"Those who make peaceful protest impossible, make violent protest inevitable" -- John F. Kennedy
President Kennedy said these words back in 1962, and today they sprung up from the memories of the collective public who remember him. Even though he died before I was born, John F. Kennedy is one of my favorite Presidents, and I thought of his words immediately when I heard the news today. And I immediately blamed the administration of Barack Obama.
The facts of the matter are as follows: A deranged gunman killed several people in Arizona today while attempting to assassinate Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Most of the commentaries of the TV news anchors were filled with dread and concern, and there was heavy mention of prayers being said for those who had survived the shooting. But none of them addressed the root problem. Why did this happen? Why did Gabby Giffords almost end up getting killed? (No Congressional member had been killed since Leo Ryan in the Jonestown massacre in 1979)
My answer? It all goes back to the Kennedy quote. The administration of Barack Obama has made peaceful protest impossible, and they are ushering in an era where violent protest will be inevitable.
Sure, we still have elections, but those only happen every two years. And with the Obama Administration, there has been a new item of horror on a weekly basis. Meetings held in secret. A lack of transparency. Zero input or consultations with the opposition. Votes cast at midnight and on holidays. Ruling by fiat. The appointment of unapproved and unconstitutional "czars" to run large swaths of our economy. Congressman Alcee Hastings displaying his contempt for our Constitution by stating that "There ain't no rules here... we make them up as we go along". Indeed, we are living in dangerous times when an elected official says things like that.
The seizure of auto industries. The hijacking of 1/6 of the economy with the Health Care bill.... a 2,000 page document that Nancy Pelosi asked people to vote on when none of them had actually read it. Where was the opportunity and freedom to protest this vile act of government? The Government dictating that you no longer had the freedom to choose as to whether or not to buy health insurance.
No ... todays actions were no surprise to me. I had predicted this to friends long ago - when the Obama Administration revealed themselves to be nothing but a "gangster government". When the government seized Chrysler and GM and started randomly shutting down successful car dealerships... businesses that people had worked their whole lives to build... I knew they had crossed a line. How are we still a free people when the government arbitrarily decides on a whim which businesses will succeed and which will fail?
I fully expected that someone would try to kill their Senator or Congressman.... or maybe even Obama himself.
The power that political leaders exert over others creates animosity. Especially when you threaten to take away a persons means of earning a living. That never ends well. History has shown us that -- repeatedly.
"Sic semper tyrannis" was the cry of Marcus Junius Brutus. It's Latin for "Thus always to tyrants".
In the year 44 BC, Julius Caesar was the most powerful man in the world, yet Brutus and others stabbed him to death in the Roman Senate chambers.
In 1793, an angry mob of discontented citizens dragged the King of France down to a public square in Paris and lopped his head off with a guillotine.
Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were killed in public by people who held political grudges.
Gabby Giffords? I don't know much about her, but she seemed like a nice lady. She certainly didn't deserve what happened to her today. She was a "Blue Dog" Democrat that held some Conservative views. I don't know what her attempted killer had against her, but sometimes people who get assassinated aren't personally hated by their assassins. They are viewed as political figureheads. A symbol of things gone wrong.
She may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. An unfortunate turn of events.
A real tragedy for all of those wounded and killed. But not unexpected.
Violence and politics have always gone hand in hand.
I took some heat today from the knuckleheads at the Mayor Sam blog for saying so, but I don't back down from my statement. I believe the Obama Administration is creating an atmosphere of distrust and contempt that will only lead to more violence.
You know what Thomas Jefferson said.....
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"
Jefferson understood that an over-reaching government would eventually meet with armed conflict from its citizens. He not only understood this concept, he quietly accepted it as a natural part of life.
If the Obama Administration wants to head off more violence from discontented citizens, then they need to start governing in a manner that is legal, transparent, and shows respect for all citizens... not just the ones who elected them. The current administration is not doing this.
Current residents of Capitol Hill might want to brush up on their world history and adjust their behavior accordingly. When a frustrated population of citizens turns on their leaders, things can get very ugly.
In 1945, the citizens of Italy killed their leader, dictator Benito Mussolini. As a warning to future leaders, they hung his body upside down outside of a gas station in Milan. People came by to gawk at it for several days.
