We try to be prepared to survive any situation we find ourselves in, and for most of us one of the scenarios we plan for is life under a tyrannical government. That speaks to a strong American tradition of resisting tyranny – but we need to be realistic here. When our nation’s founders wrote the Second Amendment it wasn’t actually all that hard for an armed populace to defeat the government. Most fighting was done with swords, muskets and cannon, and an organized citizens’ militia could bring a lot more of those to the battlefield than the government could.
Now the game has changed. The government has an array of incredibly powerful weapons at its disposal that an armed citizenry can’t hope to match. Tanks, attack helicopters and combat aircraft can’t be defeated with the sort of weapons available to the public. We often hear people say “Well, the Taliban are doing pretty well with old rifles,” but this isn’t really true. First, the Taliban have much heavier weapons than that – they’re well supplied with machineguns, RPGs, rockets and even light artillery. Secondly, they’re still not doing all that well. They can murder American soldiers, but the US-backed government still rules Afghanistan and our soldiers dominate the country.
That’s with the incredibly restrictive rules of engagement imposed by a democratic US government, too. Do you really think a tyrant will share our president’s concern with avoiding needless civilian deaths? I don’t. The truth is, if America descends into tyranny we can – we must – resist the tyrant, but we’ll struggle to defeat him.
Related: 15 Best Guns for Preppers
Winning before the war
Don’t give up just yet, though. There’s an even better way to fight a dictatorship in the USA, and that’s to start fighting before that dictatorship even exists – in fact, start right now.
If a tyrant takes power in this country it’s going to be a tyrant we elected. No foreign nation is powerful enough to invade us and impose a dictator. No coup launched from within our military or government is going to succeed in the face of our loyal soldiers and Marines. The idea that the UN has a secret military force powerful enough to overthrow us is a laughable fantasy. The only way a tyrant can sit in the White House is to be voted into it.
Of course, we’re not going to deliberately elect one, and the chances are we won’t elect one who’s pretending to be a normal politician either. What’s most likely is that we elect a president who genuinely means well, then drifts into tyranny when their ideas don’t work out. Because here’s the really scary thing about tyrants – most of them really believe what they’re doing is in their country’s best interests. Yes, even socialists think they’re helping the people, or would be if the stupid people would sit still and let themselves be helped.
So the way to fight tyranny is to look for the sort of political ideas that can lead to it, then use our votes and our powers as citizens to keep them out of power.
What sort of political ideas do you need to look out for? In a word, collectivism. The US political tradition is individualist and capitalist. The founders’ vision was of a federal government that could protect the people from threats they couldn’t counter themselves, like foreign invasion. Welfare and most other government functions were to be left to states or lower levels.
The USA was never meant to be an anarchistic, every man for himself nation, but it wasn’t supposed to be collectivist either. Welfare should be a safety net for people who need some temporary help. Instead we now have politicians whose main goal is to take money from the people who earn it and give it to people who don’t. The same people also keep trying to restrict our freedoms, “for our own good.”
Related:What Happens When the Government Becomes Your Worst Enemy
Spotting potential tyrants
Potential tyrants aren’t going to say openly authoritarian things; people who do that are cranks and they’re never going to get elected. Remember, future tyrants don’t see themselves that way. They have a bunch of ideas they believe will help people, but once in office they’ll get frustrated we don’t seem to want to be helped, and they’ll try to force us to go along with them.
So watch out for politicians with big plans. The “Green New Deal”? That’s exactly the sort of thing that can lead to despotism when its architects give in to frustration. If a politician wants to do something radical there’s always a risk of it morphing into tyranny. Look for politicians that make sensible, moderate proposals. Someone who want to fix things that used to work but don’t now, or make gradual changes, is probably going to be fine. Someone who wants radical chance could be fine, but the more radical ideas the more vulnerable they are to becoming a tyrant.
Be ready to cross party lines. Our two main political parties are big tents and there’s a surprising amount of overlap between them. In recent years things have become more partisan and that overlap is smaller than it used to be, but it’s still significant. When elections at any level come round, read what the candidates say they want to do (and compare it with their past voting records, if they have one). Then vote for the candidate who values freedom over the one who wants more bans, laws and restrictions – even if they’re from the party you don’t usually vote for.
Make libertarianism your political baseline. What other people do is none of our business, unless it harms us. If we stand by while the government bans things other people like, who’s going to help when they ban things that matter to us? Whenever politicians at any level suggest a new restriction or ban, do some research. Is there a good reason for the ban? If not, oppose it. Write to your town council, state politicians or congressman to oppose it.
