History is usually written long after historical events played themselves out in real life. It’s rare, but not uncommon, to understand the gravity of historical events as they are actually happening.
For example, I was in the Army and stationed in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down in November of 1989. It was of course news where we were, but I don’t think many of us in Rheinberg really understood that the epochal event of our generation was playing itself out only a few hundred miles away. We look back at it today as the touchstone that it is… the beginning of the death knell and collapse of the Soviet Union. But at the time most of us didn’t recognize it as such.
That’s likely because for all of my life, and most of my parents’ lives the Soviet Union was the grand villain, the ubiquitous enemy, a fount of evil that simply was. It was the perpetual enemy to be feared above all else and it was the reason I and hundreds of thousands of others spent weeks, months or years training to counter-attacks coming from Poland or East Germany or the Soviet Union itself.
In an environment where the Soviets being enemies was as natural as gravity, it was hard to see the fall of the Wall changing the world. But it did. September 11 was something different altogether. Most of the country was going about its normal business that morning, another mundane Tuesday that didn’t look to be particularly different from any other… Then the first plane hit. It was a stunning event, but for a moment we thought that it was a tragedy of an accident. The kind of bad thing that sometimes happens. The moment the second plane hit everyone in America knew something was going on, we were being attacked and that in one form or another, we were at war with someone.
In short order Americans found out that this was a new, non-traditional enemy that would use brutal tactics to achieve its goal of our destruction. When those two buildings, those two signs of American strength and prosperity came down, we knew the world had changed.
And now we sit here two decades later, and we are at a point in history no less important than the fall of the Berlin Wall or the attack on the Twin Towers. When the Soviets or the Islamic terrorists were the enemy we understood exactly what was at stake: our nation and our culture. Today, both of those things are in peril, but in a far more pernicious way.
The danger today strikes at the very foundation of our Republic, and indeed the Republic itself.
Most Americans don’t quite recognize that the exercise of the various God given rights we enjoy is not protected by the 231-year-old document displayed in the National Archives, but rather by the fact that most Americans choose to respect the government and institutions that have been built on that document’s words. While the police and other government officials play a role in dealing with outliers, for the most part Americans pay their taxes, obey the law and avoid confrontations with their neighbors voluntarily. They understand they are part of neighborhoods, communities and a country based on laws that find their foundation (mostly) in the Constitution and values that find their inspiration in the Declaration of Independence.
Americans follow the rules not because of stormtroopers stationed on every corner enforcing diktats from above, but because the Constitution gives them a say in their government and their leaders. As such, even though Americans generally have a negative perception of Congress (18% approval rating) they remain engaged because every two years they have an opportunity to “throw the bums out!” And while they almost never actually do that, Americans feel like they have a say.
But what happens when citizens feel like their right to have a say is gone? What happens when citizens who already have a dim view of government in general have to sit by helplessly as they watch widespread fraud steal that right to say out from under them? What happens when citizens go to bed with one candidate comfortably ahead only to discover in the morning that in a nation with over 3,000 counties the mysterious midnight machinations of a dozen counties flip the election to the other guy? Particularly when data suggests that such an outcome is less likely than finding life on Mars.
When citizens no longer feel like they have a say in their government, when they feel like their government has been stolen right out from in front of them, they no longer feel an obligation to live their lives by the framework laid out in the Constitution. There have always been Americans who have felt wronged or disenfranchised or powerless and decide to act in ways that are… anti-social, but they’ve largely been extreme outliers. What happens when fully half of the population feels like they have been disenfranchised and were forced to watch the theft play out right in front of them while politicians told them “Nothing to see here”?
The Revolutionary War occurred when the British sought to quash the economic and political freedoms the colonies had established over the previous century and a half. Despite attempts by the likes of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to bridge the gap before it became a schism, the colonials had finally had enough and the Declaration of Independence became the foundation for a new nation. It was an uphill battle from the start with much of the population uncertain about which side to support. But eventually freedom won the day and eventually our Constitution birthed our Republic.
One wonders, after spending decades watching Democrats setting the table for this fraud (opposing voter ID laws, pushing for same day registration, expanding voting periods and encouraging mail in balloting) how Republicans and other freedom loving Americans will react to this theft? It’s one thing to lose an election that appears largely aboveboard, even when you vehemently dislike the other guy… but it’s another to have the election stolen from you when your eyes, common sense and reams of data suggest your guy won. If we were talking about dogcatcher or a state senator this would probably not matter. But we’re talking about the head of the most powerful government in the world, whose reach extends from your kitchen table to the moon, literally. Make no mistake, beyond the typical election issues such as taxes and job creation and confrontation with or supplication to China, the real issue that is at stake is our Republic: Court packing, new states and the spectrum of federal power to coerce states and local governments. And of course vote fraud.
