Armed Idiots

There is a new and growing tactic by right-wing thugs opposed to the policies of President Obama. They show-up at forums where the President is speaking and have guns strapped to their sides or slung over their shoulders. One idiot, with a 9 mm pistol strapped to his leg, held up a sign outside President Obama's health-care town hall in Portsmouth, N.H. The sign read, "It's time to water the tree of liberty." That's a reference to Thomas Jefferson’s declaration that the tree "must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." That was also a favorite slogan of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.

Although one’s first instinct might be to have Congress pass a law forbidding such display of guns in the vicinity of the President, it has been pointed out that the Secret Service has the power to expand the perimeter around the President in order to insure his safety. Moreover, although these pitiful exhibitionists may be intent on intimidating the President and those who come out to see him, they are actually exposing their own vulnerabilities, insecurities, and ignorance. If they ever tried to use their little guns to attack the President or his supporters, the Secret Service would squash them like annoying insects.

It seems to be popular among right-wing loonies to cite the language of Jefferson about “time to water the tree of liberty.” It would be somewhat more serious if these people knew anything about the ideas of Jefferson or the history of our nation. They are, however, a group of dunderheads who wouldn’t know a history book if it fell out of a library and hit them on the head.

People who show-up at Presidential forums with guns strapped to their legs may wish to intimidate, but they face an insurmountable problem. They are poorly armed. They are armed only with their little pop-guns, and not with ideas. Ideas are far more powerful than guns.

The neo-fascist militia types, who are threatening armed revolution because they do not like the policies of our democratically-elected president, are not to be feared. They are to be pitied. If they ever actually started an armed revolt, which is highly unlikely, they would be confronting a President who commands the most powerful armed forces in the world. They would be snuffed-out in a moment, most likely by local and state police. For some reason, the obviousness of this does not seem to stop them from mouthing some of the dumbest rhetoric imaginable.

If these people had some ideas, any ideas, they would be far more dangerous. Ideas have power. Democracy is an idea. It has enabled modern man to avoid the violence and bloodshed of usurpations to overthrow tyrants. It recognizes the inalienable right of people to decide their own fate by means of elections. It insures the right of the majority to rule. It grants to mankind dignity, power, and freedom. Mankind can rid the world of tyrants by going to local polling places and casting ballots. In a democracy there is no need to take-up arms against a tyrant.

President Barack Obama is a duly elected chief executive. He stands for the liberal doctrines long pursued by the Democratic Party, including civil rights, workers rights, minimum wages, protecting the environment, and universal health care. He is an idealistic and visionary individual. He does not seek tyranny. He does not seek a communistic takeover of our lives by government. He seeks justice, charity, and decency. He reflects a brilliant mind, a warm and compassionate personality, leadership, and a remarkably fine character. I realize that I am too partisan to see any defects in him, but for the life of me I cannot understand the reasoning of those who hate him.