Really? Overthrow the .gov? Couldn’t they at least wait until after November to see how it shook out?
Well, they turned out to be more serious than 99% of the self-appointed ‘militia’s out there…they actually killed someone.
You know, I live in the heart of ‘anti-government extremist’ country. I’ve met the guys at the Militia Of Montana, I’ve met Randy Weaver, and I’ve met a lot of people who have the most fascinating basements and garages you will ever see, and I’ve read the literature, seen the movies and heard the speeches. My conclusion? These guys were not going to achieve their goals with $87,000 worth of ‘assault rifles’ and training camp. They would have had a better chance, several orders of magnitude better, if they had taken that $87k and bought themselves an election. Pick a personable, likeable, photogenic, squeaky clean guy who is on the same wavelength as they are and run him for political office. Then, once he’s in, work on getting him higher and higher up the food chain. It’s low risk, high reward.
Now I’m not saying you can’t change the direction of a national government through attrition…most countries in Africa hold their elections to the sound of gunfire and screaming…but when you get into First World countries the whole ‘we are here to liberate this country in the name of the people…’ nonsense just won’t fly. It’s hard finding a hundred guys who believe in something so strongly that they’ll give up everything they’ve built, including their lives, to storm the halls of power at gunpoint. But you can easily find a hundred thousand people who will fork over ten bucks to achieve a similar end result (the end result being change of government). Even way back during the American Revolution, if you look closely, you’ll see that money was a big, big part of making it a success.
I think you’re far more likely to achieve your political aims through greenbacks rather than black rifles, but thats’s just me. Sure, maybe someday it’ll come to that…but I doubt it very highly.
And, as the saying goes, ‘three can keep a secret if two of them is dead’. Forming your own super-secret armed ‘committe of freedom’ is just not going to work in an age when no one can keep their mouth shut. Oh, you may think to yourself “Ha, you’re wrong! Me and my cadre have been active for several years and we’ve never had a problem!” Fair enough. But when you and your buddies move on to actually, you know, doing stuff and one of you gets caught…well, I’m pretty sure group cohesiveness will plummet as everyone scrambles to be the first to take the deal the .gov will be offering to the first one to turn on his ‘comrades’.
There is a theme of romantic fantasy that runs through most revolutionaries minds. Something like “We will lead and the people will rise with us.” It doesn’t happen that way. The situation has to be so bad that the population feels that they cannot take anymore. Then any spark may set it off. But the Weathermen, Black Panthers, Red Brigades etc. all found out that the revolution doesn’t happen until the people are ready. Then those groups are not necessary or wanted. The American Revolution has been dressed up as almost a spontaneous outburst by patriots yearning for liberty. But back when they actually taught history we learned that that it mostly arose out of resentment at the Stamp Act, Townshend Act, Quartering Act (the provision in the constitution prohibiting quartering of troops in private residences in time of peace isn’t there by accident), the Administration of Justice Act (the reaction to which the current government should consider when it refuses to prosecute its own), the Boston Port Act, and the Mass. Government Act. It took about a decade for resentment to build to the point of actual action and even then, it was triggered not by the Committees of Correspondence or the men who conducted the Boston Tea Party, but by the British marching to Lexington and Concord.
Great points. At the other end, I think the same is true. It is going to be pretty difficult for a guy who has built his whole life around being “good” and “helping people” (such as a police officer, firefighter, etc) to hurt his neighbors. For example, attacking a neighbor or other member of his community based on an arbitrary rule such as gun possession or even ag-related things like selling unpasteurized milk.
I guess if the government made sure the enforcers were moved to a place where they didn’t have any community ties it might make a difference. But still, just as it is hard for a guy to give everything up for revolution, so is it hard for a guy to give everything up (or ruin everything) based on some bureaucratic policy.
I’ve met and interacted with more police, socially, in the last several years than in the forty preceding them. Maybe it’s just the region, but I’ve found 90% of the cops I’ve met to be just like me on things like guns, politics, and preparedness. If there are cops around here that would go door-to-door and take food/guns/whatever because of an ‘emergency edict’ I haven’t met them. And I’m pretty confident none of the higher-ups in the department here would give that order because they’d know they’d have a huge problem on their hands getting their guys to carry it out. Heck, I sell AR’s and freeze-drieds to a bunch of ‘em.
Since we are on the subject…whatever became of that anti government guy hiding in the woods near Lolo?
No sign of him. I’m of two minds. Either he managed to get out of there and is in Iowa now or something….OR….they’ll find his body this fall with a single gunshot entry to the head.
Since we are on the subject, what ever became of that anti-government guy who took off into the woods around Lolo pass?
I agree with the assessment that real change is mostly guaranteed by working elections. I also believe that extremists move the center. Regardless of what you think of them, the IRA and PLO were effective in moving the political process. As a side note, did anyone else raise an eyebrow that these guys were 1) in the military and 2) were young and actually spent $87K on tools instead of Xbox games. Interesting.