“I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees.”
I’d rather live on my feet than die on my knees.

John, you are an idealist to the end.

When one is outnumbered or under equipped one has to use asymetrical techniques.

Agreed.  I didn’t say I wouldn’t.  I will say that the more Americans that stand up on their hind legs and bellow in rage, the less likely a kinetic confrontation becomes necessary.

Fascism is a collectivist phenomenon.

Agreed.  Which is why I place it on the Left of the traditional Left / Right political spectrum.  Most on the Left, have been taught it is on the Right.

It is characterised by the government directing the course of major businesses without totally taking them over (nationalization).

You mean like a convoluted progressive income tax system, with myriad loopholes, exemptions, and tax credits for conducting business the way the politicians prefer?

Bush’s intent seems to be to direct the policy of the banks without actually nationalizing them. He could also “regulate” them to force compliance to the governments wishes. A third fascist technique is to deny market freedoms to non compliant businesses. This was the way companies were manoeuvred into making sub prime loans to extremely risky individuals.

Yeah, like that.

To me the danger to the Republic has always been Fascism, but Obama may change that, after all he claims to be for change.

Oh, we’ll get change alright.  The more I learn of his background the more frightening the man becomes.  He is a radical Marxist revolutionary, who was groomed for this.  The con job that is being perpetrated on us is stunning in its depth, breath, and implications.  There are serious people with their hair on fire over it, and they are being totally ignored, treated as nut jobs, and/or viciously attacked by our supposed free adversarial press.

Lawsuits are being filed in State courts all over the country challenging his qualifications to hold the office, and he and the DNC are expending time and resources fighting them rather than just produce his birth certificate to a judge. That alone smells fishy to me.  Meanwhile, time is running out.  It is truly mind-blowing. ◄Dave►

Not on my watch. Fascism is a Left Wing phenomenon, not Right Wing. The tendency you ascribe to the present administration will only escalate under Obama. Not only do the Progressives hanker to control the levers of our economy, they are far less tolerant of dissenting viewpoints than the right. However, the Progressives have been embarked on a very long range project programing the minds of our youth, to achieve their agenda through carefully orchestrated societal change. They are on the cusp of victory, and the Oligarchy would be very foolish to impatiently jump the gun before our generation of Vietnam veterans dies out or becomes enfeebled.

Realistically, they have far weightier matters on their plate at the moment, than concerning themselves with the feckless laments of an old man on an obscure blog. The two greatest pleasures left in my life are thinking and writing. I reckon I’ll indulge them for as long as I can. If an occasional reader says to himself, “Hmmm… I hadn’t looked at it that way before…” so much the better. If not, that is fine too… I will have enjoyed myself just writing it.

Again, I am not trying to start or lead ARII; it won’t need me to start it and far more talented men will be available to lead it. However, I have had the occasion to swear to uphold and defend the Constitution several times in my life, and to my mind those oaths never expired. If still able, when duty again calls I will grab my musket and turn out. Tyranny cannot be allowed a cakewalk over our rights as freemen. Not on my watch. ◄Dave►

The revolution is coming, whether I get a chance to participate or not; and I will not be the leader or even one of them.  At most, I am a pamphleteer; and last I heard, the First Amendment was still in force. At my age, ARII is as likely to begin after my demise as before. There are lots of frustrated Americans on the Left and the Right, whose heads are in the same dark places as Messrs. Ayers and McVeigh were when they acted. My fear is that they will continue to buy the politicians Left/Right dogma and be steered toward fighting each other in a Civil War II (CWII), rather than joining together as Americans for ARII.

It is not that hard to notice that both extremes are convinced that the government and the MSM are currently controlled by the other side. Even though both obviously can’t be true, each believes it. This convinces them that their enemies are in the other camp, rather than simply the government oligarchy itself. My point in penning the above was to suggest that they may have more in common than they think, not the least of which is a common foe, which is not each other.

We are all Americans, and were it not for the politicians keeping us at each others’ throats for their own purposes, chances are we could work out our differences civilly; and focus our energies on attaining the American Dream the same way our forebears did, rather than expecting the political hacks to arrange it for us. The cost to our Liberty, which they exact for that dubious service, is much too dear to pay. ◄Dave►

In the original post the paragraph starting with “All the more so, —” and ending with ” The smell of revolution is in the air, and I for one find myself almost looking forward to it. What other recourse do we have left, since they doggedly ignore our repeated pleas for sanity and relief?” looks to me like “bait’” to proselytize other similarly oriented folks to join you in revolution no matter what their ideological underpinnings.
Next the word terrorism covers a lot of ground. It is used to describe agents (of a cause) who will involve themselves in acts all the way from psychological intimidation to wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians. The founding fathers probably were viewed as terrorists by the British crown although the word did not come into use until the excesses of the French revolution. Substantively, their is a large difference between the acts of Ayers and McVeigh. Regardless of who views who as a terrorist one has to judge actions as good or bad on a philosophical basis. I will quit now since I understand it is not appropriate to get too “wordy” on a blog.

Dave, you are a pragmatist to the end.

I suppose I can live with that condemnation. The alternative is to allow the unprincipled oligarchy to keep any malcontents, at all inclined to thwart their agenda, busy hating and fighting each other over foolish ideological dogmas, and ultimately turning to the actual culprits of their malaise for salvation.

Phishing for terrorists from the socialist and fascist wings.

Please explain this fragment. I cannot decode “phishing for terrorists…” Perhaps we disagree over the definition of phishing; but if internet identity theft has anything to do with this, it went over my head.

Because men have “unbending principles” doesn’t make them worthy of ones consideration and/or cooperation if those principles are evil.

Perhaps you are right. I consider altruism evil, whether practiced by Marxists on the Left, or Christians on the Right or Left. Together, they make up at least 90% of the population, leaving me feckless among a tiny minority of other individualists who probably don’t trust me either. Organizing libertarians toward a common cause is like herding cats… it will never work. Rather than be condemned as a Pragmatist, I should resign myself to be blown about by the chill winds of change orchestrated by the oligarchy, or perhaps just go dig a lonely foxhole in Galt’s Gulch and watch the land of my Fathers self-destruct, as the sheeple follow their messiah over the cliff.

Besides, if I were to be caught even thinking of doing what our Founders would have unquestionably done in these identical circumstances, the Politically Correct Thought Police would have me in the docket roundly condemned as a terrorist of the first order. Abandon all hope, Ye Evil Sons of Liberty; the Progressives now in control of the Oligarchy have the sole franchise on Pragmatism, and will brook no alliances among all the terrorists who oppose them. Divide and conquer still works; the old “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” paradigm is passé. ◄Dave►