'Vitriolic Rhetoric' vs. Government’s AggressionRecently by Scott Lazarowitz: Decentralizing Our Water Resolves the Fluoridation Question (and Other Dilemmas)
Following the shootings in Arizona by a lunatic, there were calls to "tone down the rhetoric" politically, with references to the past year’s "vitriolic" anger and activism expressed by many among the Tea Party movement and by those who generally oppose the federal government’s agenda. There have been criticisms of "violent metaphors," such as those used by Sarah Palin who was "targeting" various candidates in the November 2010 elections, with bull’s-eyes drawn on maps of targeted districts, and so on. Some have criticized the current bill to repeal ObamaCare, because of the repeal bill’s title, "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act," because it has the word "killing" in the title, and the bill’s critics remind us just how ridiculous and nutty today’s political correctness has become. So, "Tone down the rhetoric," they say. This reminds me of those annoying commercials with James Lehman, the child behavioral therapist whose product attempts to help people deal with their "backtalking" and "defiant" kids. His books and CDs teach parents how to control their kids’ behavior. (Apparently, some people like the product and some don’t.) And this is exactly how the elitists in Washington sound, the ones who don’t want to hear the "defiance" and "backtalking" of the people who are opposed to one intrusion after another by the government into our private lives and businesses. We are being disobedient to the feds’ authority, and they and their apologists don’t like it.
Well, I have news for them: They are the ones who have been disobedient, and it is up to "We the People" to control the bureaucrats’ aggressive acts of legislation, their bills and laws, policies and unconstitutional programs and procedures that are constantly limiting our freedom, speech, commerce and associations. It is our representatives in Washington who have been defiant of the Americans’ will, such as how the DC elitists rammed the ObamaCare bill through with no discussion and no debate, despite many Americans being opposed to that legislation. That was the epitome of how spoiled rotten and "disobedient" the bureaucrats in Washington have become! The little dictators in Washington give more dictatorial orders than most 20th Century fascists had done. Americans need to exercise their inalienable rights of free speech to protest, as long as it’s peaceful. In general, people who love and cherish Liberty are peaceful, and don’t believe that using aggression is the way to solve problems. In contrast, it is those Washington elitists, whose very intrusions require the use of physical aggression by their enforcers to carry out their agenda, who are the truly violent ones. They are not peaceful. And many of these elitists do not like the people’s defiance of their aggressive rules and dictates, and they are the ones who become vitriolic in response to the "defiance and disobedience" of people who want their freedom restored. One recent example of those elitists who become emotional toward a mere questioning or challenging of their views was Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell in his appearance with Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes. When Stahl challenged Rendell’s views supporting bringing slot machines to the state, he became enraged in his response, growling "You guys don't get that. You are simpletons. You are idiots if you don't get that!" Unfortunately for us, Rendell is one of many government bureaucrat elitists who angrily believe that we Americans don’t know what’s best for us, and that we are in need of centralized government bureaucrats to rule over us, and that we must obey their commands. We are their "disobedient, backtalking children" in need of their scolding, their unquestioned authority.
Defiance toward authority – the citizens’ defiance of the government’s orders – is not a bad thing, it is not "violent." Defiance is resisting the orders of those authorities, when they have no business, no constitutional authority, and most important, no moral right to issue those orders especially with punishments given to those who defy them. I’d like to see doctors and patients – and insurers – be defiant to and nullify the arbitrary rules and regulations and mandates of not only ObamaCare, but all other medical-related commands from the feds. I’d like to see patients and medical providers establish their own voluntary contracts and associations amongst themselves and deliberately bar the government from their private matters. Most sensible people don’t like their medical privacy violated, their money taken and their independence and freedom of choice stolen from them. Americans need to say to the government, "Who the hell are you to tell me what kind of medical care I may receive, how much I may pay and which doctors I may be associated with!" In his Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson details the complaints the American Founders had of their British ruler, and among the complaints, Jefferson notes,
Could there be any better description of ObamaCare and the new Dodd financial regulatory bureaucracy? Those new laws, thousands of pages long that almost none of our representatives have actually read, are creating hundreds of new bureaucracies, mandates and taxes that will do nothing but "harass our people and eat out their substance." This brings me to the subject of America’s government-forced energy dependence, dependence on foreign oil and the many restrictions on our lives to freely and inexpensively move from one place to another, restrictions imposed by green extremists and corporate-State profiteers in the name of "environmentalism."
