A Call To “Arms”
Today, the Electoral College will vote Joe Biden as 46th President of the United States, notwithstanding the objections of a few intrepid Republicans in the Congress and Senate.
It is a sad day for America, with the specter of outright stealing of multiple elections in our neighbor state of Georgia, and several other states.
What does this mean for America? What do we do now? What CAN we do now?
Fortunately, plenty.
For one thing, no one came and arrested you today for “participating in democracy,” which just happened in Hong Kong to dozens of candidates, election workers, pollsters, and even an American attorney.
Things aren’t as dark and dire for America as they might seem.
President Joe Biden and the Democrats will only have as much power as the states give them. And most of the states are firmly in Republican control.
America is such a vast country that the feds have no choice but to rely on state and local officials to carry out their programs and their orders. They are impotent and powerless otherwise.
For instance, did you know that the South Carolina legislature flat out refused to implement the Federal REAL ID Act of 2007 for…get this…10 years? With ZERO consequences?
Have you noticed how the feds have completely unable to stop the buying and selling of recreational pot in all the states that have legalized it, even though it is still classified as an illegal Schedule I narcotic by the FDA?
The federal government can do nothing domestically without state governments being its arms and legs.
So there is work to be done, and that means play time is over.
It’s time to stop giving Alex Jones, QAnon, and random memes that just might be put out by hackers in China or Russia the time of day.
If the conspiracy can’t be verified, and if there’s no plan that you can carry out as a result of the “information,” it doesn’t exist. As far as you’re concerned, it’s fiction. It’s not real.
It’s time to put down YouTube and Facebook (or God forbid, Parler and BitChute) and listen carefully to what I’m about to say:
We Americans have this bad habit of expecting a quick and easy fix.
Got blood pressure? No problem: there’s a pill for that.
Got no milk? No problem: there’s an app for that.
Got kids? No problem: there’s a free school for that (sort of).
At the very end of the movie Avengers: Endgame, (spoiler alert!) Captain Marvel gets paged by Nick Fury to come save the world after half of earth’s population disappears into thin air.
If we could page Captain Marvel right now to come and set things right, we would, but…
Superheros aren’t real.
There isn’t anyone to call. It’s just little ‘ol you and little ‘ol me.
When Benjamin Franklin walked out of the constitutional convention so many years ago, and a woman demanded to know what kind of government he’d just created, he wryly quipped:
A republic, if you can keep it.
You see, Franklin and the others were no strangers to history. Empires rise, and empires fall. How was America to be any different?
Here’s how: they gave us freedom, and then they gave us a government that is designed to do nothing.
This way, freedom, and with it, American prosperity, would endure—despite the inescapably wretched nature of politicians.
The Founders gave us three layers of protection from tyranny:
Three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial
Three levels of government: federal, state, and local
A firewall of last resort: we the people
Friends, this is where we are at:
Instead of competing with each other for power, the President, the Congress, and the Supreme Court have mostly joined hands and act as one.
Instead of resisting federal overreach, and relying on their self-sufficiency, state and local governments have attached themselves inextricably to the teat of federal funding. When money is on the line (which is always), the feds say “jump,” and the states answer back, “how high?”
The first two layers have failed. Will the last one, we the people, fail too?
There’s been a lot of saber-rattling lately by people who claim to want a civil war. They have guns, lots of ‘em.
(Got tyranny? They’ve got a gun for that.)
These tough talkers should look in the mirror. They are fat and lazy slobs. They are stupid. They are undisciplined—physically, and emotionally. Heck, they can’t even shoot straight.
For all the proof you need, watch them dutifully put on their mask before walking into a restaurant, just to avoid having the hostess (or their wife) pitch a fit.
They should shut up, because they don’t know what they are talking about. They haven’t counted the cost. They haven’t planned, prepared, or trained for actual war with the greatest military power on earth.
Most significantly, they aren’t a threat to anyone but themselves.
Ignore them.
Worst of all are the Christians!
(Got tyranny? They’ve got a God for that.)
Sure, God can and has providentially intervened in the course of human events in his own mercy and for his own purpose. But God doesn’t care if you sing songs and speak his name. He cares if you obey him.
After being defeated at Ai, Joshua cried out to God, only to get a sharp rebuke: “get up off your face! There is sin in the camp.” You see, Joshua knew better than to pray when there was clearly some housekeeping to be done.
I hate to break it to the Christian Church, but God isn’t some superhero in the sky that you can just page to come and save you from government…the very government YOU created.
