The Tea is Boiling

I recommend a good dose of the Young Turks every once in a while.

A Republican Threatens with Armed Rebellion:

One of the most bogus claims is that an entire system is broken and ceased to exist because one thing didn’t go our way.  That’s right.  The Constitution died because of a single tax imposed on those without health care.  Nobody had ever done it before.  Up until President Obama, the Constitution was in perfectly healthy condition.
In other words, something like this bloatedly misleading piece of propaganda:

And so Matt David’s idea of rebellion seems totally legit to a lot of people.  Why, not since the redcoats has anyone so trampled on the American people, and we had a solution to that, didn’t we?

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.  Violent rhetoric begets violence.  You have to take responsibility for what you say.  Freedom of Speech does not mean you can yell “Fire” in a theater.  Matt David should be shamed publicly for his outrageous suggestions.  Not arrested.  Because if we arrest him the moronic militias will only get angrier and arm themselves for what they think is a just cause.

Do I think Republicans would be as outraged if Romney passed the bill?  I think there are many who wouldn’t, and that race does have a part in it.  But mostly it is because they cannot see how their own candidate would push the same kind of action, because he’s on “their side”.  We have regressed into tribalism and barbarism.  Well, not all of a sudden.

I’m glad they brought up Timothy McVeigh, because his story is parallel to what is happening now.  People take up arms in reaction to both real and perceived injustices from the government, and eventually somebody snaps.

And then we’re introduced to thought experiment number 2: What if Matt Davis was a Muslim?  If he implied armed warfare, even over Obamacare, Republicans would be all over these comments, suggesting he be bagged and brought to Guantanimo.  They’re already spying on Muslims, even if they never spoke a word of violence in their lives.  But this guy says “sure, I’d shoot people in government if I had to, and that may be very soon” and he’s still walking around.

You may be thinking that this is about the question of whether Obama is a tyrant, whether this is real oppression.  But it’s not a real question, not for this situation.  I think he’s made grave mistakes with perpetuating war, using bombing drones, and not making a move to limit the number of aborted children in the US.  Whether you think that qualifies him as a tyrant is beyond this point:

Armed rebellion is not a justified response to oppression.  It’s not that we’re not oppressed enough to warrant a rebellion, as if Matt Davis is just speaking too early.  No, rather, it’s that armed rebellion against any government is an inherent rejection of the way of Christ.  His followers were tortured brutally in the Roman regime, a far worse penalty than most Christians in America have yet to know.  Had they thought armed rebellion justified, they would have acted on such thoughts.  Considering how unified they seemed to be in the refusal to take up arms against oppressors, there must have been something there in their very beliefs that brought forth this unity of peaceful resistance.

Could it be the teachings of Christ?  You mean the teachings of the man that most Republicans claim to follow?  Like Matt Davis?  For once, let’s have a real tea party.  Where we sit down, have some cups of tea, especially with those we disagree with, and talk things out like men, not like beasts who beat their chests and grunt.

It’s time we take up arms in rebellion.  Against our wicked selves.  Kill the old regime in your heart.  Establish the new.