The following originally appeared as a Facebook note from Erik Viker, a Libertarian Candidate for the State House of Representatives in Pennsylvania.
The extremist blogosphere and the countless chain e-mails it spawns are ratcheting up the sedition rhetoric again. Before you make the gun dealers happy or get out the torches and pitchforks, please remember that defense of person or property from those who are violating our law is one thing, but violence against the government is called “treason” by the Constitution we all honor.
Vote for better candidates, at all levels of government. If you want members of your political club to win elections, you need to recognize that all those people who voted Democrat are U.S. citizens just like you, with the same right to vote that you have. Every elected official was placed in authority by the will of the majority of constituents who cared enough to vote. Not happy with the outcome, or with how those people conduct our government affairs? Then work harder next time to get better candidates elected. You choose a whole new House of Representatives and a third of the Senate every two years, and a new President every four years.
The founders said a lot of things, as citizens. But as the nation’s founders, they gave us the Constitution, which is the supreme law of our land. And the Constitution tells us exactly how we may legally change our government if we’re dissatisfied. These options don’t include gunfire because you don’t like what election winners are doing. We have courts for that. If you don’t like the judges, then work harder to get better people who choose those judges elected. The Constitution was ratified to prevent the kind of violence that had previously accompanied governmental change. It is civilized.
Your political club needs to be smarter than the other club to get the support of every registered voter, no matter how recently they registered to vote, and for what reasons. And McCain-Palin wasn’t that smart. We get the government we deserve. We have been too complacent about which fellow citizens we support for office, and all elected officials are fellow citizens. Abandon partisan clubs and vote for better candidates. Political parties are no more or less constitutionally valid as the Moose Lodge. It’s our fault. We are the government. And if you really want to see improvement, support the Libertarian Party, not the same two clubs that both fail to make government smaller, less expensive and less intrusive. But that’s a hard sell, because many hidebound minds think “conservative” equals “Republican,” no matter how often the Republicans actually demonstrate they aren’t conservative any more. So fine, stop muttering about tyranny and rebellion and choose a few electable candidates. If you elect the right people (assuming the majority of voters agree with you), they can change the laws and disempower the bureaucrats. And you can file a few lawsuits with all the money paid to the likes of Sarah Palin for speaking engagements and get the courts to overturn any laws you disapprove of.
Will violent rebellion solve all the problems you describe any more efficiently? Who does the work after the violent rebellion is over? The big angry guy with the gun?
People are frustrated and angry because previous voters made what we now believe to be poor decisions. This did not suddenly occur in 2008. Mature improvement happens slowly. So vote. Begin locally and get those good fiscally responsible county commissioners elected to Congress. You still might not get what you want, when you want it, because every citizen gets to weigh in, even those who don’t agree with us.
We don’t threaten violence in America. That’s for ranting mobs in Tehran or military juntas in sweaty little unstable countries, not for the great United States. We change our government through the civilized means of elections, Constitutional amendments or a Constitutional convention, not jihad-style thinly-veiled threats of violence. We honor the rule of law in America. We vote.
Ask yourself honestly, exactly how has my day-to-day life really changed? Is it worth violence? Or am I just being manipulated by different demagogues? Every terrorist believes he’s acting in violence for a higher cause. Americans don’t overthrow the government. What choice is there? You vote. Maybe the majority of citizens who are also voting like those liberals just fine, as frustrating as it might be. So work harder next time.
It’s “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Not “one nation under God, only for those who agree with me about how our government should be operated.”
The next election is a few months away, and the next one only two years after that. So stop whining and get to work.
