of us.  The Bill of Rights completely altered and forever changed the age-old relationship that had existed between and among the governed and those who did the governing. The boldness and audacity of this brand new theory of governance was literally shocking at the time and went completely against the totalitarian nature of every government on the planet.  It also literally set thousands of years of world history on its head.  No one, absolutely no one, told government what it could not do.  Imagine telling a king, queen, czar, or emperor that he or she could not and must not cross certain lines when it came to dealing with those who are ruled.  This was simply unthinkable – inconceivable.  In fact, the same holds true to this day.  There are approximately one hundred and ninety three nations in the world and only eighty or so practice some form of democracy in which the governed have anything to say about who will and will not do the governing and what those at the top can and cannot do to those at the bottom.  In most of the world, there is no such thing as freedom, individual rights, and liberty and the idea of limiting the power of government will at the very least get you and your entire family brutalized, tortured, and killed.  Freedom is indeed a rare and precious thing and it began with us.

     The Bill of Rights was written and included in the Constitution to accomplish two very specific and radical purposes.  The first was to protect and guarantee the individual rights and freedoms that constituted this country’s promise to our citizens as well as the rest of humanity.  The people who wrote those ten amendments knew that man’s natural state was indeed the right to exist in a condition of freedom and liberty and that the totalitarian mindset that had governed mankind from ancient days to the present was indeed unnatural and artificial and had only been perpetrated and sustained by threat, force, and coercion.  The second overall purpose of the Bill of Rights, simply stated, was to limit the power of government.  In other words, to minimize the damage that all governments throughout history could wreak on a virtually powerless population of everyday folks.  This truly defines the very essence of American Exceptionalism and has been a very cornerstone of the American experience and existence.  At the time, it set us completely and radically apart from all other nations that had ever existed.  In every political revolution since our own, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were used as precedent and justification for the act of rebellion.

     Just for Shits & Giggles, let’s quickly run through the first ten amendments not so much for the actual content of each but rather for the language employed.  For those out there who don’t actually know the content of each – AND YOU SHOULD – they are readily available and eminently unambiguous and comprehensible.  Amendment One is particularly relevant here for it begins by stating that, “Congress shall make no law. . . .”  Got that?  Congress, the government, can’t do it. No way, no how.  Simple enough?  Amendment Two quite simply states in part that, “the right of the people . . . shall not be infringed.”  The Third Amendment which refers to the quartering of troops in private domiciles forbids this practice without, “the consent of the owner,” while Amendment Four clearly states that the, “right of the people . . . shall not be violated.”  Amendment Five, one of the lengthier ones, warns that no person shall be, “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”  In other words, the government can’t kill you, imprison you, or take what’s yours without strictly following very specifically prescribed rules and regulations.  The Sixth Amendment deals with the rights of the accused in criminal cases and notes that, “the accused shall enjoy the right. . . .”  Never before in the history of the world had those accused of any wrong doing against the state enjoyed any rights whatsoever because rights simply did not exist!  Amendment Seven, in similar vein for civil cases, insists that, “the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.”  Amendment Eight prohibited the government from imposing excessive bail or fines but more importantly forbade the government from inflicting any cruel or unusual punishments.  Now that could really screw up a tyrant’s day!  Amendment Nine simply and unequivocally insists that the people have more rights than are enumerated in the Constitution and merely because such a right is not stated doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.  Amendment Ten was a serious kick in the ass for anyone who aspired to the status of dictator or absolute ruler.  It maintained that any right not expressly delegated to the government of the United States, “nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”  What does that mean, you ask?  Simple, really.  The federal government shall never have any more power than was granted to it by the Founders and spelled out in our Constitution.  Never!  Talk about limiting the power of government and protecting the rights of the people – well, I guess!!

     The Bill of Rights, then, is fundamental to our existence as a free people who have always proudly and fiercely defied and denied tyranny both here at home and around the world.  For over two hundred years, we have heeded the words of our Founding Fathers about jealously and vigorously protecting and guarding our freedom and our liberty for they are indeed both precious and fragile.  The Founders knew and understood this only too well having lived through and experienced life under tyrannical rule.  As is all too often the case, however, familiarity breeds contempt or at least a deep and even deadly sense of apathy and total ignorance.  Over the last half century or so, the Bill of Rights has lost virtually all meaning if not relevance to present day American life.  Virtually no one knows what they are or mean and even fewer Americans know why they were created and added to our Constitution.  If you care to partake of an exercise in complete futility and frustration, for example, try this on an afternoon when you’ve got absolutely nothing better to do.  Go to your local shopping mall and randomly survey one hundred or so of the folks you run across.  Ask if they know what the Bill of Rights is and why it is important.  The level of ignorance will both disappoint and disillusion.  Don’t even bother inquiring about the meaning of any specific or particular amendments for that might really drive you over the edge.  The American public seems not to know or even care about the freedoms guaranteed to us by our Bill of Rights and, that being the case, have absolutely no idea or concept that we are in the process of losing them.  The “great unwashed” out here can’t for the life of them  find any relevance between their own lives and documents that are hundreds of years old.  They have absolutely no sense of history and without that anchor there can be no lessons learned – only lessons lost.

     Why should this be the case?  Is it no more than happenstance or perhaps an instance of collective amnesia?  Why should something as important and crucial – not to mention unique – as our Bill of Rights be relegated to a position of extreme unimportance and even irrelevance?  Do our first ten amendments really no longer apply to life in America?  Have they really outlived whatever usefulness they may have had for this nation as the 21^st Century rolls inexorably on?  Do we no longer need the protections that they once provided?  Has their promise actually been fulfilled and can our Founding Fathers finally rest in peace?  Have the goals of protecting individual rights and freedoms and limiting the power of government finally and irrevocably been achieved?  Is it time for us to stop worrying about our right to free speech, free press, and freedom of religion?  Should we no longer be concerned with our government never becoming more powerful than is permitted by the Constitution or that our due process rights no longer need safeguarding?

     If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions – and dozens more that could be asked – then our nation is in serious trouble and, in fact, our precious rights and freedoms are very much in jeopardy of being lost and rights lost can never be restored.  Once they’re gone, they’re gone for good.  Surely, this cannot be what most Americans want and desire unless, of course, they don’t even know what they are losing. After all, if you don’t know what you have, you can’t possibly know when it’s gone.  If you don’t know or understand that you’ve lost something or that it’s been taken away from you, it’s impossible to miss it or comprehend the meaning of the loss.  Unfortunately, this seems to be the case with far too many Americans today.  They simply don’t know what their rights are nor do they understand the innate oppressive power of government – all government – anywhere in the world.  If allowed, government will always and invariably garner more and more power unto itself which inevitably comes at the expense of individual liberty and freedom.  This has always been the case and continues to the present day.  The less vigilant a people become, the more powerful government will grow and big, unwieldy government is always anathema to freedom, individual rights, and liberty.  The more people learn to depend on government for their wants and needs, the less freedom they enjoy.  Thomas Jefferson wisely instructed that a, “government big enough to give you everything you want is also powerful enough to take away everything you have.”  This has been the case in America for far too long and the growth of an increasingly powerful and all-pervasive federal government is no mere accident or some odd quirk of fate.  It has been perpetrated on this nation and its population since at least the 1960’s and can reasonably be traced back to FDR’s New Deal all those years ago.

