I thought about discussing the obvious:
the Middle East (mainly, our ally Israel
and how or if America can maintain even a fragile stability in the area), or
how Egypt, Yemen, Syria, etc. are driving regional transformation, and into
what? No-one can know just yet how Shia and Sunni will move next, or what the
Muslim Brotherhood will do next, or how the Lebanon Shias and the Lebanon
Sunnis will handle the continuing pressure of refugees flooding their country…but
everyone paying attention can feel the drumbeat in their chest by now. There
is, amongst the terrible warfare, a tremendous rise in the African economy that
may well lead some near generation of Africans to more economic freedom. I am
proud of the Baltic States leaving communist Russia, as my ancestral home, Lithuania,
lead the way in the early nineties.
But I am truly more concerned with American
terrorists as mentioned in the books’ first chapter, the right wing anti
government types ideologically-related to McVeigh and the Posse
Comitatus/Sovereign Citizen ideology. The advancement of this ideology, often
through religious patriotism, into the mainstream of American life is occurring
at a breakneck pace. Consider the various arguments should abortion or gun
rights come up in conversation between those who disagree. What concerns me is that
the ideology held and shared by these men and women who hold such power in our
political system- power we have given them- inevitably will lead to tearing
down the very democratic institutions that are a necessity to a healthy and
functional democracy (voting, trust in the branches of government, trust in
checks and balances, diversity of thought and semi-equal stratification of
wealth and an ability to achieve, not just a belief in, upward mobility, etc.).
My point is that similar values,
language, religion, socialization, education, values and beliefs in what
government is and how it ‘should’ be used drive Republican/Conservative voters
to make their mark against their own interest and clearly against the best
interest of their neighbor. When something as mundane and routine as the Farm Bill
does not pass (as recently happened) until food stamps are drastically cut…well,
real people die. Fully one-third of food stamps are used on military bases, so how canone 'support the troops' while voting to cut food stamps? Traditional conservative values lead to splintering ideologies,
all of them intent on returning sovereign power to the individual entirely and
government to their god. This is a common Sovereign Citizen way of thinking,
but of course does not constitute that all who think this are Sovereign Citizen
domestic-terror types.
We don’t like to think of our actions
on voting day as having this effect, but obviously, this power of the purse is
the intended effect. Anyone who watched the Republican Circus of Debates last
year will have seen the one where the crowd called out ‘Let him die!’ in
response to a question about what to do if and when a young man goes from healthy
to sick before maturing to the point where he sees medical insurance as a
necessity will have had a reaction, I’m sure. Maybe not everyone in the class
was as disgusted as I was. We shall see.
Daily, America sees the expansion of
power in the racist reactionary insurrectionist right. Look at the recent
Voting Rights act decision, or the moves in more than twenty states to make
voting in elections even harder via the sudden and heretofore completely unnecessary
identification - only specific types, not student id’s- for a clear example of
this ideology using institutional racism and intentional falsehoods to hold on
to democratic power.
When I vote democrat, I do so
knowing and understanding my taxes and fees might go up…and I am ok with that. I want
to pay my coin and take my place and do my part and know my role. I do not see
government, as some do, as the place where evil is restrained or endorsed, but
instead as a simple mechanism of peaceably transferring power. Reince Preiubus,
Chairman of the Republican National Committee, recently said that his party was
the party of god, and ‘there is only one Sovereign god.’ Julian Bond, President of the
NAACP, has referred to the ‘followers’ of this ideology as the ‘American
Taliban.’ I could not agree more whole-heartedly, and look forward to the
discussion this ‘rant’ will hopefully launch.
(some sources, good reading)
http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/danielschultz/7208/gop_chair_reince_priebus___there_s_only_one_sovereign_god_/
· G.O.P. Push to Slash Food Stamps Puts Farm Bill in Jeopardy ...
www.nytimes.com/.../gop-push-to-slash-food-stamps-puts-farm-bill-in-je...
Aug 1, 2013 - A plan by
House leaders to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program threatens to
derail efforts by the House and Senate to complete a farm ...
· News for republican farm bill
KELOLAND TV
AberdeenNews.com - 1 day ago
Rep. Kristi Noem is frustrated and is not shy
about explaining what is wrong with the farm
bill that is stalled in Congress .
Washington Post (blog) - 3 days ago
· Sovereign Citizen Movement -- Extremism in America
archive.adl.org/learn/ext_us/SCM.asp?xpicked=4&item=sov
The 'sovereign citizen'
movement is a loosely organized collection of groups and ... ideology
originating in the theories of a group called the Posse Comitatus in the
... accomplice of Oklahoma City Federal Building bomber Timothy McVeigh.
www.nevadaobserver.com/.../sovereign_citizen.htm
Jul 1, 2009 - The sovereign
citizen movement is believed to be an off shoot or continuation of the Posse
Comitatus of the 1960s. Timothy McVeigh, the ...
www.religionnewsblog.com/25797/sovereign-citizens
Mar 9, 2011 - The sovereign
citizen movement is believed to be an off shoot or continuation of the Posse
Comitatus of the 1960s. Timothy McVeigh, the ...
survivalstrategies.net/the-sovereign-citizen-movement/
Jun 2, 2013 - According to the
Anti-Defamation League, the Sovereign Citizens Movement “began in the
early 1970s with a single group, the Posse Comitatus.” Despite
dissolution in the ... How about Timothy McVeigh? Even David
Koresh ...
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