George Rebane
[This is the linked transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 15 February 2013.]
Today everyone knows that we are a polarized nation and becoming more so by the day. I want to talk about the reaction of a large segment of Americans who see their country slipping away. This perception did not start yesterday and has been some decades in the making. But where before it was seen as an erosion that slowly ate away bit by piece at what we hold dear, since Barak Obama’s election that process has accelerated to what many now see as a runaway train headed in the wrong direction and toward a cliff.
If we ignore his campaign pronouncements, President Obama’s ‘08 election promised much. It was a coming of age when we finally filled the last branch of government with an eloquent speaker full of big ideas who was not lily white. But we could not discount his words because they accurately foretold of the fundamental transformation of America that he had promised. It was only the ‘you don’t have to worry’ assurances about his new regime that we could discount and do so totally.
Before being elected he toured overseas, preaching and apologizing for the evils of America, and promised to make things right. In his speeches he celebrated, some say worshipped, the way other countries were governed, how they generated wealth, and how the state enabled and contributed to the people’s wellbeing at all levels. He told us we had a lot to learn about how to fix our own problems. And the first part of that learning involved letting our government become a much bigger part of our own lives, even if it meant giving up some long held liberties for the benefit of all.
The response in 2009 was hearteningly swift. Americans at all levels took notice and began to voice opposition to this new and strange messiah. Recognizing commonality in their voices, they joined in various organizations that came to be called the tea parties. Espousing constitutional government, fiscal propriety, free enterprise, and maintenance of individual liberties, these organizations were able to gain the House of Representatives in 2010. But that gain turned out to be the only one as 2012 passed, and even that was diminished in Congress.
In the meanwhile we saw an imperial presidency grow and evolve into an administration that considers Congress and the Constitution optional appendages, used only when convenient to convince the electorate that nothing essential had changed or was changing now. A more detailed view of Washington’s omnibus reach and operations told a different story. New regulations became a torrent while government departments continued to fortify themselves with new levels of armaments that before had only seen duty in the military. Historically unarmed departments began buying and wearing guns. Incidents of paramilitary government thuggery grew, and it was clear from new initiatives launched against the 1st and 2nd Amendments that this government was becoming very afraid of its own citizens.
The reaction has been a sense of alarm at local levels that have felt the heavy hand of uninvited and illegal federal interventions in counties and regionally, enforcing new diktats freshly minted by the federal bureaucracies. A large scale response starting in the western states was the formation of the Constitutional Sheriffs – individual county sheriffs who promised to draw the line on egregious federal contraventions of local laws while end-running local law enforcement officials. Concurrently the long slumbering John Birch Society has awakened and is going around the country explaining the related evils of the UN’s Agenda 21 design of our future. Just recently they gave a presentation at the Nevada City Elks Club that was attended by two hundred locals of all political stripes.
And now the tea parties across America are putting away their crying towels, and regrouping for the good fight coming in 2014. Things are really starting to stir again after President Obama told us that we have seen nothing compared to what he intends to transform in the next four years. Millions of people believe him, and have been stocking up for all kinds of contingencies that today look very real.
Here in Nevada County you will have a chance to see what all the fuss is about when another new organization to combat government overreach – the Oathkeepers – comes to town on February the 19th. On that evening at the GV Veterans Center you will be able to hear Oathkeepers founder Stewart Rhodes lay out what is happening, and how this organization of civilians, veterans, and law enforcement officials intends to respond. Then you will know what people who live at the other pole are really thinking.
My name is Rebane, and I expand on this and related themes on georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively. However these views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
[18feb13 update] The Australian experience with gun bans and confiscations (video). And here's one (video) from California, the idiots' delight – a police chief who daily confirms that the government is the employer of last resort.
rebanesruminations.com 
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