Do this even if it’s not something that matters to you personally. For example, right now many states and cities are banning or restricting vaping. That makes no difference to you if you don’t vape – but if you support the vapers now, they’ll remember that. When politicians try to ban ham radio, or keeping chickens in a residential area, or “high capacity” magazines, some of those vapers will support you. Even if you personally disapprove of something, unless it’s actually causing you harm you should fight to keep it legal. By doing this you’re maintaining the habit of freedom.
Writing letters, joining protests and even voting aren’t the most exciting ways to fight oppression, but they’re definitely the most effective. If it gets to the point where the only way to defend your freedom is to pick up a rifle, your freedom has already gone – and the government has the firepower to stop you getting it back. Let’s win the fight now, when we can do it bloodlessly.
You may also like:
5 Things You Need to Do When There’ll Be No Rule of Law
Backyard Projects That Might Get You Arrested (Video)
I like the “nip it in the bud” approach to tyranny.
But hot lead works too.
Sigh …….
We have such a tyrant in office now. Wake up. He is dangerous.
you obviously, either didn’t read the whole article..or didn’t comprehend it…Anyhow, our President does things which support our rights and the constitution…unlike the prior one which did things that restrict those rights and disassembled the constitution…you know that “negative document”
Good food for thought. Thanks!
Voting doesn’t work. The tyrannical politicians will still steal the election from the people as they’ve proven on November 3rd.
I just read your comment, and wondered till I saw the date. For a second I thought you were someone who had gone do-lally, I mean anyone who gives Sleepy Joe credit is, well…
Hold a second. You saying Biden is less tyrannical then anyone else? You must be high on the spectrum or just a idiot. Wake the F up before you are playing checkers in a FEMA camp. Shut off CNN
We need more, normal people in government, not career politicians! No telling how far ahead we would have been had the liberals not led so much interference during Trumps entire term!!
4Trump: That is the absolute truth. When our country was founded life expectancy was considerable shorter than it is now. Most politicians and bureaucrats didn’t last in office fifty and sixty years. Circuit judges rode circuit riding from town to town hearing cases. How many times in western movies have you heard, “The judge will be here to hear the case next Wednesday (or some other date)? That was such a physical drain given the lack of luxury hotels, paved roads and air conditioned automobiles that judges didn’t last long.
That’s why our forefathers overlooked term limits. It seemed superfluous in their day. Franklin was the rare exception and there were men and women like him but they were very rare.
They thought more in terms of the citizen statesman much as they were against a standing army, hence the reference to a well-regulated militia.
I won’t go into a long winded definition of well-regulated but it doesn’t mean what a lot of anti-gunners now think it meant.
Not sure when you typed this, and since I’m writing this from at least a year in the future from your comment I gotta ask if you still feel the same as you did a year ago and do you still stand by this statement? And I’m not passing any judgment bc if I would have read your comment a year ago I would have liked it and then scrolled down to find a “liberal” to troll, but in hindsight I realize just how ignorant that would have been. We have all been played against each other, and it’s really quite a shame. Nobody has ever been elected, and we’ve never been free, at best we’ve had the illusion of freedom and it has only gotten harder and harder to ignore with each generation that passes this incredible enslavement and oppression on to their kids.
I just woke up with your mom.
I wasn’t going to respond to this thirteen year old cretin, but I changed my mind. Apparently he just learned something new from his likewise mentally challenged companions and the first time he used it in public got a broken nose, two black eyes and a couple of front teeth loosened so he decided to go on line where he can use it without danger of physical pain.
Certainly has contributed some outstanding thought to a topic that is of deep concern to many of us, no matter which side of the aisle we are on.
While I may not agree with someone’s opinion, such a Green Lady, while what I considered a reasoned argument may not change her opinion, there is no doubt whatsoever that an insult will definitely not change anyone’s opinion. No matter how ill-considered one may consider another’s opinion, calling them dumb or stupid just hardens them in their belief.
Chuck: that military bearing never leaves us 🙂 Keep up the good work. niio
Cordoba: Can’t be my mom. She doesn’t do perverts. 🙂 Most here do not understand the humor in what you said. Not their way to joke around. Even in Mexico, I mind who I’m talking too. too many outsides moved there. walk in beauty
Is that what you call your hand now?
Is that what you call your hand today?
The tyrants are everywhere now, boycotting every business that speaks, getting people fired from their jobs, telling their employees which books to read and where to donate money. If there is a tyrant in office, it’s because those of you that are cancelling freedom put him there. 62 % of Americans are afraid to speak up anymore. Somebody has to stop the madness. Our cities are burning down and our government is standing by and watching. And the president is dangerous? He needs to be at this point.