You see, the real problem is not as much Americans’ dependence on foreign oil as it is Americans’ dependence on our government’s control over our energy needs. What would we do if there is a repeat of the 1973 oil embargo that forced us to wait in long lines at the pump? After all, one of these days the Saudis and the Iraqis will have enough oil contracts with China and Russia and others that those oil-producing Middle-Eastern countries won’t even need to do business with the U.S., certainly not with our totally debased dollar. How will Americans then be able to fuel their vehicles to get to work, in order to be productive and keep the economy growing? More citizen disobedience and nullification of the federal government is in order in this area of life. The American people need to forget about whether or not the federal government approves of states’ drilling for oil and gas, and the states need to just do it anyway. The inhabitants of each of the U.S. states have a God-given right to explore, discover and utilize any natural resources that exist on or within their lands. If the feds begin to fine states that disobey federal energy and environmental regulations, or send in the military to force states to stop drilling or send defiant citizens and businessmen to jail, then the states need to take the issue to the Supreme Court, and/or declare their Tenth Amendment rights to allow access to energy resources on their own lands to their inhabitants, whose means of livelihoods the federal government has been obstructing. Instead of "promoting the general welfare," which the government is supposed to do, the centralized bureaucrats, with their control over energy and their monopoly in territorial protection, have not only continued the destructive, forced dependence on foreign oil, but have been provoking foreigners abroad, including a 20-year war against Iraq, started by President George H.W. Bush, and literally wrecking that country, as well as their war that is destroying Afghanistan. These politicians have been radicalizing the Muslims of those lands to turn against Americans, and making us less safe, as well as more dependent!
Also in his Declaration, Jefferson noted
The centralized DC bureaucracy’s destructive monopoly of territorial protection, and preventing Americans from utilizing natural resources on their own lands and forcing Americans to be "dependent on foreign oil," are not only inhibitive of Americans’ maximizing productivity and raising their standard of living, but destructive of Americans’ security as well. The U.S. government has been destructive of Americans’ security through the blowback of its trespassing on foreign lands with hundreds of military bases especially since World War II, and starting wars against foreign peoples who were of no threat to the U.S., and by its constant interferences and intrusions into the private matters of foreign countries. Now, to return to those complainers of "vitriolic rhetoric," it is necessary to point out how we are constantly hearing the left and the unions declaring, "Stand up for your rights!" However, the "rights" to which they refer are "positive" rights, made up out of whole cloth, and are not really rights. They are actually referring to – admittedly or not – people standing up for their demands for other people’s wealth and property, via taxation, regulations and other State-imposed intrusions and restrictions on the otherwise peaceful activities of others.
In terms of actual "rights," people have natural, inherent rights as human beings, among them the right to own their lives and establish voluntary associations and contracts with others, in their personal lives and in business. Human beings have a right to be free from the aggressions of others, the right to defend themselves from the aggressions of others, and, as the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, the right "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects." People have a right to not be bound by any contracts or arrangements they did not voluntarily agree to be a part of, and are not morally obligated to obey the dictates of central authorities in Washington. The 19th-Century individualist and entrepreneur Lysander Spooner explained that in his great work, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority, and, more recently, economic historian Thomas Woods explains this in his highly acclaimed book, Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century. Those who oppose the natural rights of human beings to be free and to control their own lives and property, those and who demand that Americans be enslaved by Washington elitists, are against freedom and mainly just love the central State, pure and simple. Those who have been expressing the most childish intolerance of "vitriolic rhetoric" are really just intolerant of opposing views and of dissent from the intrusive power of the State. The statists are unwilling or unable to tolerate people who stand up for themselves, their lives and their property and who are trying to protect themselves from the aggression and violence of the State.
The intolerant ones who promote unchecked State power are the ones that child behavioral therapist James Lehman should be treating. They are the ones who should be sent to their rooms and made to stand in the corner, and made to study the Declaration of Independence, the Anti-Federalist papers and the speeches and writings of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. It is actually the states who are supposed to be the parent, and the bureaucrats in DC those parents’ children, or better, the states are the boss and the federal government their employee. Unfortunately, Americans have allowed that to be turned around, with the bureaucrats becoming not just authoritarian bosses, but full-fledged totalitarian tyrants and dictators, and the people their slaves and prisoners. The people need to continue to express their anger, their frustration, and yes, their vitriol when it’s called for, and protest against the government bully, as long as such protests are peaceful. The people must make use of their First Amendment rights and adopt the same kinds of civilized, peaceful, non-violent protests as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. did, with words, signs, symbols, blogs, articles, rallies, pickets and marches. The government and its aggressive intrusions are the biggest threats against us, not "vitriolic rhetoric." January 20, 2011 Scott Lazarowitz [send him mail] is a commentator and cartoonist at Reasonandjest.com. Copyright © 2011 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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