     It is certainly no accident that there are those among us who actively and arduously desire the complete destruction of our Bill of Rights because those ten amendments are viewed as impediments and obstacles by those who champion the growth of ever bigger and more intrusive government.  These are the folks who desperately want government involved in every aspect of the lives of the citizenry.  You see, they are Statists, Authoritarians, and Totalitarian wanna-be’s who don’t merely want to govern but rather to rule.  They are no different in attitude and outlook than the Divine Right Rulers of centuries ago.  They do not trust us “little folk” as capable of making decisions for ourselves and our families let alone for our country.  According to them, our role is to simply shut up and rubber stamp their machinations and plans to turn this country into something it was never intended to be.  Our input is not wanted or needed and the less involved we are in the governing process, the less trouble we can cause for those Elitists whose fondest dream is to fundamentally transform this country into something more akin to an oppressive regime instead of the magnificent Constitutional Republic so brilliantly crafted by our Founding Fathers almost two hundred and forty years ago.  They are what I have dubbed the LFE (Liberal Fucking Elite) and they are doing their damnedest to effectively render our Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights null and void.  Our Founding Documents don’t fit their template of the Socialist-Authoritarian State in which the people have virtually no power and rights, liberties, and freedoms are anything but God-given.  Instead, they are granted to us by men and can therefore be taken away by our “betters” when they are viewed as serious threats by those who would control every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave.

     This deliberate destructive process can easily be illustrated by taking even the most perfunctory look at the nation’s education system.  Whereas the country’s founding and those essential documents that are the central elements behind what has correctly been deemed the concept of American Exceptionalism used to be basic to every child’s education beginning in elementary school that is no longer the case.  American history has been completely revised by the Liberal Elites who have had a stranglehold on our educational system for at least half a century.  The Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are treated minimally at best or simply ignored at worst.  They are deemed meaningless and irrelevant by those who control education in this nation.  They are either glossed over, distorted, or completely ignored.  Our children do not learn the amazing historical importance of America’s founding and what it meant to the world.  They are not taught to appreciate the sacrifice that characterized the birth of this country and, therefore, cannot possibly comprehend it.  This has been done purposely by the LFE and continues through high school and university.  This “revisionist history”, which really took hold in the 1960’s, presents America’s past in the darkest possible terms and has served to instill in the country’s young ones a deep distrust, disrespect, and even hatred for America and all that it stands for and represents.

     A piece entitled, “Sixth Grade Assignment: Destroy The Bill Of Rights (http://www.dailypaul.com),” is particularly illustrative here but is certainly not unusual in today’s current climate.  It begins with, “Welcome to the first day of civics class in the Common Core.  Your first assignment?  Revising the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution because it is an outdated document.”  How about that.  The Bill of Rights is seen as outdated and therefore, I suppose, as useless, irrelevant, and inapplicable in 21^st Century America.  I had been taught, all those years ago, that these ten amendments were, in fact, timeless and that the principles and particulars contained therein constituted the bedrock upon which our nation was built and by which it became exceptional.  I had learned that the Bill of Rights was our bulwark against big, unwieldy, and abusive government and served to protect and preserve individual rights and freedoms.

     But hey, I’m just an Old Fart who is also outdated and irrelevant in today’s America.  The piece goes on to explain that, “You have been selected to work on a National Revised Bill of Rights Task Force,” and that, “You have been charged with the task of revising and editing the Bill of Rights.”  That task also included adding amendments to the document.  Alrighty then.  Let’s scrap the old one and bring on a new one that more accurately reflects the wants and desires of current day Americans. Well, that’s quite a daunting task especially since our students have not been taught the purpose, meaning, or context that the Bill of Rights embodies.  If they don’t know the Bill of Rights as written and intended, how can they possibly revise it?  They can’t.  They can only destroy it.  The article goes on to note that, “students are not being taught what the document means, or any kind of appreciation for the document.  The underlying assumption of the assignment is that the Constitution is outdated and needs to be changed.”  Furthermore, “Another underlying assumption is that this can be done by a citizen task force which ignores the actual procedure for amending the Constitution.”  This kind of assignment is designed to do nothing less than teach children contempt for one of the most liberty-inspiring documents ever written by the hand of man.  It is designed to undermine, subvert, and distort the uniqueness and exceptionalism upon which this nation was founded and is characterized to this day.  If the LFE among us can successfully brainwash the country’s young ‘uns into a lack of appreciation or understanding of America’s founding then, indeed, they will have succeeded in their goal of transforming the United States into something our Founders wouldn’t recognize and would have fought a second revolution to prevent.

     This grade school exercise is by no means the only attempt to destroy the Bill of Rights and scrap our Founding Principles.  No, that effort goes at least as far back as FDR’s New Deal when the United States had experienced the Great Depression and was fighting World War ll.  An article entitled, “The State of the Union – 1944: FDR’s Second Bill of Rights (http://nomadicpolitics.blogspot.com),” is particularly instructive in this regard. Introducing a second Bill of Rights presupposes that there was actually a need for one and that somehow the original was no longer adequate.  Well, if one is a Statist who favors more than anything else the establishment of an ever larger, more powerful and intrusive government than one supposes that the first Bill of Rights left something to be desired.  If one disagrees with the founding concept of limiting the power of government in order to safeguard and preserve individual rights and freedoms then the demand for a second Bill of Rights becomes comprehensible, even necessary.  Roosevelt’s proposed Second Bill of Rights contains within it all those assumptions and more and is designed to undermine and destroy the Founding Principles upon which our magnificent Republic was founded.

     Let’s take a few moments to examine some of the “rights” FDR deemed necessary and proper to move America forward.  Roosevelt proclaimed that we, “have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new base of security and prosperity can be established for all – regardless of station, race, or creed.”  Among the additional “rights” emphasized by FDR was the, “right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation,” and the, “right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.”  How’s it sound so far?  Additionally, we note the, “right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living,” and the, “right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home and abroad.”  Boy, I’ll tell ya Old Franklin D. really seems to be on a tear here!  He also insisted on the, “right of every family to a decent home,” and the, “right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.”  FDR is sounding better and better for who could possibly object to the “rights” thus far enumerated?  Furthermore, FDR’s Second Bill of Rights included the, “right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment,” as well as the, “right to a good education.”  Wow, talk about a virtual utopia, a veritable Heaven on Earth kind of a deal!  FDR concluded that, “America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part on how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.”