You must be using Internet Explorer, because the Tyrant left office January 20, 2017.
JAH: Where do you live, Outer Mongolia? Go to any liberal state and see tyrants. Go to any Biden/Harris rally or the dinosaur news media. Obama is still in the picture and most of all, soros, a major tyrant.
Trump wasn’t that much of a friend to the 2a community and had the same issues of over spending and running up the debt like everyone else.
His push for the vaccine is the reason why i won’t vote for him again in 2024 if he runs again. Not that voting makes a difference anyways.
Jesse Unruh, called Big Daddy by lots of folks, ruled the California assembly during the senior Brown administration. He was often quoted as saying, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”
He was right. Nothing gets a politician’s attention like donations to his campaign. While working for the campaign is fine, getting donations from your friends for a politician that meets your standards in what you believe and presenting him with a bunch of checks from individuals will make a bigger impression than putting up a sign in your yard.
You have to be careful that all the checks are made out to the politician’s campaign and not personally and they cannot be made out to you. There are almost as many laws governing campaign finance as there are regarding firearms and they are as arcane and confusing as firearm laws. The CA Department of Injustice was recently found violating one of their own gun regulations. Guess they didn’t read the fine print.
If you have any doubts about it check with the candidate’s campaign finance chairman and make sure you are doing it the right way. His opponent will be quick to blow the whistle on you and your candidate if you even unwittingly cross over the hairline that exists between legal and illegal.
Working in the campaign office as a volunteer is also helpful and gets you close to people who influence the candidate. It gives you a chance to voice your opinion, but don’t be like me, try to be a little more subtle than a bull in a china shop.
There is a difference between a man who can work out a satisfactory compromise and a man who has no guiding principles and blows with the wind. It is hard sometimes to be able to tell the difference. Unfortunately, too many people who have been in politics a long time no longer are able to discern the difference between reasonable compromise and no principles. Then too, there are the “IT’s my way or the highway” folks who rarely accomplish anything. Beware the politician who brags about how many bills he has introduced and gotten passed. What we really seek in our representatives is quality, not quantity. One significant bill in a term that does a lot of good is far better than a myriad of nit-picky bills that accomplish little or do more harm than good.
You’re right about stopping the tyrants. But most of us who want to stop the tyrants are also wanting to stop the other BS that’s going on with how government and media control us. We try to live lives away from that particular BS and believe in a better world, that we also hide in, away from interaction of the socialistic tyrants.
In other words we are lazy and don’t want to be bothered, so therefore we don’t have many freedom activists in action against the rioting tyrants. My suggestion would be to start gathering volunteers to be on a call list and use them when needed. The minute-men were volunteers.
GP Gator
Your right! Dead right! Support the vapors. They won’t be around when you need them! Don’t support the Green New Deal. Maintain our individualism. . .and be dead! I don’t support the Green New Deal, but we have to do something and we have to do it together and now, or we’ll all be dead. And someone who brings us together is not necessarily a tyrant. We usually call them a leader.
you should really not be smoking whatever it is that you are smoking….
Greenlady: Can you tell me how many distinct and separate climate shifts there have been since The Romans took power in Italy?
Can you tell me what happened to the glaciers that used to cover North America, Northern Europe and Asia? Did the heat that came from the Neanderthals campfires cause the warming that resulted in the glaciers shrinking back to far northern latitudes? I seriously doubt it.
The hysteria that has been generated by folks who are more interested in government money than the truth reminds me of witch hunts in the Middle Ages.
The hard SCIENTIFIC truth is that plants need carbon dioxide in order to thrive. In a high oxygen atmosphere plants wither and die. Even with the minuscule amount of CO2 increase in our atmosphere botanists have noticed increased green growth in natural areas.
I’m going to leave it at that. You have apparently bought into the soylent green story, but just to confirm your own beliefs investigate the answer to the question I asked you at the beginning. The answer is 5 but you really should look them up and see what happened.
Comparing temperatures today while we are in a warming period to temperatures in the 19th century which was the end of The Little Ice Age is like comparing ox carts to Maseratis.
Noah: “There’s a flood coming and nobody can stop it. Everybody build a boat”.
Ancient snowflakes: We don’t need a boat, we need carbon credits and a green new deal. Peer reviewed scientists tell us that it’s all man made and we just need to raise taxes and eliminate elephant flatulence to stop it. Get an education, you redneck science denier”.
Noah: ” It’s been coming for millennia. Core samples and historical data show it’s happened before and will happen again. Solar activity indicates that we can’t stop it, we can only prepare to survive it. Everybody build a boat”.
