Power To The People

Or The Other Way Around?

And the hits just keep on coming.

Back in the sixties the youth of the land, at least those so inclined, would participate in periodic protests, many of which were organized by our mortal enemies, and designed to push us towards a Communist dictatorship. No doubt the participants felt a warm glow of moral and intellectual superiority, and many went on to careers in academia where they subverted the culture of academia into one of a warm glow of moral and intellectual superiority along with rigid, unyielding thought.

Prominent of their slogans was the one that went “Power to the People,” the true meaning of which was power to the Left who, while ruling with an iron hand, would claim that they are the people. ( Communism may be bad for the people, but it's wonderful for the ruling class.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_(slogan)

The sad thing is that many no doubt believed that they were indeed promoting a more egalitarian world while, never really having left Beaver Cleaver land, were unaware of the nature of the world outside of the U.S. That our Constitution with our Bill of Rights gave more power to the people than most anywhere on Earth was not in the forefront of their thoughts. (Of course, many protesters were just out having a fun day.)

"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." ~ Thomas Jefferson

Whether or not a given individual really wants power to reside in the people seems like one of those gut feeling things, maybe it's not even clear to the experiencer whether he truly feels that way, or deep down wants a powerful controller in charge. How many people truly want freedom? Many are probably a mixture of the two. Who knows?

Much of the power lost from the people comes from the simple enlargement of the various bureaucracies of government, which just sort of crowd out the will of the people. A sort of slow evolution toward top down rule.

The Second Amendment of the Bill of rights gives real power to the people, so now many of those who were shouting about power to the people in their youth are now on television, in government or in academia shouting Power Over The People, though they may not realize it. They attack even the basic premise of self defense, claiming it is somehow an evil if people can protect themselves.

https://drp314.substack.com/p/the-demonizing-of-self-defense

“The right of the citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.” Hubert Humphrey, Democrat, U.S Senator and Vice President

They're not too keen on the First Amendment, either. They don't like people online picking away at their sacred cows and generally making it hard to hoodwink people. England wants to arrest people in America if they say something they don’t like, and presidential candidate Harris is complaining that there is not enough control over what is said on the internet. There was even the arrest in France of the Telegram CEO. Liberals once supported freedom of speech and the Bill of Rights in general, though they somehow thought American conservatives didn't. When did our liberals turn into freedom hating Marxists? Apparently, one must distinguish between liberals and leftists, although leftists claim the name of “liberal.” (And can we please say out loud that Hitler was a Leftist?)

An armed populace constitutes real, actual physical power in the hands of the people. Anyone who opposes it does not support “power to the people” no matter what else they say. The other protections of the Bill of Rights, being rules but non-physical, may be simply done away with.

Popular among 2A supporters is the idea of the four boxes. The idea is that the protections to liberty contained in the Bill of Rights consist of the ballot box, the jury box, the soap box and the cartridge box. Upon inspection one notices that only the last consists of real, physical objects. A tyrannical government may simply do away with voting, corrupt the court system and eliminate freedom of speech. They would no doubt declare the private possession of arms to be illegal, but collecting them would be a monumental task.

https://drp314.substack.com/p/the-four-boxes

The people of the United States as a whole have something of a unique mind set, valuing individual liberty and being both suspicious of and resistant to top down centralized authority. Much of this comes from the culture of the Scots-Irish, a major group of immigrants with a long history of first escaping the Roman Empire into Scotland and Ireland, fighting off the Romans, constantly fighting the British, then immigrating to Northern Ireland and finally to America where they lived on the frontiers.

Centuries of conflict bred in them the aforementioned qualities, which have infected a great deal of the rest of the populace, and many other types of immigrants were happy to leave behind their own lands of kings and embrace freedom as well. I think much of the impetus for the American Revolution simply came from all of the people who had been fighting the empire forever. This attitude may may the single most important weapon in our fight against those who would be our kings.

This link is to a book by James Webb, former Marine Vietnam veteran, Secretary of the Navy and U.S. Senator, and a member of the Scots-Irish community, about their history ind influence :

https://www.amazon.com/Born-Fighting-Scots-Irish-Shaped-America/dp/0767916891

(My own forebear of patrilineal descent, Patrick Poe, immigrated from Ulster, Ireland in 1726.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_Americans

“The right of the citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.”   Hubert Humphrey, Democrat, U.S Senator and Vice President

https://drp314.substack.com/p/second-amendment-quotes

The Left of course always maintain that they are for the people, so such slogans as “power to the people” make sense, it's just that they don't actually support the people. But of course it's not just the Left, any politician worth his salt will make a compelling case for why he is the only candidate on the side of the people, and will restore power to them. Fat chance.

"Modern society is hypnotized by socialism. It is prevented by socialism from seeing the mortal danger it is in. And one of the greatest dangers of all is that you have lost all sense of danger, you cannot even see where it's coming from as it moves swiftly towards you." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I think people in general are sort of caught between two competing thought patterns. On the one hand most everyone wants freedom, and on the other hand people can't help but go around dreaming up imaginative ways to improve the world, most of which require the use of force for their implementation and maintenance. In fairness, many just don't realize the degree, or even the necessity, of said force, but you can be sure there will be control freaks ready to take advantage.

"During my time in the camps, I had got to know the enemies of the human race quite well: they respect the big fist and nothing else; the harder you slug them, the safer you will be." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Stay Brave, Stay Free