     And therein lies the FUCKING RUB!!  Read that last sentence again and note the phrase, “For Our Citizens.”  It does not read, “carried into practice BY our citizens,” but rather FOR our citizens.  Do you begin to catch on now, do you begin to see?  Roosevelt was promising pure, unbridled, and unfettered Socialism.  The government will step in and see to it that each of us is guaranteed these “rights” and that, in fact, they cannot be realized unless government becomes more and more involved in providing them for us.  Apparently, Roosevelt and his ilk did not trust us or deem us capable enough to provide those so-called rights for ourselves and our families.  We little folks must and should depend on government to do this for us.  Yeah, I’d say that constitutes Socialism writ large and, unfortunately, it sounds far too much like America in the year 2014! 

     These “rights” catalogued by FDR are not in fact rights at all.  Instead, they are more properly termed goals and opportunities and that is and always has been the promise of America.  Here, unlike most of the world, we are promised the right to try and succeed, the right to try and achieve whatever is our pleasure and the only limits placed on individual success are virtually always self-imposed.  In our system, we are promised the right to life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness but the outcome is never guaranteed!  That is up to each and every one of us and we must all develop our own abilities, talents, and desires that will enable us to achieve our goals.  Government should be there to see that the playing field is level and that no one begins the race behind or ahead of the starting line.  How we cross the finish line, however, is up to us and in that the government must never interfere.

     Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights defies and negates age-old and time-honored American traditions like rugged individualism, self-reliance, and an absolutely boundless sense of optimism and hope for the future.  Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights completely ignores and negates our magnificent system of Free Market Capitalism and the unalterable fact that in this country regardless of humble beginnings, each individual can rise to heights literally not seen anywhere else in the world.  This has always been but one more element in the concept of American Exceptionalism and until very recently has been an accepted and central feature of the American way of life.

     Not so anymore.  It is now preferred and expected by the powers that be that more and more Americans will and must depend upon government for all of life’s necessities and desires.  We are no longer expected to fend for and provide for ourselves but instead must turn to Big Brother for those things in life that the individual had always been expected to provide for himself.  Want a job?  Go to government which has become this nation’s largest employer and that, by the way, was never intended or envisioned.  Need health care?  Go see Uncle Sam and he’ll gladly step in and control every aspect of your life because once government controls health and health care it dictates how you will and will not live.  Need sustenance?  Apply for federally controlled food stamps and all will be well.  Need a place to live?  Easy, just get yourself some federally subsidized housing.  Do you need a cell phone?  No problem.  Just go and get yourself a free Obamaphone or maybe three or four of them.  Having trouble paying your heating bill in the winter?  Hey, no problem.  The federal government has programs for that too.  Out of work?  Don’t worry about it.  How about two years of unemployment checks provided by the nation’s taxpayers?  It seems that there’s literally no aspect of life that needs our personal attention or initiative anymore and that’s precisely what the LFE wants, desires, and demands.  The Liberals-Socialists among us are FDR’s successors and standard bearers.  They carry the torch for those in our nation who want to destroy our very foundations.  They want to knock down every single tradition that has made this country the greatest nation God ever gave mankind and the envy of the entire world.  Those on the Far Left revere FDR and his Second Bill of Rights just as much as they loathe and despise this country as historically founded and presently constituted.

     Our Bill of Rights has always acted to prevent and prohibit the federal government from overly interfering in the lives of the citizens thus helping foster and protect the growth of liberty and freedom in this country.  Without the protections provided by the first ten amendments everything that has made the United States of America unique and exceptional goes by the boards.  The importance of this document cannot be overstated and the fact that there exist very powerful forces in this country that view it as an impediment to their own power and influence should remind all of us that we must be ever vigilant in our fight against those forces whenever and wherever it becomes necessary.  Benjamin Franklin famously insisted that those who would sacrifice just a little freedom for a little more security indeed deserved neither.  Yet more and more of us seem willing to do exactly that.  FDR’s Second Bill of Rights does promise the prospect of more security but we must ask ourselves at what cost?  In order to guarantee what is promised, the loss of precious freedom is the price we must inevitably pay. 

     

     All Socialist-Communist societies, for example, make exactly those same promises and nobody can deny that in those nations freedom is virtually nonexistent.  This is not merely an opinion but can easily be verified by a truthful and honest examination of countries like Cuba, the old Soviet Union, or even modern-day China.  The same promises of security granted in the Second Bill of Rights are also granted in all Statist-Authoritarian nations but freedom is literally unknown.  Liberty is virtually nonexistent and choice and opportunity are nowhere to be found.  In these places and many others, the government is all-powerful, ever-present, intrusive, and must be obeyed.  There are no checks on what government cannot do to its citizens and those hapless folks have no recourse whatsoever.  There exist no documents like our Bill of Rights because there are no rights and no freedoms in existence!  There is only the “right” to obey and not to do so guarantees the most dire of outcomes.

     It is difficult, therefore, for many of us “old-school” Americans to fathom that there exist so many in this country who want exactly that outcome.  They desperately seek to destroy our nation as envisioned by the Founding Fathers and replace it with some form of Statism, Authoritarianism, or Totalitarianism.  These types must be resisted and defeated if the promise of America is to continue to be realized.  If the Socialists among us emerge victorious, then America ceases to exist and will take its place on that long list of failed experiments that flourished for a bit but ultimately ended up in the dust bin of history from which there is no return or resurrection.  Once the forces of despotism take hold of a nation, freedom will soon cease to exist and the promise of this greatest of countries will cease along with it.

     An article entitled, “R.I.P. Bill of Rights 1789-2011 (http://www.naturalnews.com),” maintains that one, “of the most extraordinary documents in human history – the Bill of Rights – has come to an end under President Barrack Obama.”  Well, that’s quite a statement indeed but given what’s been going on in this current regime, I don’t think much of an argument can be mounted against it.  Obama’s IRS, for example, was expressly ordered to investigate and audit the various Tea Party groups that have arisen around the country since the Emperor – in – Chief’s coronation.  Indeed, these as well as other grass roots organizations have summarily been denied tax exempt status thus effectively preventing them from raising funds to better express their political point of view.  This utterly and completely denies them their First Amendment right to free speech, free press, and freedom of expression for daring to oppose the views, actions, and philosophy of America’s most notable would-be tyrant.  Those members of the LFE in America are perfectly comfortable with this purposeful abridgement of some of our most important rights and freedoms because it perfectly fits their overall template of destroying this country and turning it into something it was never intended to be.

