LibertyLemming
VIP Member
Is it really so outrageous to believe the government of the United States is capable of tyranny? Remember a few years ago when Progressives thought they were under a almost tyrannical regime? Ever notice how now during the debates over "gun control" anyone who brings up the idea of protecting themselves from an out of control government is a lunatic?
Read this article.
Look Who?s Mocking Fascist Fear-Mongering Now - Reason.com
Read this article.
Hinkle said:One of the arguments were hearing in the current debate about gun control is what might be called the anti-anti-tyranny argument. Coming from liberals, its a little rich.
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SECOND AMENDMENT
PROGRESSIVES
GUN RIGHTS
TYRANNY
Some gun-rights supporters say the Second Amendments purpose is not merely to protect the right to hunt or defend yourself, but to guard against oppression. The purpose of having citizens armed with paramilitary weapons, writes Kevin Williamson in National Review, is to allow them to engage in paramilitary actions. Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano likewise argues that the Second Amendment protects your right to shoot tyrants if they take over the government.
The history of the founding and the language of the rest of the Bill of Rights suggests they have a point. (Though not the whole point. One reason the founders wanted people to be armed is so they could put down insurrections, not just start them.)
But many progressives say this is just plain nuts. To Charles Blow of The New York Times, the rise of so-called patriot groups who think such things is evidence of paranoia by people who have lost their grip on the reins of power, and reality. To Josh Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, its part of a dangerously radical insurrectionist movement. To Eric Boehlert of Media Matters, the idea that Americans might need weapons to fight a war with the government is one of conservatives paranoid fantasies.
Paul Waldman of the American Prospect agrees. In a piece for CNN on how The NRAs Paranoid Fantasy Flouts Democracy, he says the conservative media encourage listeners to view the Obama administration as the very definition of dictatorship. ... [M]any would say that their right to own any and every kind of firearm they please is the only thing that guarantees that tyranny wont come to the United States. Well, guess what: Theyre wrong.
No doubt the gun-rights group has a fringe element, exemplified by those who think the Sandy Hook massacre was orchestrated as part of a plot to disarm America. But its worth pausing to ask: Is it really so outrageous to believe the government of the United States is capable of tyranny?
Not to Naomi Wolf, it isnt. Back in 2007, the author and political activist wrote an essay on Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps. She noted that the leaders of a recent military coup in Thailand had followed certain clear proceduresand she insisted the Bush administration was following those very same procedures. Beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society, Wolf warned. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable.
The essay was widely circulated, and its popularity led Wolf to expand it into a book, titled The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. (That young patriot presumably is the good kind of patriotnot the kind who joins so-called patriot groups.)
Wolf had lots of company. MSNBCs Keith Olbermann dedicated a special comment to calling Bush a fascist: Youre a fascist! he bellowed in his usual understated style. Get them to print you a T-shirt with fascist on it!
Not everyone was so emphatic. Robert Paxton, a history professor at Columbia and the author of The Anatomy of Fascism, conceded during Bushs first term that Obviously, the ... administration is not a fully fascist regime with a single party, an end to elections and the setting aside of rule of law. But, he continued, you can make up a list of similarities and differences. How very nuanced.
This sort of talk continued even after Bush left office. In a 2009 piece for the Los Angeles Times, columnist Tim Rutten called for a citizen commission to investigate the administration. Just how close to the brink of executive tyranny did the United States come in the panic that swept George W. Bushs administration after 9/11? he asked. The answer, it now seems clear, is that we came far closer than even staunch critics of the White House believed.
These are not basement conspiracy theorists scribbling in the dark corners of the Internet. They are famous and highly regarded thinkers speaking from respected institutional platforms. And their views were echoed by countless thousands of lesser-known liberals sporting Bushitler protest signs and bumper stickers.
All of which permits only two possible conclusions. The first is that progressives knew even then, deep down, they were peddling wildly implausible paranoid fantasiesjust as they accuse right-wing insurrectionists of doing now. If so, then they should admit as much.
The second possibility? Many progressives genuinely believed, only a few years ago, that the United States really did stand in the dusky shadow of a totalitarian nightmare. Yet now they insist that Americans who want to arm against that eventuality are paranoid nut jobs. That might be politically convenientbut it doesnt make much sense.
Look Who?s Mocking Fascist Fear-Mongering Now - Reason.com