It’s time for a little revolution here:
We need some government, obviously, but at this point in American history, in order to save our nation, we need to get the state as much as possible out of our lives, to cut its functions with a meat cleaver to release our better impulses, to have the renewal of Spring. Deep down even some modern liberals realize this. (Bill Clinton famously said the era of big government is over before running the other way as if in fear of his own honesty.)
In this coming crucial year, those of us who feel the overweening state is the problem must reach out our hands to our fellow citizens as never before. My sense is that many of them are ready to hear our message. (The fiasco of Obamacare has been a gift in that regard.) And if we don’t reach out our hands, there will be no American Spring. Things will only get worse. (The horrific attempt of the FCC to monitor newsrooms is a harbinger of totalitarian things to come.)
I am one of those eternal optimists who think we are on the brink of this American Spring. Another, whether he knows it or not, is ironically Joe Trippi, once the campaign manager for Howard Dean, a statist of the first order. (See Trippi’s interview with Reason magazine in which he foresees a libertarian-oriented president in the near future.) Possible allies can be found in more quarters than we know.
As Glenn Reynolds notes, it may already be starting to happen:
This is more “Irish Democracy,” passive resistance to government overreach. The Hartford (Conn.) Courant is demanding that the state use background-check records to prosecute those who haven’t registered, but the state doesn’t have the resources and it’s doubtful juries would convict ordinary, law-abiding people for failure to file some paperwork.
We need a lot more civil disobedience.
“Never! Stay true to Dear Leader, loyal serfs! Devotion to liberty is the first refuge of the scoundrel! ”
—Baghdad Jim (or maybe “dn-guy”–they’re starting to sound very much alike)
Was Occupy Wall Street an attempt at an American Spring?
No, it was pretty much the opposite, to the degree that it had any coherence at all.
No, OWS was a bunch of losers whinning for more free stuff.
OWS–Woodstock for economic ignoramuses. Dn-guy must have enjoyed himself.
OWS was an attempt to install a North Korean style government. Very amusingly, a bunch of OWS protesters were asked about North Korea and they described it as a worker’s paradise. They are among the stupidest and potentially most violent people on the planet, but thank God they’re mind-numblingly incompetent at even simple tasks like finding a job at McDonald’s. Their life expectancy in a revolution would be measured in minutes or hours.
George, I think you’re being a bit harsh on the OWS folks. Wouldn’t it be better to be generous to them and just give them what they so earnestly desire?
I’m thinking we ought to send them on a trip to the land they so admire: the paradise that is North Korea. It wouldn’t cost all that much, just the one way tickets.
I’m sure it would make them very happy to be off to that land of their dreams. I know it’d make me happy to see them go.
And, just so they won’t get bored, we could remind them that the Dear Leader, little Kim, just loves getting advice and lectures from people like them.
Think of it as our good deed for the day. 🙂
Sadly, the North Koreans wouldn’t let them in.
We need a lot more civil disobedience.
Here you go.
An Open Letter to the Men and Women of the New York State Police. The Deadline Approaches. What do you intend to do?
Ah, Glenn Reynolds, State Employee calling for revolution against the state.
Maybe he should get a job at a private college, but that would require
getting out of his armchair.
Yeah, that really refutes Reynolds’ points, Mensa Kid.