     The article points out that, “Derived from sacred principles of natural law, the Bill of Rights has come to a sudden and catastrophic end with the President’s signing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). . . .”  The NDAA?  What the Hell is that, you ask?  Yeah, me too.  I’d never heard of it either because like so much that Obama and the Boys do, we were never meant to hear of it.  The NDAA is a, “law that grants the U.S. military the legal right to conduct secret kidnappings of U.S. citizens, followed by indefinite detention, interrogation, torture and even murder.  This is all conducted completely outside the protection of law, with no jury, no trial, no legal representation and not even any requirement that the government produce evidence against the accused.”  Author Mike Adams correctly concludes that this, “is a system of outright government tyranny against the American people, and it effectively nullifies the Bill of Rights.”  There’s absolutely no arguing with that last point if you know what is contained in those first ten amendments.  As noted earlier, however, most Americans no longer have that knowledge and therefore have absolutely no fucking clue just how badly the NDAA stomps all over the Bill of Rights and denies us basic freedoms that so many in our country have fought and died to protect.  This means literally nothing to the Liberal Pukes in our country who are firmly convinced that they have the right to destroy our freedoms if it fits their agenda of destroying America.  The article goes on to note that this, “is the law that will cement Obama’s legacy in the history books as the traitor who nullified the Bill of Rights and paved America’s pathway down a road of tyranny that will make Nazi Germany’s war crimes look like child’s play.  If Bush had signed a law like this, liberals would have been screaming impeachment!”

     As far as I can tell, this edict violates at least the First and Second Amendments as well as the Third and the Fourth.  It certainly decimates the Fifth Amendment with its all-important emphasis on our due process rights.  It places in jeopardy our rights under the Sixth and Seventh Amendments and makes a complete mockery of the Eigth Amendment as well.  Under the NDAA, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments are reduced to nothing more than memories of a time when individual rights and freedoms were well known and hotly defended whenever they seemed threatened.  This, of course, presupposes that the American population actually knew what those rights were and perceived the absolute need to defend any infringement or encroachment upon them.  Tragically, this is no longer the case.

     The author of the piece constantly and correctly emphasizes the ultimate importance of the Bill of Rights as he notes that, “While the U.S. Constitution already limits the power of the federal government, the Bill of Rights is the document that enumerates even more limits on federal power.”  This, of course, is crucial given what’s been happening regarding the ever expanding power of our central government, especially the Executive Branch.  It is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the freedoms enunciated in the Bill of Rights, “given the natural tendency of all government to concentrate power in the hands of the few while destroying the rights and freedoms of their own people.”  It is essential that the American population never forget the purpose of the Bill of Rights as envisioned by our Founders who rightly perceived government as a threat and a usurper of freedom.  Our Revolution was fought expressly to prevent tyranny in our new nation but the LFE in our midst desires the exact opposite.

 

     Every law enacted by them and every executive order signed by our Dictator Wannabe is purposely designed  to restrict, limit, and destroy our hard-won freedoms and to finally and irrevocably trash the Bill of Rights.  The article properly insists that the purpose of the Bill of Rights, “was to provide additional clarifications on the limitations of government power so that there could be absolutely no question that government could NEVER, under any circumstances, violate these key principles of freedom:  Freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, freedom from illegal searches, the right to remain silent, the right to due process under the law, and so on.”

     Look around you folks and, if you can, honestly assess the condition of freedom as it exists in America and compare it to the vision of our Founding Fathers.  We are far less free than we were when the nation was still new and untested.  We are far less free in 2014 than we were when we threw off the shackles of British colonialism and said a resounding NO to tyranny.  Well, tyranny is back and under the Liberals and their Destroyer – in – Chief it is overwhelming and undermines our freedom at every turn.  Government is now far too heavily involved in virtually every single aspect of our lives while most citizens have become thoroughly ignorant and unaware of our proud history and heritage as a free country and a free people.  We have reached a point in the life of the United States where an overwhelming sense of apathy and indifference has descended upon us like the darkest of thunder-heads just prior to a storm of devastating proportions.  We are in a fight right now and most Americans are blissfully unaware of that fact.  We are in a battle to preserve our freedom and liberty not from some foreign invader bent on conquest but rather from fellow Americans and this is the ultimate tragedy we face today.  Too many of us are so completely unaware of our magnificent history and traditions that one has to wonder just how this happened.    What brought us to this point where so many of us actually don’t know who we really are and what America has historically represented?

     The answer is easily and readily comprehensible:  unfettered and unbridled Liberalism.  Sadly, Liberalism controls all of our major institutions including such things as education, the media – both print and electronic – entertainment at all levels, publishing, and so much more.  Our kids are bombarded and brainwashed with it before they are old enough to take their first steps and it continues unabated well into adulthood.  Liberalism is virtually solely responsible for America’s decline and unfortunately too many of our fellow citizens either really don’t seem to care or actually welcome this evisceration of every single tradition that we used to hold dear and would defend without hesitation if we thought they were under assault.  This is simply no longer the case and thus we are witnessing the demise of our precious Bill of Rights and the protections it provides.  It is an absolute tragedy and travesty that we have allowed ourselves to reach the point that we are witnessing the suicide – the internal destruction – of the greatest nation in planetary history.  It literally keeps me and many more of us Old Farts out here awake at night in fear of what will happen to our children and grandchildren.

     As the author of the piece maintains, “today’s runaway federal government utterly ignores the limitations placed on it by the founding fathers.  It aggressively and criminally seeks to expand its power at all costs, completely ignoring the Bill of Rights and openly violating the limitations of power placed upon it by the United States Constitution.”  The writer notes, for example, the, “TSA’s illegal searching of air travelers, for example, is a blatant violation of Fourth Amendment rights.  The government’s hijacking of websites it claims are linking to copyright infringement hubs is a blatant violation of First Amendment rights. The government’s demand that all Americans be forced to buy private health insurance is a blatant violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution – the Commerce Clause.”  The piece continues that now, “with the passage of the NDAA, the federal government has torpedoed the entire Bill of Rights, dismissing it completely and effectively promising to violate those rights at will.  As of January 1, 2012, we have all been designated enemies of the state.  America is the new battleground, and your right to due process is null and void.”  Wow!  I never imagined that ordinary, patriotic, Constitution-loving Americans could possibly be seen as enemies of the state but remember, we’re dealing with the LFE in our midst and to them we are indeed enemies of the state who must be silenced and destroyed at all costs.  The piece concludes that, “we are now a nation led by evil, and threatened with total destruction by those who would seek to rule as tyrants.  This is America’s final hour.  We either defend the republic now, or we lose it forever.”

     Folks, the recent Republican massive mid-term victory notwithstanding, we are indeed in danger of losing the nation that we love and cherish.  I hope those elections constitute a harbinger of things to come and perhaps just maybe a spark has been ignited that will call our country back to its roots, its founding, and its heritage.  I fear, however, that those elections may represent a death knell, a final, desperate gasp of what is left of freedom in our beloved nation.  I hope not.

Much Luv Y’All and Have a Great Day!

The Fifth Horseman

(Dr. David M. Rich, Ph.D.)             

    

               

THE THREE PERCENTERS RANT

     Have you ever heard of an outfit called the, “Three Percenters?”  Yeah, me either.  They are sometimes referred to as, “Threepers” or “lll %ers.”  Still doesn’t ring any bells or set off any sirens for you?  That’s really not all that surprising because apparently almost no Americans have ever heard of them or know what they stand for and represent.  If you were to take a random, unscientific survey of, let’s say, one hundred people in your immediate vicinity or neighborhood literally none of the participants would respond in the affirmative.  You would certainly get many quizzical looks and much shrugging of the shoulders but it’s a pretty good bet that no one would know anything about the group.  Even those folks who may have heard the name “Three Percenters” wouldn’t know much about them and what little information they possessed would invariably be absolutely incorrect. Likewise, most folks wouldn’t know much about organizations like the NRA, the Tea Party, or the Oath Keepers but while they may not be all that well known, I’m damned glad they’re out there.