Ancient snowflakes: ” You’re an uneducated, Walmart dwelling, toothless, redneck science denier. You’re science denying scientists are lying. Get an education, you redneck science denier”.
Noah: “Cast off all lines. Get underway. There’s still time for everybody to build a boat”.
Ancient snowflakes:” We demand you make room for us! We have a basic human right to take your boat away from you! Get an education, you redneck science denier”.
Noah: “You should have prepared to survive it instead of thinking you could stop it with fascist laws and regulations. Too late to build a boat now”. Ancient snowflakes: “Everybody to your safe space. We need to hold a cry in and decide what to do. Get an education, you redneck science denier”. Noah:” See y’all around. Should’ve built a boat”.
Ancient snowflakes: “We’re going to redistribute your boat. Come back here. This is my time. I’m the boss. You racist, homophobe, Islamaphobe. Get an edu…..Glug…Glug…Girgle….Girgle…”
Noah: “Make earth great again. Good sturdy boat”.
tomk: When people sneer that God murdered all those people, I come back, you never read it, but accept PC. Noah spent a century warning people a massive natural disaster was coming and was laughed at. Like you folks are laughing until it’s too late. And now, it’s too late, again. niio
Red: I think you misinterpreted tomk’s post. It was a parody on today’s green militants. I thought it was pretty creative writing myself.
chuck: Then I owe him an apology. But, I get disgusted about some things. Green militants in particular. They follow Hitler’s guidelines that the earth is man’s only god. The greenies came from kali to stop a rancher for selling Valle Caldera, where the Rio starts to Native Americans who wanted it for the graze and to put in electric generators using the hot springs. The dems jumped at ti and took the land. Same in the rest of N. Mexico. When the kali-fornian governor there stole water rights from ranchers to give to towns, a lot of rances went under till the Grange stopped him. They got the Grange from Kali to do it and sued hm. but, too late for those who had been arrested for refusing to sell. And then the greenies watched in shock when housing developers feed on dying ranch. Greenies and developers both paid for Richardson to run, but developers paid a little more to have him help them. We were mocked as bigots because his mother was Mexican. I said, and most agreed, he’s not a godling just because his mother spread her legs for a white, his father. That was a cat among the liberal pigeons 🙂 niio
Red, off topic, but important. Just got done reading Teresa Fikes article about living off grid (almost). Wanted to see if she wrote about it, but it appears she is romance writer. Didn’t you mention once that you are a writer? What kind of books? Any that talk about your lifestyle? Under what pen name?
Gov: Survival. Any genre, but most of them are SF and Western, and they do go well together as Heinlein said. I stopped publishing because I’m disabled. You have to be able to travel to do book signings et al. That’s in the contracts. Even e-book publishers prefer that. I still write, but mostly articles and so on. I got into manuscript research when an editor.
Teresa’s article is good. I bet she puts a lot of prepping into her books. niio
Thanks.
tomk: LLC said I’m wrong, so, taking his words to heart, I apologize. niio
The point I’m trying to make is that it’s happened many times before and it will happen again. We’re being called science deniers by the very people who are denying the scientific evidence that climate change is cyclical and can’t be stopped by raising taxes. Instead of trying to change nature by raising taxes, we should be preparing to live with what we can’t stop, like Noah did.Build a boat now because open borders, green new deal and abortion “rights” won’t keep anybody from drowning when the flood comes.
tomk: I have a Branco political pix where a climate scientist is doing all sorts of equations filling a blackboard. He stops, still unable to figure it out. A little kid watching him takes the chalk and writes IT’S CALLED WEATHER.
niio
Amen.
Tomk
Noah and his family where the only humans left when he was building the boats. The rest where inbreeded with the nephelline. Satan was busy trying to destroy the bloodline so Jesus return wouldn’t happen.
You need to read Agenda 21. The Green New Deal has far less to do with protecting the planet than with destroying America. If they had their way, there would be no private property. We’d all be living in little boxes cities. Notice how the word “sustainability” disappeared? It’s because too many of us caught on to what they meant by it. Pay attention. The Green New Deal won’t go through, but it will reappear in another form with a cozy name.
Gov: It always does. Socialists want a one-world government and don’t care how many they kill to do it.to them, the end justifies the means, and only America stands between them and success. By creating a Wiemar Republic in the US, they destroy the world economy. People have starved to death because of it but they do not care. Watch what Soros does. He’s called the key indicator of the economy. niio
Lol dead how? Voting doesn’t work or matter
Green lady,
Have you read Agenda 21? Look it up! It’s about control, but not of the climate.