Americans have always taken comfort in the face of election losses because our Constitution gives them the opportunity to do a better job of making their argument, getting out the vote or selecting a better candidate next time. There was always hope. But not this time. If Democrats are allowed to steal this election in plain sight, then all is lost, including hope. No hope for honest elections. No hope for redemption. No hope for freedom. George Orwell said “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” If Democrats are allowed to steal this election then America’s past becomes a fiction of hate, America’s present becomes a reality of lies, deceit and coercion and America’s future becomes one of oppression and subjugation. That is exactly what our Constitution was written to be a bulwark against which is why Democrats have sought to undermine it for decades. Such are the things revolutions are made of, and this time we’re watching history unfold right in front of us – and we all know it.
See author page
Even worse is when what the opposition hated most about the incumbent is that he succeeded in doing what he promised to do, made life largely better for the vast majority of citizens, up-ended the entrenchment of the political elite and promoted peace all around the world.
We saw Schiff provide a preview of the type of police state they have in mind, where justice, the law, the Constitution, facts and evidence have little or no meaning. We are now in the hands of the Communist Chinese.
@Deplorable Me:
How do you think we got here?
We were sold out years ago, we find out now because they are no longer afraid of being exposed.
@Deplorable Me: @kitt:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Law’s of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
Today was the repeat of March 5, 1770. It has begun.
Agree 100%
Donald Trump lost the election and is promoting the Big Lie that it was stolen. Unfortunately for Trump, the courts, his own DOJ, his own AG, his own DHS, his own FBI, and his recently packed Supreme Court can find no credible evidence to support Trump’s falsehoods.
Accusations of fraud are easy to make but more difficult to prove.
Do you think the DOJ, Supreme Court, FBI, DHS, appellate courts, etc are all in on the “theft”? How about the military?
You lose an election, bigly, and now you advocate violent revolution against the nation? See 18 U.S. Code § 2385.
@Zatopek: Asterisk Obiden “won” through fraud. Clear and plainly simple.
@Zatopek: The fraud allegations have gone nowhere in the courts… that doesn’t mean that they are untrue. Courts are not set up to work fast. Cases typically take time to prepare in a way that is consistent with court procedures. There is an extraordinary amount of anecdotal evidence that something is amiss, but demonstrating that in a court at lightening speed is difficult. I think it’s like trying to build the wing of a plane while you’re taking off. Prosecutors can take months building a case against someone for relatively simple crimes, and this is anything but. And help from the media doing actual research. One can’t wonder what the case would be if the shoe was on the other foot and it was Trump who was accused of fraud. Would the media be response be different than the one we’re seeing now?
Take the Fulton County video for example. We all saw the video. Some officials have said that there was nothing dishonest was going on. But other players say there was indeed something underhanded. We all heard on the news election night that the counting had been stopped due to a “water main break”. That turned out to not be true. Officials say that no one was asked or told to leave but we see the observers leaving basically at the same time and telling everyone that they were asked. And the video looks like someone ran through a ream of ballots numerous times. Signature matching? And it certainly looks like something unusual is going on with those “suitcases”. Getting to the bottom of that all takes time and time is not something the President’s team has. Their track record has been less than stellar thus far, but unlike Florida in 2000 there is not one issue in one locale to focus on. This involves a minimum of 5 states dozens of counties and hundreds or even thousands of precincts. Again, as I’m not a lawyer I can’t tell if they’ve done a good job and been stifled by “swamp” dwelling judges as Mark Levin suggests, or if they are simply incompetent as Erick Erickson suggests.
At the end of the day, add to all of that the plethora of anecdotal evidence of fraud and the fact that Democrats have spent literally decades trying to loosen the safeguards for voting, such as opposing Voter ID, pushing for mail in balloting, same day registration etc… and it most definitely looks like the Democrats have been up to something deceitful. Then there is the time and resources that they spent trying to destroy the president with the Russian collusion hoax and the impeachment… Taken together all of this suggests that the Democrats will stop at nothing, illegal or otherwise in order to get Trump out of Washington.
I’ve already seen enough to convince me of that and I’ve no doubt it will be amply proven in time, but whether or not the President’s team can demonstrate it in court by the required date is another question…
@vince:
Well, we really don’t have to wonder. We saw it for the past 4 years. With NO evidence to support ANY of their accusations, Democrats accused Trump of winning because the Russians supported him. Democrats must have a switch in their heads they can use to switch their memories on and off.
I have asked our resident fraud apologists here the question of what, aside from fraud, could possibly be the explanation for this episode (and the corresponding “pauses” in counting in other states, all resulting in inexplicable spikes in Biden’s vote count). Apparently, no one wants to field that one.