     First and foremost, it should be understood that they are what can aptly be termed modern-day patriots who are terribly upset, frustrated, and angered by what they correctly see as the complete and utter destruction and decimation of the country they love and cherish.  They view themselves as direct linear descendants of our Founding Fathers who risked life, limb, property, and reputation to forge a new nation the likes of which had never before existed in the annals of mankind.  Not only are they serious about that spiritual-historical bond, but they are damned proud of it!  They are more than just a tad bit enraged by what they correctly see as the loss of our cherished and God-given rights and freedoms and by the destruction of our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and the very essence of our Declaration of Independence which is easily one of the single most important and impactful political documents and philosophies ever created by the hand of man.  They are thoroughly disgusted by the continued growth of a seemingly all powerful and omnipresent central government that is Hell-bent on micromanaging every aspect of the lives of the citizenry and they are supremely cognizant of the fact that this is the exact antithesis of what the Founders intended and fought a bloody revolution to prevent.  The Founders, as do the Three Percenters, knew that by its very nature government, all government, garners more and more power unto itself at the expense of individual liberty and freedom.  They know that this is what’s happening to the United States and that it has been going on for far too long.  They are justifiably afraid that we are losing our country as historically founded and presently constituted and that those in charge of government are turning our country into something it was never intended to be.

     These guys are damned serious about what they believe and they don’t seem to give a rat’s ass who knows it.  They are unabashedly and unashamedly patriotic in their love of country and seem willing to fight, if needs be, to preserve and nurture the heritage and spirit of the nation’s Founding and First Principles.  Predictably, therefore, they are mocked, ridiculed, and disparaged by those oh-so-sophisticated urbane and condescending types who make up what is commonly referred to as our Political Class or Inside the Beltway Crowd who are perennially in charge of running this nation straight to Hell and gone and it really doesn’t seem to matter what side of the aisle they’re on.  All of them seem to have been hopelessly and thoroughly seduced by the power that comes with being a Washington insider, a player if you will.  They seem to be less concerned with the good of the nation than they are with remaining perpetually ensconced in positions of power and influence.

     Those in the professional political class simply can’t be bothered with folks who profess patriotism and a love of country.  They view them as unsophisticated yokels, rubes, and hicks who should be content with their lot in life and simply stay home, read their Bibles, and clean their rifles.  They should absolutely not, however, presume to impose their will and desires on those who were elected to represent them!  Just where in the Hell do these back-woods types get off expecting their government to actually do the bidding of those who put them in power anyway?  Man, you talk about not knowing your place – well, I guess!  The “sophisticates” among us view the modern-day patriots as misanthropes, as out of place and time.  They are but throw backs to a by-gone age in our history that no longer has relevance or meaning in the 21^st Century.  They are nothing more than an embarrassment when they sound off about such “nonsense” as love pf country, patriotism, and smaller, less intrusive government.

     Don’t these anachronistic assholes realize that we live today in a global and globalized world where nationalism and patriotism are merely meaningless concepts that no longer fit the current global template and condition and that it’s time they got with the program?  Don’t they realize that their ever so quaint notions of things like borders, language, and culture have been replaced by concepts of globalism, one-worldism, and moral relativism?  Aren’t they aware that the governing principles of today’s life and times have nothing at all to do with America’s First Principles which made the United States the single greatest nation the world has ever seen?  Do they not comprehend that governance in 21^st Century parlance translates into controlling all aspects of the lives of those who are governed and notions like the will of the people or popular sovereignty are anathema to those statists and authoritarian types who hold the reins of power?

     Those who would control us do not understand the concept of limited government and, therefore, cannot grasp the meaning of the American Revolution which was fought in large measure to establish just such a government.  Those who would control us cannot fathom concepts like individual rights and freedoms which are cornerstones of the American experience and have historically defined who we are as a nation and a people.  They cannot comprehend the idea of placing limits on the power of government and, by definition, are antithetical to our Constitution and Bill of Rights which for the first time in world history did exactly that.  They view our Founding Documents as nothing more than impediments and obstacles to their objective of creating complete  and utter control over a subservient, obedient, complacent, and docile nation of automatons who exist solely to do the bidding of those who occupy positions of power, wealth, and influence.

     The Three Percenters and other patriotic groups that exist out there are afraid of losing their country and refuse to simply go quietly into the night like sheep being lead to slaughter.  They wish to assert their rights  as American citizens and demand that the nation and its leaders return the United States to the kind of government bequeathed to us by  the Founders instead of the giant, freedom-destroying, rapacious behemoth that it has become.  For this quite simple demand for fealty to our historic roots and principles, for this desire to return our nation to the concept and reality of American Exceptionalism they are, of course, mocked, ridiculed, and minimalized.  They are made to look like no more than gun-toting Neanderthals who mindlessly wave the flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and honor our nation’s history and traditions.  Why are they characterized so negatively and scurrilously?  Simple.  They are viewed as a threat.  They are viewed correctly as an entity that refuses to conform to or accept the status quo as it currently exists in the United States in the 21^st Century.  They will not merely passively or meekly surrender what they see as their birthright to the forces among us that want nothing more than to destroy this nation and all that it stands for and represents.

     Who are those that would transform our country into something it was never intended to be?  Who are those who would betray their own country, deny the concept of American Exceptionalism, and teach our young folks that America is and always has been the world’s greatest evil and the cause of all planetary suffering, torment, and turmoil?  Again, simple.  They are America’s Liberals and their weapon of choice, of course, is Liberalism.  They were born, raised, and bred here and, tragically, have grown to loathe and despise the nation that gave them everything they have – especially their freedom.  They truly believe that the United States does not deserve the success it has had and that, indeed, we have become the world’s most powerful and wealthiest nation in history by nefarious and underhanded means.  According to these anti-American types, we have roamed the planet pillaging and looting the wealth of others to enrich our own coffers.  We have raped, killed, and enslaved the poor on a global scale but never more egregiously than within our own borders.  They claim that we hate all those who are not Caucasian and that we view so-called people of color as somewhat less than human.

