I always have a private chuckle to my self when the subject of the Second Amendment comes up for debate. It’s words are parsed, logical gymnastics applied, straw men erected, ad hominems bandied about, non sequiturs employed, and through it all, the true meaning of the Amendment was never kept a secret.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of
a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed.
The thing is this, we know who it was that wrote those words, and it was not done at some prehistoric time, nor was the meaning of them kept a secret. George Mason was the founding father who insisted on including this in the Bill of Rights, and he was incredibly prolific in arguing in any forum he could find on what he meant by them. The Second Amendment had nothing to do with hunting, other outdoor sports, national defense against foreign invaders, or even home defense as it would be implied today. The true and only purpose for the Second Amendment was to instill exactly the same fear in our government of we the people, as we would ever have of the government.
Certainly, there was never the intention to see acts of armed sedition, as such acts are also prohibited by that very same founding document. That is not however where that particular line of thought ended. Our founding fathers wished for a balance, one in which the federal government would always find its authority and power constrained, limited to the point where tyranny would be the last thing the citizens would have to fear. While making sedition against the law of the land, they also decided to let the government know, in a not too subtle a manner, that revolution would always be possible.
Despite the fact that this reason for that Amendment has been well documented during a time when written records were indeed kept, and exist in the Library of Congress, those of us who point to it have been labeled as the, “tinfoil behatted,” to use Jon Stewart’s indelicate phrase. How on Earth could anyone in his or her right mind ever doubt the benevolence of the United States Government or those Organizing angels who now make up the group of Marxists who recently were put in charge of our Executive Branch?
The argument has basically gone like this, tyranny is no longer possible with our government, and any fears of such are simply crazy, and all those who entertain such should be ignored, as they clearly lack the competency necessary for civil discourse. Something happened last week that has not only placed the whole gun grab push to the back burner, but has the main progenitors of that line of thinking publicly admitting that yes, the whole tyranny argument is not only a valid one for our side, but is something that we should all actively fear.
Certainly, these last two weeks will be looked back upon by future historians as a pivotal moment in the direction Americans have chosen for themselves. These were the two weeks when the other half of Americans realized that tyranny was indeed something to guard against. These were the two weeks when the other half of us realized that even if you completely trusted either George W. Bush or Barack Obama to be granted dictatorial powers as our nation’s chief executive, the next election cycle could see either George W. Bush or Barack Obama elected as the next fellow to be granted that same authority.
What gives me hope about this turn of events, and what it means for the future is not so much the things that are being said, but more who is saying them. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe, not even for a nano second, that the main stream media has suddenly realized the error of their ways and will start objectively reporting on current events, but when to a man, each of them, even the dolts on MSNBC start admitting in public that our government, and more specifically the bureaucracy run by the Obama Administration has stepped way over that line, then something noteworthy, if still subtle has indeed occurred.
I have often asked a question of my liberal debate adversaries, ever since hearing it posed by Milton Friedman first, Where are we going to find these angels who will come and organize our society for us? Dr. Friedman’s point was that power itself has a corrupting influence upon those who are granted it. That eventually, given the proper amount of time, even the most well intentioned individual, will become a part of the tyranny of which we should all be very afraid. Those individuals who began using the IRS as a political weapon for the purposes of inflicting punishment upon the ideological rivals of the current Administration doubtless felt that they were doing the nation a service. I have no doubts about their sincerity. They believe their ideology to be so superior to ours that they felt some justification in protecting the country from those who would seek limited government, lower taxes, less interference and regulation from a federal behemoth run amok. I also believe that they should be put in prison for the remainder of their lives, having doubtless used that authority of theirs to do the same to some of those whom they had harassed.
The point that Dr. Friedman was making, was that any government that needs to find benevolent altruistic people capable of running it adequately is doomed to failure. We will never find the right people to be in charge, as those people are simply a fantasy. We need to make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.
Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.