It’s hard for me to believe that we are winning the war in Afghanistan. The only real areas we control are the bases but they are like the army forts during our conquering of the Indians. Yeah, the troops were safe inside the fort but the indians controlled all the land outside the fort.
Every time our troops go out they are in indian country. We are going to pull out and declare victory after we sign a treaty with them that will be violated thirty seconds after the last of our planes takes off. Despite our sophisticated firepower and air power they have managed to fight us successfully to a standstill with basically infantry weapons. Sure they have machine guns and mortars and rpgs but those are the basic weapons of an infantry company. They have no large artillery unless it is a piece they captured from the Russians or us. They have no helicopters, no tanks, no heavy trucks, little in the way of medical support or other logistical support. Most of their troops can’t read or write and I think the best we can say about the situation is that it is a draw. They can’t get us out of the country unless we willingly withdraw. We can’t defeat them on their home turf.
We sure massed tremendous amounts of firepower against the Vietnamese. They didn’t have air power, they didn’t have sea power, they had limited armor and never massed the artillery that we had. They weren’t the ones who cut and ran.
I think the author seriously misunderstands asymmetrical warfare and its eventual effect on organized military. I don’t think armed suppression in this country would be as easy as the author portrays. I think it would be protracted and extremely bloody and would leave the country devastated for perhaps centuries. It might even leave the country divided into several segments and it would be the end of the United States as we know it.
When I contemplate the direction the country seems headed I am glad I am old and won’t see its ultimate destruction.
I think this pandemic is going to be responsible for a lot to changes in the country that we won’t like all in the name of “safety.” Just like 9/11 resulted in massive changes that have proved to very detrimental to our freedoms, this pandemic is going to be another blow against freedom.
Ordering Americans to remain in their homes? Ordering business closed? Stopping traffic from one state to another such as was reported happening to traffic emanating from New York into neighboring states?
Certainly public officials should be advising citizens to stay home and advising businesses to be mindful of the health of their employees and customers. If all your customers are dead, it will have done you little good to have remained open to help spread the disease. I would rather see the politicians urging good conduct and perhaps even urging boycotting business that do stay open, but ordering closures I think is against everything we purportedly stand for.
I agree. We are losing our freedom…This current pandemic is merely the tip of the Iceberg. Truth be told the forces of tyranny are using this “crisis” to gain control of our daily lives. It is highly likely that soon people will begin to get very stupid thus ushering in more and more control ie curfew, martial law more and more tightening.Will any politician stand up and advocate for ” people to use good conduct or by boycotting businesses who put people at higher risk?” Sadly this won’t happen. Politicians are basically whores for the $$$$…Hey, a career in elected office has become extremely lucrative. We don’t want an every man for himself scenario but I don’t see how that can be avoided. It breaks my freakin’ heart to see this great nation hit the skids. May God help us !
We are lucky to have President Trump at this time. He understands that a heavy-handed martial law approach is not okay here. It would be tempting, because if law enforcement forced people to follow the guidelines, far few people would die. As it is, it is a lose-lose situation for the administration. When it’s all over, they can’t say “Look what a great job we did, only 75,000 people died.”. All they can do is declare a national day of mourning and try to get the economy back on track. Sad.
This is the most unAmerican, anti-Law, anti-Justice, morally bankrupt, demonically possessed president in our nation’s history. I used to wonder how it would be possible that the whole world will embrace the Antichrist when he comes, as Scripture predicts, but then I saw how Americans embraced this satanic president as a hero and now I totally see how the world will fall.
JSR: No, the clintons were. Obama was, Carter was. Why do you blaspheme God why mocking Him? No, Soros is a demoniac and a good dem. All you do is to encourage Satan to make bigger steps with his neolib slaves.Yes, it’s your right to judge the actions of elected leaders. It’s not for you to claim someone given us by God is evil. No, the whole world is not going to embrace the antichrist. Read the Bible. he would have no wars if everyone accepted him as Soros does.Washington would not have been given the black clouds prophecy if America were to.
if you look at Europe right now, the public is just about done putting up with their politicians and their authoritarian lock downs and such.
Those methods never work in the long term to contain the public. As far as their containing the virus, as more data comes to light it is questionable that it does any real good against it either. it only postpones and lengthens the crises.
Mic: Yeah, got fam in Germany and Austria. Folks tell me both countries have a lot of people who want to break out of the dorky EU and side with Switzerland, which refuses to sign into that black hole.
Scientists are coming out strong against any lock down. Most countries that had none are sailing along fine with a much smaller percentage of deaths and no suicides caused by lock downs.