     For these and other sins too numerous to mention the United States must be brought to its knees, destroyed as it presently exists, and be reduced to the level of Third Worldism to which the vast majority of mankind has been consigned since the beginning of recorded history.  These are America’s real enemies and are far more dangerous to our existence than the emergence of forces like ISIS or Mr. Putin in Russia.  Liberalism is the force that will destroy the United States not some foreign enemy or threat.  The forces of globalism and one-worldism within our nation are far more dangerous to our survival than some bomb-tossing maniac who wants only to die for Allah!  It is the Liberals in our midst who represent the ultimate threat to America’s continued success and prosperity not some foreigner bent on territorial expansion or ideological hegemony!  Most Americans, however, simply cannot conceive of this.  They can’t wrap their minds around the concept of American citizens hating America much the same way they don’t get the notion that Americans have actually twice elected a President who literally despises America.  It just doesn’t compute.  It makes them uncomfortable, as it should, and they therefore tend to ignore and underplay it and that’s what Liberals and Liberalism bank on.  By the time most of us wake up to the threat that is Liberalism, it will already be too late and the country that we love will be gone.  All we’ll be able to do by that point is ask ourselves, “What the fuck happened?”

     Not so the Three Percenters as well as other groups out there (see, for example, The Oath Keepers Rant: Not On Our Watch! of 11/30/09).  They are very well aware of the nefarious forces that threaten us from within and are not at all shy about sharing that knowledge with anyone who cares to listen.  For this and other reasons, they are invariably portrayed as nuts, kooks, and ne’er-do-wells by those who do not understand their Paul Revere like warning or by those on the other side who do their damndest to shut them up and shut them down!  A piece entitled, “Anti-Government Hate Militias OnThe Rise (http://cnn.com),” points to the rise of, “a new breed of anti-government paramilitary organizations that have proliferated during the Obama presidency.”  It continues that, “their members are self-styled patriots armed and ready for a new American Revolution.  They warn of martial law, seizure of guns, and imposition of global government complete with forced internment camps and mass executions.”

     The article goes on to introduce a term that I’d never before heard when it explains that, “when love of country is mixed with fear of the government and hate for the president, that’s when you become a Hatriot.”  Hatriot?  Now there’s something to think about.  If one professes to love the United States but is afraid of a virtually uncontrolled, unlimited, unchecked, and unfettered federal government then that qualifies one as being a Hatriot – a hater?  Well, let’s see here.  I love my country and realize that without it my life would be absolutely and irrevocably impacted for the worse.  I also simultaneously hate, loathe, despise, and fear this massive, out of control, freedom-destroying federal monstrosity in Washington, DC, that resembles not at all the one created by our Founding Fathers all those years ago.  Does this qualify me as a Hatriot?

     Well, there are certainly things going on in present day America that I do hate so maybe I can correctly be called a genuine, bone-fide hater if not an actual Hatriot.  I hate Liberalism and those who champion that loathsome, destructive, and un-American philosophy.  I hate the concept of an all-powerful, out of control federal government that is rapidly destroying individual freedom and rights in this nation.  I hate those individuals and groups that either can’t or won’t recognize the greatness that is America or the concept of American Exceptionalism.  I do indeed hate those who purposely distort and blatantly lie about America’s history and historic role in the world to our younger generations in order that they never develop a sense of patriotism or love of country.  I hate the idea and reality that more and more Americans have become utterly dependent on government for virtually all of their wants and needs and have completely eschewed long-held and cherished American traditions like self-reliance, rugged individualism, and personal responsibility for their actions.

     Additionally, I hate those self-serving and self-aggrandizing politicians who so routinely turn their backs on their electorate and who refuse to defend us from enemies of the Constitution be they foreign or domestic.  I hate the fact that today’s immigrants no longer come here to be Americans but rather to grab the goodies available to them but believe they owe nothing in return – including loyalty to the United States.  I hate the fact that our President is fulfilling his promise to fundamentally transform America into something that more resembles some Third World Socialist Shithole rather than the greatest nation that God ever gave mankind.  I hate the fact that those among us who loathe and despise America as historically founded and presently constituted are succeeding in destroying it while at the same time most Americans, tragically, in lemming-like fashion seem content to blindly rush over the precipice to their own demise.  This, by the way, constitutes but the short list of the negative currents and trends that I notice in the United States today and have come to firmly believe that it is getting to the point of no return and that fixing what has gone so terribly wrong may no longer be possible.

     Well, the Three Percenters out there do not fall into the lemming class.  They will not lose the country they love and revere without a fight and while they may go down one day, I doubt they’ll go down with their hands in the air!  People who are this serious about defending their God-given rights and freedoms tend not to “fit” the norm and are seen as way out there on the fringe of American society.  They do not conform to the sadly correct characterization of the fat, happy, complacent, and lazy American of the 21^st Century.  They are unwilling, to put it mildly, to give up what so many before them fought and died to establish and preserve.  They are not buffoons, clowns, or caricatures and are more than just a tad bit serious concerning their devotion to this country and all that made it great.

     A piece entitled, “The Three Percenter’s Make-Believe Army (http://www.captainsjournal.com),” quotes an article from Politicus USA, which dismisses and disparages groups like the Three Percenters.  It maintains that, “a child’s imagination, fantasies, and make believe is a wonder to behold but when grown men that should be holding down a real job instead of fantasizing they are in a revolutionary war against the United States government and use firearms to confront refugee children, their fantasy makes them traitors against America and cowards for laying in wait for child refugees fleeing violence in Central America.”  Traitors?  Cowards?  That’s pretty damned strong language especially when whoever wrote the Politicus screed offers not a single shred of evidentiary support.  Referring to the recent flood of illegal alien children crossing our southern border, I defy anyone to point to even one instance of the Three Percenters confronting children with firearms.  Any takers out there?  I didn’t think so.  As far as the charge of treason goes, I’m sure that our founders and many who fought and died for the American Revolution were referred to as traitors to Great Britain but that didn’t make them wrong.  They fought for what they believed and their eventual victory made the world a far better place both then and now.

  

     The same article goes on to say that the Three Percenter’s, “core belief is a willingness to offer violent resistance to the United States government, something definitely NOT in the U.S. Constitution they support.”  No Shit, Sherlock!  Ya Fucking think!?!  It may not, in fact, be in our Constitutin but it sure as Shit is right there in our Declaration of Independence written in bold and uncompromising English for all the world to see!  If the numb-nut fool who wrote the above quoted drivel had ever bothered to read the Declaration he’d know that Mr. Jefferson insisted that when a government – any government – attempted to destroy the rights of the people then the people had a moral duty and obligation to destroy that government and establish a new one that would preserve and protect those rights and freedoms.  It used to be that any well-educated sixth grader would have known that but apparently this is no longer the case.  The author of the Politicus piece concludes that Three Percenters and their ilk, “need to be crushed with tanks and gunships. You can’t let these anti-American domestic terrorists get away with anything,” and that these, “folks are completely delusional if they think for one moment that they can successfully go up against a government with the ability to squash them like the roaches they are with all of its firepower.”

     Squash them?  Roaches?  Tanks and gunships?  Wow!!  I posited earlier that those who vehemently oppose Three Percenter types do so because they view them as a viable threat.  Herschel Smith who authored the Make Believe Army piece notes that for, “readers of Politicus, USA, I won’t try to educate you on the finer points of the foundations for civil society, but I will simply say to you the following:  you have no idea what’s coming, how bad it’s going to be, or how to stop it once it begins.  And there is nothing make believe about men who are morally committed, called by God, and dedicated to the very end to ideals you treat as a mere punchline.”  Very well said, indeed, and thoroughly accurate and on point.  The Liberal Pukes in our midst do in fact treat concepts like patriotism, nationalism, limited government, and First Principles as no more than punchlines with no more relevance or meaning than some late night talk show monologue.  The fact that we’ve fallen so far from the days of our Founding is a tragic commentary on the state of the nation since the the American Revolution.

