But when a
long train of abuses … evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Declaration of Independence
After Thursday’s
decision by the United States Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of
the Health Care Reform Act, there has been some talk from our brothers on the
right that armed insurrection is the only way to deal with this development. Some
of our friends on the left have responded with levity suggesting that those
violently opposed to health care reform are in need of mental health services
or that if they don’t like it they should move to some other country. This maven,
however, cannot treat these things lightly. For one thing, advocating armed
insurrection against the United States might be considered treasonous. On the
other hand, perhaps the Federal Government is tending toward tyranny and we
should not ignore it. After all, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
To sort all
this out, I thought it would be useful to compare American grievances in 1776,
when we actually did engage in armed insurrection (at least as the British saw
it), with the grievances of today. I include only some of the British offenses
set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
British offenses of 1776 Federal
Government offenses of today
|
Forced us to quarter troops in our
homes
|
Forced us to buy health insurance
|
|
Cut off our trade with other parts of
the world
|
Forced us to buy health insurance
|
|
Imposed taxes on us without our
consent
|
Forced us to buy health insurance
|
|
Deprived us of trial by jury
|
Forced us to buy health insurance
|
|
Took away our charters, abolished our
laws and altered our form of government
|
Forced us to buy health insurance
|
|
Suspended our own legislatures
|
Forced us to buy health insurance
|
|
Plundered our seas, ravaged our
coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people
|
Forced us to buy health insurance
|
|
Introduced armies of foreign
mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny
|
Forced us to buy health insurance
|
Trusted
reader, although it is close, I am sure you will agree that the complaints of
our forebears in 1776 were slightly more serious than of those who are willing
to overthrow the government in order to eliminate health care reform. So what
is this totally out of proportion reaction to a court decision upholding a
statute enacted by the Congress?
This maven
lays the blame at the door of the Republican leadership in the Congress and
their tea-drinking allies. These gentlepeople are so intent on recapturing
control of the Federal Government that they will do or say anything to make
President Obama appear to be an illegitimate president. Thus the accusations
that Obama is not a native born American. On top of that they must show that
even Obama’s legislation is illegitimate. So, after Health Care Reform passed,
the Republican leadership refused to acknowledge that it was actually a Public
Act, passed by the Congress and signed by the President. Immediately, they
declared it not only to be terrible legislation, but invalid. They declared it
to be the single-most dangerous expansion of federal power in history. They
declared it to be a CLEAR violation of the constitution. They declared it to by
tyranny and thus its removal as essential to the country’s survival. They
declared it to be the end of life as we know it. In short, they declared their
battle to destroy Health Care Reform to be Armageddon.
Unfortunately,
our Republican and Tea-Party cousins believe their own rhetoric. And worse than
that, there are some pretty volatile, armed people out there who have come to
believe it too. When you repeat that message over and over again, is it any
wonder that people start suggesting that only armed insurrection against the
Federal Government will save us?
It seems to
this maven that those who opened this Pandora’s box and let the crazies out
need to be the ones to recage them and lock the door. I call on John Boehner,
Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and Mitt Romney to make it clear that
although they consider the Health Care Reform Act to be bad policy they do not
consider it to be grounds for rebellion against the Government. Let them each
announce that even suggesting armed insurrection as a solution for disagreeing
with government action is not patriotic but rather is un-American. John, Eric,
Mitch, Rand, Mitt it is time to call their dogs off and to declare that we are
a country that resolves political dispute at the ballot box, not at the point
of a gun.