I have cousins who are biologists and only one wears the mask, and that’s because she almost died in the hot zone. Her lungs had holes eaten in them, so she can’t take a chance but said a mask acts like an incubator. niio
Let’s not forget the lessons learned about tyrants that start out by demonizing segments of the population, criticize the judiciary branch if they disagree with that leader’s actions, disregard the process for staffing critical positions in the government to avoid the required approval by our elected officials, and attack the FREE press if they don’t just fall into line and completely agree with that leader’s agenda.
Don’t forget that just because a leader is saying what you want to hear at the moment doesn’t mean they aren’t a tyrant or have tyrannical tendencies.
So who do you suggest to be in charge currently. Names please.
There is no free press in this country. Their state controlled agenda started in 1861 on orders from the White House.
Flash: No, the news media has always been political. who owns the presses set the agenda and always has.In the north, there were plenty of dems who fought against the war between the states, and plenty of news media in the south who fought against it, as well. The difference being, in the north, they were free to speak out, then could be watched. In the south if you went against PC, the dems, you could be burned out. I had fam on all three sides of the war. North, south, and those who hated both 🙂 Today, we all hate the liberals for their bigotry. niio
Flash: Interesting that you should mention 1861. I just finished reading a book about Lincoln and the War Between the States. It presents history from a significantly different prospective. The book is called Union At All Costs by John M. Taylor. I recommend it for providing a different view of Lincoln and the roots of that sad episode in our history. It is far different from the politically correct pablum that you were served up in schools through college.
Although I was born and raised in Pennsylvania and was fed the same politically correct pablum that the rest of us received, I have always felt in my heart that Lincoln was dead wrong in his actions. This book certainly buttressed that feeling. Lincoln is lauded by blacks for his Emancipation Proclamation — the original illegal executive order. I believe what they don’t realize is that Lincoln only freed slaves in states that were exercising their right to withdraw from the union. He didn’t free a single slave in states that were aligned with his position. In fact, the Fugitive Slave Act remained in full force and effect in northern states. It wasn’t until after the war that the egregious act was rescinded.
This is very interesting. It is so hard to get a real handle on history. Myths are one thing. Deliberate skewing is another. I remember the movement that was, what, maybe over 2 decades ago to do away with the 920 series in the Dewey Decimal system. They wanted to bury biographies in with other books of the period. Part of the effort was allegedly to tamp down the idea that there are figures in history who made a huge difference. One reason was that school children are taught about mostly male, mostly white figures. How wrong-headed! Why not just teach more about other important figures? Especially when the Constitution is under attack, we need to know about America’s founding fathers and their intent.
It is my impression that the Civil War had far less to do with slavery than made out. Will try to get Mr. Taylor’s book. Thanks!
According to the author the war was really about tariffs and money for the federal government. The agricultural south wanted free trade so that they could sell their products abroad and import cheap manufactured goods from overseas.
The industrial north wanted high tariffs so that they could force the agricultural south to buy their overpriced manufactured goods.
Lincoln wanted high tariffs because that was at that time the chief source of funding for the federal government. With low or no tariffs, federal funding would dry up.
According to the author Lincoln actually thought the best solution to the slavery issue was to deport all the blacks back to Africa or some Central American country. He incorrectly though by freeing the slaves in the southern states the slaves would rise up in revolt further hindering the military efficiency of the Confederate Army.
I was especially amused by Lincoln’s stated plan to ship all the blacks (including the ones who were freemen in the north to some unspecified Central American country.
“Look out Nicaragua, the U.S is going to do it to you.” The start of our interventions in Central America.
chuck: No matter how or what, it was a war between conservative Repubs and the Dems. We already had a colony in Africa where free blacks were going, Liberia. Any freed black who wanted to go was given free passage, money and tools.
South, to C. America, most nations still had slaves, no matter what they called them. There was talk by the dems almost from the git-go about the need to secede from the nation.
By 1820 it was being argued in news papers. Buchanan was said to be stockpiling fortifications in states the dems knew would leave if they felt the need. Then the most gross, moronic thing happened, the arrogant dems attacked a federal installations, Ft. Sumter, and screwed it up so badly, people called it a sign from God.