  

     For those out there who are curious, the name Three Percenters derives from the 3% of the colonial population who not only supported the cause of independence from England but were willing to fight and die to make it a reality.  The traditional breakdown of the colonists regarding independence usually runs that something like one-third favored independence, one-third wanted to remain a part of the British Empire, and about one-third didn’t give a damn one way or the other.  Of that one-third who favored a break from the Mother Country, roughly 3% were willing to violently oppose English tyranny, thus the name of the group under consideration.  This time, however, they are not fighting some distant, far away colonial power but our own government which they view as equally oppressive as that of old King George.  A piece entitled, “Sipsey Street Irregulars (http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com),” explains that during, “the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the king’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists.  They were in turn actively supported by perhaps 10% of the population.  In addition to these revolutionaries were perhaps another 20% who favored their cause but did little or nothing to support it.”  Thus we get the traditionally accepted number of about one-third of the colonists who favored American independence.  The piece goes on to say that, “History, for good or ill, is made by determined minorities.”

     The author explains that, “We are one such minority,” but, “so too are the current enemies of the Founders’ Republic.  What remains then, is the test of will and skill to determine who shall shape the future of our nation.”  The future of our nation.  Now there’s a concept that most Americans don’t really think about all that much.  After all, why should they?  Most of us today are just too busy with life’s more mundane trials and tribulations and, quite simply, have more immediate problems to confront and overcome.  How secure, for example are their jobs and businesses in today’s economic environment?  Will they be able to pay the mortgage and utilities this month and where’s the money coming from to pay for the kid’s college or private school education?  Will they be able to afford gas for the car or put food on the table given what’s going on at the pumps or in the meat aisle of the local super market?  Will I be able to afford the ever-growing tax burden that government at all levels seems to willy-nilly and with no rhyme or reason place on the backs of ordinary American citizens who are just trying to make ends meet the best they can?

     Most of us today simply don’t spend a lot of time worrying about lost rights and the slow, steady erosion of freedom.  Daily life just seems to get in the way of such weighty and lofty considerations.  That’s why groups like the Three Percenters and others are more important than most of us seem to realize.  They act as a thorn in the side or perhaps a burr under the saddle, so to speak.  Their presence reminds us that all is indeed not well and these folks know it and are warning the rest of us out here, a minority though they may be, that their anger and frustration are growing beyond the point of containment.  Yeah, yeah, so what?  These guys are just a tiny percent of the population and certainly can’t represent a credible threat to the status quo, can they?  Remember the mark referenced above about the role of determined minorities.  Remember too, our own Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, and the numerous Mexican and Latin American Revolutions.  All of them were initiated by small, tiny minorities who had reached the point where they believed they had absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by overthrowing the existing power structure.

     These Three Percenter types, then, are not without successful historical precedent.  The article goes on to note that the, “Three Percenters are gun owners who will not disarm, will not compromise and will no longer back up at the passage of the next gun control act.  Three Percenters say quite explicitly that we will not obey any further circumscription of our traditional liberties and will defend ourselves if attacked.”  Additionally, “we intend to maintain our God-given natural rights to liberty and property, and that means most especially the right to keep and bear arms.”  It seems that we have here a bunch of folks who are more than thoroughly fed up with the direction in which our nation has evolved since its Founding, have drawn the proverbial line in the sand, and are apparently very well armed.  This, by the way, is how any revolution begins and those out there who mock, ridicule, and dismiss these American citizens had perhaps better start taking them seriously.  Just a thought.  The piece concludes by warning that, “we are committed to the restoration of the Founders’ republic, and we are willing to fight, die and, if forced by any would-be oppressor, to kill in defense of ourselves and the Constitution that we all took an oath to uphold against enemies foreign and domestic.”  You think these guys are just kidding?  I sure as Hell don’t.

     That groups like the Three Percenters are routinely and casually misunderstood, maligned, and slandered is not at all surprising.  Any person or group who dares to challenge the status quo is normally scrutinized carefully by those who have a vested interest in maintaining and perpetuating business as usual.  Today’s patriotic organizations are consistently lied about, targeted, and pursued by agents of the government that view them as even a remote threat that must be constantly watched, surveiled, and even harassed.  The current administration, however, has raised this kind of activity to new heights.  Groups like the Tea Party, for example, are constantly audited by Obama’s IRS goons and are routinely denied tax exempt status which effectively stops them from organizing politically and raising funds to promote their causes.  Obama and the Boys have gone way past the point of mere paranoia when it comes to individuals and groups who disagree with them and think absolutely nothing of destroying their rights as American citizens in order to shut them up and make them go away.  That’s about as un-American as it gets and yet those in power seem perennially surprised and shocked when outfits like the Three Percenters raise their voices in protest against the heavy-handed tactics employed by government.

     Our Socialist-in-Chief seems not to realize or comprehend that there still exist out here Americans who jealously and zealously want to preserve and protect our freedom and liberty.  A piece entitled, “The Patriot Movement-The Three Percenters (http://mymindwon’tstop.blogspot.com),” speaks directly to this point.  The author notes that the, “the patriot movement has been gaining a lot of steam lately. With the insanity surrounding the current administration, it’s no wonder people are waking up to the fact that they are at risk of losing the basic liberties that we’ve all taken for granted for so long.”  The piece continues that, “so far this year, I’ve witnessed our President, as well as local governments, put our right to assemble, due process, keep and bear arms, right to be free of unwarranted searches and seizures, right of state sovereignty, as well as a litany of other essential liberties being threatened and perverted in such a manner that the Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves right now.”  Each of these violations of our Constitutional rights, by the way, can be easily documented and verified should you choose to spend the time doing so.

     The article goes on to note that the Three Percenters have been falsely maligned and dismissed as nothing more than a bunch of dissatisfied racists and wild-eyed anti-government conspiracy nuts with just too much damned time on their hands and not enough to keep them busy.  This characterization may be convenient but it is certainly for the most part not true and is used to paint a picture of them as nothing more than a bunch of crazed, Far Right radicals who hate everyone and everything that doesn’t fit their concept of what America should be and who Americans really are.  In fact, the author of the piece does a very credible job of dispelling that myth and explaining who the Three Percenters actually are.  He notes that if one goes to the website of the Utah State Militia, for example, you will actually find a, “warning to racists, anti-government, potential terrorists, and hate mongers alike.  It clearly states that while they may not like those who are currently running the government, they respect the system and the seats in government. In short, the Utah States Militia is an organization dedicated to the preservation of our form of government.” How does that fit the stereotype normally presented to us of these modern-day patriotic groups?