I posted a story about the State Farm Arena pause in counting and got flagged with a “fact check”. It said the observers weren’t told to leave; they were told work was stopping and to come back in the morning. See the difference?
No doubt there was fraud… LOTS of it. Was there enough to overturn the election? I think so, but that would have to be proven by investigations, culling out illicit votes and sorting out those Dominion Biden Vote Generators and how much damage THEY did. But, there can be no confidence in the integrity of this election and the legitimacy of Biden as (hard swallow) President without it.
@vince: @vince: Not one government body has found credible evidence that significant fraud occurred. The Defense Fund has had over $200 million at their disposal, an army of experienced former prosecutors as their legal team, states with GOP majority legislators, the FBI and a month to investigate what is described as obvious and extensive fraud. Trump supporters are stunned that what they’ve been told and shown doesn’t resonate with officials.
In 2016, the Democrats didn’t try to overturn Trump’s narrow win, accepting the results of the electoral process. They did investigate the contacts between the campaign and administration with Russian operatives but chose not to impeach Trump until he attempted to extort Ukraine, all constitutional actions.
@Zatopek:
And which “government body” (which are not really government bodies but government agencies. You need to be taught the difference) has investigated election fraud? Name them and their findings.
No, they just called him an “illegitimate” president and demanded he be impeached even before he assumed office.
So let’s compare that to now, shall we?
The people who are claiming fraud by their sworn affidavits are willing to put their names on those affidavits although they know the radical left wing with doxx them or commit other ill intent actions toward them. Whereas with the Ukraine whistleblower that Adam Schiff promised us would testify, he remains a secret, in spite of anonymity is not guaranteed in the whistleblower laws.
@retire05:
Will your Trumpland Confederacy quickly come up with effective replacements for your Social Security checks and Medicare coverage?
@Zatopek:
Now we know why. Having anyone look into any aspect of an election Democrats are involved in uncovers fraud and corruption. Trump opened an investigation of election fraud but California would not participate. Were they afraid of what might be exposed in their “vote harvesting” scheme? Democrats always want to be the investigators, never the investigated.
Speaking of total lack of evidence, provide the first tiny piece of verified evidence that Trump did ANYTHING impeachable in dealing with Ukraine. We’ll be waiting.
@Greg:
Trumpland Confederacy? Splain, Lucy.
At least those who support Trump wouldn’t be helping the government saveing money on Social Security and Medicare on payouts like Andrew Cuomo did by killing off thousands of senior citizens with his dictate that nursing homes take in Chi-Com flu positive patients.
As a result of the inability of the American People to freely and fairly vote, We The People of the United States hereby formally withdraw our consent and revoke our given authority for the operation of all governments in the United States. The United States of America is hereby dissolved. We The People of the United States of America hereby recognize, declare and acknowledge the dissolution of the United States of America as a result of illegal operation and violation of fundamental operating principles. We The People of the United States of America consequently formally and publicly recognize, declare and acknowledge the United States of America to be legally dissolved, null, and void.
We The People of the United States hereby formally declare that it is impossible to legally transfer legal authority and legal power via any fraudulent election or any fraudulent operation of any kind anywhere by anyone at any time. We The People of the United States hereby formally declare that all fraudulent elections are null and void beginning at the foundation of the republic. We The People of the United States hereby formally declare that all actions of any kind taken by any fraudulently elected official, and any actions taken by any employee hired by any fraudulently elected official, and any actions taken by any appointee of any fraudulently elected official, were null and void in the past beginning at the founding of the republic, are null and void in the present, and will be null and void in the future.
Joe Biden is not the President Elect of the United States. Joe Biden is not the President Elect of the United States because no legal authority or legal power was legally transferred by the free will of the People. If Joe Biden attempts to take the Office of the President of the United States he will be doing so without the legal authority of the American People. People are confused about the basic principles of the United States: All authority for anything anywhere anytime comes from the People. No authority is ever given without the free consent of the People, ever. If the People do not freely consent, nothing legal can ever be done, ever. Legal authority does not come from laws or officials: Legal authority comes from the People, at all times for all actions everywhere.
We The People of the United States of America hereby formally revoke all authority granted to all federal, state, county, and city public offices, and also hereby revoke all authority granted to all officials working at those agencies. All authority for operation for all governments at all levels is hereby revoked. All authority for all employees and all appointees of all governments at all levels is also hereby revoked. We The People of the United States of America hereby formally withdraw our consent for the operation of all federal, state, county, and city governments until such time as free and fair verified paper ballot elections can be held.