Because of that, a lot of counties and states did not secede. More, others became ambivalent to secession. That there would be a war had been decided long before Lincoln. niio
Thank you Red, there were many factors, some of it was tariffs, north against south, industrial against agricultural, repubs against dems, states rights and on and on. It had been brewing since the Monroe doctrine and much of it was about slavery. In the end the bankers bankrolled both north and south and it was engineered and predetermined.
mdc: At the beginning of the war, the South had the wealth and manpower to defeat the North easily. France and England both put millions into securing that end. No one believed Lincoln would be able to do more than hold what was left of the nation until peace could be found. I had family on all three sides of that war, North, South, and people who hated both. It was always interesting how elders talked about the war, who died, who came home, and what happened as if it were yesterday. The North cited Bible to come against slavery. The South tried, but most were agnostic.the last CW vet in the family died before I was born, but his youngest son was still alive last I heard. niio
Thank you Red, tarifs, north against south, industrial against agriculture, Slavers against freedom, repubs against dems and so on and so on, many factors led to it, not the least , states rights [keeping slaves]. It was predetermined and engineered, the bankers bankrolled both sides, which should tell you a lot. Had been coming on since the Monroe doctrine in 1820 or 21. Peace.
peace to you. Dems will ever be dems. the North was very religious then, and the South not. All factors you mention had been entrenched for decades. They were accepted. Banking anywhere was not all that great because few people trusted banks. You made a deposit, sent a letter to who you were buying from, and they either cashed it in to get out a debt, which was rampant in South, or sent it to an investment firm. Combining investment firms and banking were two separate things. That Southern land barons disdained industry is well known. Even today, dems fight against factories in their states. Yes, the outcome was predetermined. What dems touch, withers. niio
So, Pelosi, little Alexandria, and the “FREE” press are saying exactly what you want to hear at the moment, but far be it from a snowflake tom heed his own advise.
You do realize you very accurately just described the previous administration.
There are a few who I can think of that seem to me to be tyrannical, but this is not a complete list; Pelosi, Shumer, Maria Cantwell, Ocasio Cortez, certain Governors, State and Federal Senators, State and Federal Representatives and Mayors who promote sanctuary cities and the likes of Beto O’rourke and Joe Biden, who want to infringe on our second amendment rights and take away our semi-automatic weapons. Good luck with that gentlemen.
As for voting, we are gradually being out numbered by the liberal minded “I want everything I can get for free from the government, to support me” and illegal immigrants who know they can depend on Uncle Sam. Direct your attention to what has and is taking place in California, where the population is now predominately Hispanic. Research the Hispanic population numbers in the Census. https://www.census.gov/en.html
Special interest groups making financial donations to sitting elected government officials to promote their agendas needs to be limited and accountable, term limits need to be established, proof of citizenship needs to be required to vote, new minimum intellectual requirements should be set for people running for office, ( as in the case of Ocasio Cortez ). Also don’t believe for a minute that our Veterans or our active military are going to participate in our guns being confiscated.
One of biggest problems going forward is that the military is evolving toward solider-less armies, navies,and air forces through robotics. We’ve already seen that with drones. In the future, the battlefield may resemble something out of a sci-fi movie with humans having to fight robots controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). Sad to say, my money will be on the robot. Providing, of course, I’m around to place a bet !!
or worse robots and drones controlled by tyrant humans
Most news sites are getting rid of comments because the commenters are angry, irrational, bigoted, or bots. Now this article is by its nature risky and sure to kindle passionate discussion, but so far the comments are reasonable, insightful, smart. Pretty cool, love reading askaprepper.
My caution would be, don’t be thinking there is a big difference between the parties, and don’t believe for a moment the politicians are in charge.
Tippecanoe: Only till someone detonates a nuke in the atmosphere. Anything unshielded at the time is fried, no matter how good its shielding it. till that happens, you’re 100% right. niio
Ah more right wing shit on here. No wonder most people think we are dangerous anti social extremists.
As a truly far left anti social extremist all I can say is that there is no difference between Pelosi and McConnel. I have a feeling most people commenting on this site have already gone beyond social distancing in their daily lives, hey we’re kind of odd. Now that I see how nice it is not going into town for a month I’m never going into town again.
Mike: If anyone wants to discuss liberalism, I point at Mexico, which once was a wealthy, outgoing nation. Then socialists took it. niio
Referring to the original article, I must say, not all “collectivism” is bad. For example, my friends are involved in a collective for urban gardening that increase self-sufficiency. I have been involved in what might be termed “collectives” for self-help ‘up by the bootstraps’ housing and reasonable rights against local police tyranny at the time (it was in NYC where abuse of power can become rampant). Honestly, creating small local collectives for autonomy from the agribusiness and other systemic horrors is one of the best future-sustaining things we can do. I object to the term being used as it was in the article; perhaps a better word would apply there. I doubt the author meant collectives in the sense I do.
But it was a voluntary collective, not a mandatory collective — at least I hope so. The problem, however, with most collectives is that they rarely stay completely voluntary with everyone having an equal voice. Pretty soon someone wants to be in charge.