     Additionally, the author explains that, “modern patriots, by and large, are not racists.  We are not hate groups.  We are not anti-government.”  Who, then, are these folks?  The piece notes that we, “are families.  We are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters who care about this country and we are concerned about the direction it is heading.  We are hard working, independent thinking people.  We are your neighbors.”  Furthermore, we are, “the people who come to your house when your furnace breaks down, or the real estate agent you know.  We are the people up the road that you can count on when you need to borrow an egg or a cup of sugar.  We are the first ones you call when you need a quick hand with a project in your back yard.”  Do these guys sound so fearful and threatening that the government needs to watch them and place them on lists or do they sound like people you know in your town or city?  So, then, wherein lies the difference between “them” and most of the rest of us? 

     Here it is in a nutshell.  The writer explains that the, “difference between us and the rest of the mainstream people is that we are awake now, and we are concerned about what is happening to our country and liberty.  We are afraid that if we don’t make a stand now by actively engaging in our political process, demonstrating, protesting, and voting, we will lose what little we have left in terms of essential liberties that are supposed to be inalienable.”  Sounds to me like we’re dealing with a bunch of concerned Americans worried about the condition and future of their nation.  Does this sound particularly radical, revolutionary, or outrageous to you?  No, me either.

     The Three Percenters seem adept at recognizing the current state of affairs in America and are adamant in their refusal to silently acquiesce to a status quo that seems Hell-bent on destroying the heritage and traditions that have made the United States such a great and unique country.  They desperately want to hold on to and preserve that nation and will not give it up without a struggle – no matter what the cost.  They also seem to believe that most of us want to get back to the concept of a limited government and not, “some overgrown monstrosity that serves to do nothing more than run our lives from cradle to grave and tax & fine our very livelihood every step of the way.”  Is there anyone out there who could seriously disagree with that last comment?  Well yeah, there are literally tens upon tens of millions who would.  Why?  It’s not because the statement isn’t true or can’t be proven.  It seems, rather, to be a function of a vast ignorance and malaise that grips our population to the point of complete apathy and inaction.  Sadly, even tragically, most Americans no longer know our own history and could not tell you what’s in our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of Independence.  They simply have no idea and therefore are completely unaware that they are losing their rights and freedoms because they no longer know what they are.  That is a sad commentary for a nation famous for championing and espousing individual rights and freedoms and has always been the leader of the world in defending and maintaining them.  A nation that has abandoned its past can lay no claim to a secure and bright future.  A country that ignores and rejects its founding has no right to expect anything from leaders whose sole purpose seems to be nothing more than solidifying and expanding their own power.  Groups like the Three Percenters are mortified by this turn of events while most of the country does not seem to share or even understand their concern and therefore don’t take them seriously.

     The author of the article notes that, “most patriots agree, this nation has way overstepped its constitutional limitations.  And most patriots agree, it’s our own damn fault.  We have been asleep at the wheel far too long.”  There it is folks.  We as a nation have stopped vigilantly guarding our precious rights and freedoms and once we are no longer willing to defend them, we will inevitably lose them.  Well, groups like the Three Percenters do guard those hard fought for rights and freedoms and are warning the rest of us to wake the FUCK UP!  Folks like the Three Percenters maintain that they are, “liberty loving men and women who want to see the rights we have enjoyed for so long preserved for our children and their children.  We are engaging politically.”  What further sets them apart, however, is that they are also, “preparing for a worst case scenario.  Much like the men and women of colonial America, we are not going to be caught off guard or left unprepared.”  Does this last statement contain what might be construed as a veiled threat or warning?  Well, actually yes it does.  The article goes on to inform us that, “By bullet or ballot, we threepers are dedicated to the cause of liberty,” and, “to put it bluntly, we have not ruled out violence as a last resort in our political process.”  Well, there you have it.  If push ever comes to shove, these guys are ready to push and shove back.  The rest of us may laugh and snicker at people like these but they are certainly neither laughing nor snickering.  They truly believe that, “when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”  For those of you who think that this sentiment sounds vaguely familiar, I congratulate you for it hearkens straight back to our Declaration of Independence and perfectly paraphrases the words of Thomas Jefferson.  Some of you out there may have actually heard of the man.

     Thus far, the Three Percenters sound like particularly concerned American citizens who are afraid that the country is quite literally being stolen away from them by forces antithetical to the very principles that the nation was founded upon.  They are frustrated, fed up, and increasingly angry at the impotence and apathy evinced by most Americans out here.  They do not understand and cannot comprehend the idea of American citizens not defending and safeguarding our precious rights and freedoms.  They are totally flummoxed at the inability, the utter refusal, of most Americans to even recognize the fact that our Republic is indeed in dire straits and is actually in danger of disappearing altogether.  They are also fed up by those on the other side characterizing and dismissing them as merely anti-government nuts and crazies who roam the countryside frothing at the mouth while firing bullets into the air.  These guys are, in fact, pro-government and want to return America to something that at least faintly resembles the government so brilliantly crafted and created by our Founding Fathers more than two centuries ago.  What seems to put most people off is the fact that the Three Percenters are gun owners who claim that they will in fact use those weapons to defend and uphold the Constitution and all that it embodies and entails.  The “complacent” American is simply not used to this type of rhetoric in the age of Big Brother, unconstitutional Executive Branch power grabs, and self-serving political leadership.

 

     A piece entitled, “What Is A Three Percenter? (http://americanwarning.com),” maintains that most, “people who claim to be Three Percenters have a fairly strong handle on history and the context with which it brings.  They are responsible, freedom loving Americans.  They are family oriented.  They care, because they want our nation to last, not fail.  Many are also highly educated or have some kind of foundation that allows them the appropriate context necessary to align themselves with such ideals.  But anti-government?  Racist?  No way!”  Furthermore, the article explains that rather than being anti-government, “Three Percenters are very much pro-government – that adheres to constitutionally authorized functions.  This basically defines equality, unalienable rights, and civil liberties.  They are not hot heads seeking a fight.”  Additionally, “Three Percenters are about restoring Popular Sovereignty, Limited Government, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, Judicial Review, and even constitutionally aligned Federalism – a system of government where sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (such as states or provinces), but where states hold the power as defined by the 10^th Amendment.”  (see the Tenth Amendment Rant of 9/20/11)

     I really can’t find much to criticize about a group that loves this country and wants to return it to its historic roots.  I really can’t find much to criticize about a group that understands the ideal of American Exceptionalism and demands a return to it.  I really can’t find much to criticize about a group that would defend our nation as historically founded and presently constituted.  I do know that without groups like the Three Percenters safeguarding and defending our precious rights and freedoms and warning us of their eminent demise by a monstrously out of control federal government, we’d all be much worse off and will have come that much closer to losing the country we love.  Have you ever heard of the canary in the coal mine?  Be real careful when the birds stop singing!

Much Luv Y’all and Have a Great Day!

The Fifth Horseman

(Dr. David M. Rich, Ph.D.)