American Grassroots Conservatives “Restoring the Constitution” at Gunpoint

During the year and a half since Barack Obama got elected president of the United States the country has been awash in hysteric conservative paranoia. One of the last incarnations of this amongst the conservative grassroots movements are so-called “open-carry” demonstrations. That is, demonstrations where people show up carrying rifles and loaded handguns in order to show how committed they are to the United States Constitution and American democracy.

Yesterday, one of these these rallies, named “Restore the Constitution Rally”, was held right across the river from Washington DC, in Fort Hunt and Gravelly Point, the symbolic effect of being almost within shouting (shooting) range of Capitol Hill said to be important. Ironically, it has only recently become legal to openly carry guns in these locations after president Barack Obama signed into law a bill allowing for open-carry in national parks. It does not appear that this has led the gun-toting demonstrators to become less wary of the “socialist” president, though.

CNN reports on the attitudes of some of the partcipants:

“We’re in a war. The other side knows they are at war, because they started it,” said Larry Pratt, president of the Gun Owners of America. “They are coming for our freedom, for our money, for our kids, for our property. They are coming for everything because they are a bunch of socialists.” (article)

…

The Oath Keepers call on members to disobey any orders, as they put it, “to disarm the American people” or “to force citizens into detention camps.“ (article)

Somehow, forcing people into detention camps has recently become part of the democratic agenda.

And according to the Washington Post:

[Daniel Almond] organized the rally because he is upset about health-care reform, climate control, bank bailouts, drug laws and what he sees as President Obama’s insistence on and the Democratic Congress’s capitulation to a “totalitarian socialism” that tramples individual rights. (article)

…

Among the group was Tim Hammond, who carried two pistols, a rifle and plenty of ammunition as part of an all-black outfit that included a black tricorn hat. Hammond, who said he flew in from California, told another demonstrator he believes that President Obama is the antichrist.

“If he’s not the antichrist, he’s pretty close,” the second man concurred.

“We’re definitely in the end times,” Hammond continued. “The rapture, in my opinion, has to be sometime this fall.” (article)

As such, it appears the main point of the open-carry protest was not so much to protest against stricter gun-control laws (which no Democrats or government officials have proposed), but to protest “President Obama’s insistence on and the Democratic Congress’s capitulation to a totalitarian socialism” (and, for some, to prepare for the “end times”, which is about time if the rapture is coming up this fall).

Above: A well functioning democracy is impossible without a heavily armed citizenry, in the United States as well as in other places.

This protest makes a lot of sense, considering that in the United States publicly subsidized health-care apparently means that one must also have totalitarian socialism. Which is worrisome – very few people like totalitarian socialism. In my native Norway, though, one has somehow managed to harmonize the two deeply conflicting goals of avoiding totalitarian socialism on the one hand and still have decent health-care for everyone on the other. Nevertheless, I suppose that one could hardly hope to successfully replicate this unlikely policy outcome of public health-care without totalitarian socialism anywhere else in the world.

Of course, if one is worried about liberal democracy being under threat, resorting to political violence or the threat of it would appear to be an obvious choice. One of the main speakers at the “Restore the Constitution”-rally, Mike Vanderboegh, has a proven track-record of doing so already. After the health-care reform was passed, he encouraged his followers to “break the windows of hundreds, thousands of Democrat Party headquarters” by throwing bricks at them. According to the Washington Post, “Some of them did as they were told”.

Of course, bricks are not as cool as guns, nor as American. But some of the participants insisted that the gun carrying was merely symbolic:

“Rosa Parks stood up on a bus one day and made a statement that changed the world,” said [Timothy] Whittamore, likening himself and other protesters to the late civil rights activist. “When she stood up on that bus, it’s the same thing we are doing here today.” (article)

Other participants, like Mike Vanderboegh (who happens to be from the same state as Rosa Parks), seemed more trigger-happy:

[Vanderboegh] recounted for the crowd his successful calls for bricks to be thrown into Democrats’ offices. “I hope to make them understand that the situation was coming to a fundamental break when people innocent and guilty alike were going to begin dying for their own stupid failure to comprehend the real situation that we are all in,” he warned.

He then led the crowd in chanting what he called a Southern “battle cry” of “Oh hell no!” Explained the Alabaman: “When you hear it, where I come from, you know that somebody’s going to get beat, stabbed or shot, and the guy that takes the beating, the knife blade, or the bullet undoubtedly deserves it.” (article)

I always thought that the United States Constitution was about the rule of law (as opposed to mob justice), representative democracy (as opposed to rule by means of political violence), and generally adhering to the principle of sorting out problems by discussing them in a civilized manner (as opposed to killing one another over them). Apparently, I was wrong. According to the people who really care about protecting the United States Constitution, the main point is the right to kick ass. The founding fathers would have been proud.