I think of the Hippie communes in the northwest. It was supposed to be equal sharing of the burdens and rewards. Till everybody wanted to be an artist and nobody wanted to clean the toilets, but they all wanted to share the rewards equally.
That’s why socialism doesn’t work.
tomk: that’s why the early church was forced to stop using communism. People got lazy and didn’t want to work. Even being forced out to work didn’t help. Then Rome came and wiped out the city anyway. Let’s hope we don’t get a ‘rome’.niio
Also, I strongly disagree that joining protests is “not exciting.” In fact, it is very empowering and exciting.
Yes, it is very empowering and exciting. That’s why it is called mob rule. Lynch mobs are a classic example of exciting and empowering protests. Antifa riots are another example of exciting and empowering protests — until the guns come out. Notice that the Bill of Rights guarantees the right to peaceably assembly, not to riot.
chuck: some protests are better than others. Corona brewery used strike breakers, so the workers devised a simple plan. when on strike, go to work, grab bottles and urinate in them. Let word go out about the strike and what’s being done. If memory serves, Corona is the only brewery in Mexico that doesn’t have Mennonites as stockholders. niio
It seems that people don’t know the difference anymore. So-called protesters are blocking freeways and instead of the police enforcing the law, they are shutting down the roads and basically giving them an escort. WTH? They are protecting the criminals, not the law abiding citizens. Say something about it and you will be fired. Antifa is burning down the cities and the police are told to stand down. No one is stopping the anarchy at all. It appears as if the military finally going in was just momentary and they are leaving without having done anything. What is going on?
Hungary just voted to allow the leaders unlimited power for the emergency. The only good thing is, they still want Soros back for war crimes when he was a Gestapo agent. niio
THE BEST thing to do is to stop the fear mongering by saying that the government is out to get us every time something happens. If anything has been proven over the last four years is that or government is utterly inept and incompetent. And besides, lest anyone forgets, its the Republicans that are in control, and if anyone is going to take away everyone’s guns (like Bush did after Hurricane Katrina) and cause a police state it will be Trump and the GOP who have been working endlessly at trying to roll the red carpet out to the Antichrist and the Apocalypse. The Bible says that it is God’s people who need to repent so He can heal the nation:
“If MY PEOPLE WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME [not the lost sinners] shall humble THEMSELVES and pray and seek My face and turn from THEIR wicked ways ==>THEN <== will I hear from heaven and will forgive THEIR sin and WILL HEAL THEIR LAND!"
-2ndChronicles 7:14
Hopefully ignorance is responsible for your inability to grasp truths because ignorance can be overcome though that would be a low probability.
Neither of our 2 most prominent political parties would be looked upon with grace by our founding fathers. However it should be obvious that one is less likely to lead to a society most of us fear.
Rules: Maybe the repubs, but the news media is owned by the dems. they corrupt and stop everything the repubs want, including investigating slavers. W did all he could after Katrina. If you’ll recall, the dems tried to stop anyone from leaving NO, and then stalled and stole from DEMA–and FEMA was run by a clinton appointee. Trump has his faults, and I don’t mind pointing them out, but to claim he works for Satan is blasphemous. To the dems, you’re a problem. One they want out of the way and will, if you keep helping them.
For all your Bible thumping, you clearly have no real clue about the Anti Christ and the Apocalypse.
Time to quit listening to these religious leaders( Pharisee’s) and find out what the Bible actually teaches on that subject..
Because once you get their (those Pharisee’s), log out of your eye, then maybe you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from another person’s eye!
The Bible says that God appoints the authorities that govern us (Romans 13:1)!
So maybe you better take that problem you have with Trump and the GOP, directly with him.
Mic: Amen. niio
Hitler was elected by popular vote. So was coke Nose Billy Clinton, Obama. Castro. FDR. Wilson. Each took over and destroyed.
niio
So the tyrant was probably just elected. Not Biden who is a Trojan horse for Harris. Biden will never finish his term. Read her words. She expects to rule by executive order and believes in equal achievement for everyone. That’s communism folks. The first necessary step is elimination of firearms which she said she would do if elected. Will you be ready and organized for that day. When it starts its too late.
Scott: It’s not over. Giuliani said now that the voting is done, Trump can put armed DoJ agents in the counting rooms. All across the country people are demanding recounts of only ballots that were in by 9 PM. We disgusted by the dnc 3rd world terrorism tactics.
I find it slightly irritating and disappointing when people talk about freedom, and then talk about the political system as though presidents are not selected. Wake up!