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None Dare Call It Sedition

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Joanne98 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-12-10 08:59 AM
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None Dare Call It Sedition
Sedition: Crime of creating a revolt, disturbance, or violence against lawful civil authority with the intent to cause its overthrow or destruction
-- Brittanica Concise Dictionary

Well, finally. It's high time somebody had the guts to say the S-word -- sedition -- right out loud.

When the indictments against the Hutaree were unsealed last week, the S-word was right there, front and center, in Count One. The Justice Department accused them of "seditious conspiracy," charging that the defendants "did knowingly conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and other persons known and unknown...to levy war against the United States, and to prevent, hinder, and delay by force the execution of any United States law."

This is very serious stuff. But the Hutaree are getting nailed for sedition only because they crossed the line with inches to spare. They're by no means the only ones. Advocating, encouraging, and sanctioning sedition is the new norm on the conservative side.

We saw it again last Thursday, when the Guardians of the Free Republics -- a Sovereign Citizen group that believes that the oath of office taken by state governors is invalid under their twisted Bizarroland interpretation of the Constitution -- sent letters to most or all sitting state governors telling them to either a) take what they consider to be a legitimate oath of office; b) stand down; or c) or be removed "non-violently" within three days. The FBI, rightly, regards this as a potentially seditious threat against the governors.

These two events are a wake-up call for progressives. They're telling us that it's time to openly confront the fact that conservatives have spent the past 40 years systematically delegitimizing the very idea of constitutional democracy in America. When they're in power, they mismanage it and defund it. When they're out of power, they refuse to participate in running the country at all -- indeed, they throw all their energy into thwarting the democratic process any way they can. When they need to win an election, they use violent, polarizing, eliminationist language against their opponents to motivate their base. This is sedition in slow motion, a gradual corrosive undermining of the government's authority and capacity to run the country. And it's been at the core of their politics going all the way back to Goldwater.

This long assault has gone into overdrive since Obama's inauguration, as the rhetoric has ratcheted up from overheated to perfervid. We've reached the point where you can't go a week without hearing some prominent right wing leader calling for outright sedition -- an immediate and defiant populist uprising against some legitimate form of government authority.

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010041405/none-dare-call-it-sedition


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ericinne Donating Member (251 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-12-10 09:09 AM
Response to Original message
1. She's a natural at it.
What, with the ties to the Alaskan Militia? I wanna know why Palin wasn't put on the terrorist watch no fly list years ago.
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ejpoeta Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-12-10 09:31 AM
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2. it's a scary time. i always thought the people would revolt afterthey have no food
to feed their kids. that's usually when people fight back is when the gap between the rich and poor gets too big. but you have these nuts that feel their 'america' is threatened.... the one where they make the rules and the rest of us can 'get over it' or move elsewhere. remember when we heard that. why don't they 'get over it' or leave!! what the hell! it scares me how people i know are talking... people in my own family!! as if someone has taken THEIR country from them. i hate to tell you but YOUR america is not the place i want to be! these people feel they are not the majority any more and apparently if they can't win by being the majority they think they should win by taking over??!! very scary.
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safeinOhio Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-12-10 10:14 AM
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3. Here you go
"In monarchy the crime of treason may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death"
Samuel Adams
His comment was about the Shays rebellion, the same Jefferson's quote about the "tree of liberty" was aimed at. Make a nice tee shirt.
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Mike Niendorff Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-12-10 11:05 AM
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4. The linked post is OUTSTANDING
Haven't seen this particular blog before, but that was absolutely, 100% spot-on. Bravo.

MDN
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