We The People of the United States of America hereby declare the nation to be in a state of war and occupation, and hereby authorize any and all military actions necessary for the defense of the People. We The People of the United States of America hereby formally declare all fraudulently elected officials to be criminal agents and enemy combatants in a state of war, and hereby authorize their immediate removal by force of arms. We The People of the United States of America hereby formally call on our armed forces, our militias, and our armed citizens to immediately take up arms and forcibly eject all fraudulently elected officials, all employees hired by fraudulently elected officials, and all appointees appointed by fraudulently elected officials in all federal, state, county and city governments.
We The People of the United States hereby formally declare all States to be free of all legal and financial obligations to the hereby-dissolved federal government, and declare all States to be independent and sovereign of the federal government and of each other. We The People of the United States hereby declare all States to be free and independent entities authorized to create their own currencies and defend their own borders as necessary. We The People of the United States hereby declare all legal State residents to be immediately legally deputized and authorized to use any weapons and take any actions necessary to defend themselves against all enemies domestic and foreign.
We The People of the United States hereby formally revoke all express and implied authority for the operation of all public offices at all levels of government. We The People of the United States hereby formally revoke all authority for federal military personnel in all branches, and hereby mandate all federal military personnel to be transferred to their State’s national guard. We The People of the United States hereby formally revoke all authority for all actions and operations of all federal military personnel everywhere, and hereby formally declare all federal authority for operation of military personnel and conduct of all military actions to be immediately transferred to the States.
We The People of the United States hereby formally declare all national parks, all national nature reserves, all national military facilities, all military assets, and all federally owned assets whether physical or nonphysical, to immediately be the property of the States in which they are located. We The People of the United States hereby formally declare seizure, ownership, and control of all federally owned assets by the States. We The People of the United States hereby formally declare the immediate confiscation and conversion of all federally owned assets by the States within which the assets are currently located.
We The People of the United States hereby formally declare any political unit above the level of State to be dissolved. We The People of the United States hereby formally declare all States are authorized to create their own laws, create their own currencies, and create their own armed forces. We The People hereby formally dissolve all federal, national, and international laws, debts, and obligations until such time as a new national government structure can be created to operate with free and fair verified paper ballot elections.
We The People hereby formally revoke all authority for any use of the US Dollar by any federal entity including the “Federal” Reserve. We The People hereby formally revoke all authority given to the Federal Reserve, and revoke all authority for creating, loaning, transporting, destroying, or doing anything else with US currency by any entity anywhere. We The People formally revoke our authority for anyone anywhere to use US Dollars without our express consent and declare the US Dollar to be a transition currency to be used only until such time as a new national currency is created or until new State currencies are created.
We The People hereby formally cancel all laws relating to the covid virus, and formally cancel all lockdowns, mask laws and vaccination requirements by anyone anywhere at all levels of government. We formally declare all covid-related medical and travel requirements hereby cancelled and null and void. We also formally declare all people involved in creating, distributing, advertising, governing, or providing covid vaccinations to be suspect of crimes against humanity and against God. We also formally declare all officials and medical providers forcing any medical treatments without patient consent to be enemy combatants in a state of war subject to any military field tribunals and executions necessary to defend the People.
We The People hereby revoke and cancel all laws governing the use of firearms, PERIOD.
We The People hereby formally declare all law enforcement officers who attempt to enforce medical treatments without patient consent as being enemy combatants, and therefore subject to any and all actions necessary to defend the People, including immediate field executions as deemed necessary in defense of the People. The People hereby revoke authority given to all federal LEO’s in all federal agencies, and hereby formally declare all federal LEO’s who have not surrendered their weapons and identification to the States to be enemy combatants in a state of war.
We The People of the United States formally declare war against the Chinese Communist Party, Antifa, and Black Lives Matter. We The People of the United States hereby declare Antifa, Black Lives Matter, all members of the CCP, and all military personnel controlled by the CCP to be enemy combatants in a state of war. We The People of the United States hereby authorize use of any and all actions necessary to defend the People against these combatants including use of strategic and tactical nuclear, biological and chemical weapons inside and outside the United States.
In summary, the United States of America is hereby dissolved. All authority given to the federal government and to all State, county and city governments is hereby revoked. Fraudulently elected officials are hereby declared as enemy combatants and a state of war is declared to exist inside and outside our States. All State citizens are hereby legally deputized and authorized to use whatever means necessary to defend themselves at all times everywhere. All State borders are hereby declared sovereign and States are hereby authorized to seize and control all federal assets and personnel within their borders. All States are hereby authorized to create their own laws, currencies, and armed forces. All federal laws, regulations, rules, taxes, treaties, contracts, and agreements are hereby null and void. The authority given by the American People to operate the United States federal government is hereby revoked indefinitely until such time as a national government operating with free and fair elections can be built again.
@Jeff Merrill: Good luck with that, chief.