As long as that’s true, I would suggest your prayers are a stench to God, and it’s time to repent.
(For the amateur eschatologists that happen to reading this, don’t think God’s surely going to rapture you away before things get bad. He never promised that. In fact, he pretty much promised the opposite, that things are gonna get worse and worse for the Church as the end draws near.)
So then, what do we do now? Are we just doomed?
No, there is much work to be done.
First, we the people have to take ownership of the situation.
Think about it: we have a say in government, and not just through the ballot box. Therefore, if we aren’t actively fighting the evil people and evil things in the government, we are complicit in their evil.
So the Georgia elections were rigged, with hackable Dominion voting machines, and foreign interference… stop and ask yourself, “Who paid for those machines? Who put those machines there?”
The Georgia Republican establishment, that’s who. Elected by the Republican voters who look an awfully lot like you, yourself.
The buck stops with us. We ourselves as individuals are ultimately responsible for what happens in government, and we are the last defense against unlimited power.
Nothing is going to change until we the people take responsibility for our nation in our own minds.
Second, we the people have to rediscover our true political power.
Fully describing this takes an entire day, which I am happy to do with you if you are interested. Otherwise, just read the small book, Confrontational Politics by H.L. Richardson, for a quick primer.
Prepare yourself to make all kinds of sacrifices. After all, those who choose security over liberty will lose both.
Accept the fact that saving America is going to mean lifestyle changes. These changes might be as small as losing weight and getting into shape. For others, it might mean pulling their kids out of school and giving them a real education—at home. For still others, it might mean changing jobs and getting debt-free.
(It’s possible your family needs you more. If that’s the case, save your country by saving your family. Don’t think you’re going to be in a position to take on the world’s problems if your own house isn’t in order: you know who you are.)
Effective politics is expensive. Learn how to raise money: lots and lots of it. When good candidates ask you for money, give generously.
Third, we the people have to rebel.
No, put the gun down. I don’t mean with guns. (Yet.)
I mean rediscover your inner beatnik, and get ready for some good old-fashioned civil and legal disobedience.
Be the Rosa Parks that sits in the seat that they said wasn’t for her, and refuse to move.
In the words of Anne Feeney’s Have You Been To Jail For Justice:
You law abiding citizens
Come listen to this song.
Laws are made by people
And people can be wrong!The more you study history
The less you can deny it
A rotten law stays on the books
'til folks like us defy it!We must be ever vigilant
For justice to prevail
So get courage from your convictions
Let 'em haul you off to jail!Have you been to jail for justice?
I want to shake your hand!
'Cause sitting in and laying down
Are ways to take a stand.
Compliance with unjust laws is committing lawlessness. “Rule of law” is rule of legitimate and just law itself, not rule of the unjust law-maker.
Of course there are risks that must be counted, and you should never break the law, unless it is on purpose, and for a just cause.
When you get cross-ways with the government, the safest place you can possibly be is in public. The more public, the better. For a true-story example of what I mean, watch the 2010 movie Fair Game about CIA whistleblower Valerie Plame.
Leave a bad taste in their mouth. Make the bastards defend their unjust laws in a court of justice. Demand a jury trial. You’ll probably lose, but make the process as politically noisy, messy, complicated, drawn-out, and expensive as you possibly can.
In other words, make the rubble bounce back on them.
At the end of the day, they can’t catch, prosecute, and jail all of us. And when they try, it has a nasty tendency to backfire and spark even more civil disobedience.
Here’s what you don’t do: don’t go after people who aren’t part of the problem. No rioting, looting, and hurting peaceful law-abiding citizens just because they are there, like the left does.
MLK never did this. His direct action campaigns were strictly peaceful, even though they were illegal.
Undoubtedly, there are harder times ahead.
Nevertheless, we should not lose sight of the fact that we still have many blessings in United States politics. Yes, even in a day of rigged elections, foreign interference, and corrupt corporations.
In times like these, it’s all the more vital to band together, rediscover community strength and activism, repent of our inattention and apathy, and show that repentance by making personal sacrifices of our security, our time, and our money.
Then we will have clean hands and a pure heart. Then we will be ready to make a true “appeal to heaven,” when we rise up and declare holy war (politically speaking) on the oppressors of America.
Finally, remember the words of Jesus: “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
This is what I am living and doing every day to the best of my ability. I hope you will join me!
When you get here, you will know it, because you will find new calm, even while standing in the center of furious political battles. It is the calm of purpose, the calm of righteousness, and the calm of Jesus himself.