Ponder this
http://www.freecongress.org/
Free Congress Commentary
By Christopher Laurenzano
October 6, 2000
An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh
October 1, 2000
Dear Rush:
I’m writing to you in response to a caller who phoned in, I think, on Monday, September 12. I was travelling that day and heard your program on my car radio.
The caller, whose name I have forgotten, voiced his concern that, as he saw it, in ten years or so there would be an armed insurrection against the government, given the current situation in American politics, particularly at the federal level. The threats to freedom and liberty which would cause this revolt -- political correctness, ever increasing taxes, expanding government programs and the necessary oppressiveness which it engenders, etc. are well known to you and your listeners and I don’t think need to be reiterated here in detail.
While the caller may not have had very specific answers to some of your questions and concerns -- where this event might occur, how many people would be involved, etc. -- he did not sound at all “crazy” or “ranting” in any way. He stated his belief in a tone that I think was calm and rational sounding and he did not ramble or piece together disjointed ideas to make his point.
Let me be up front and say that I am a political conservative like you and the caller, and that I also agreed with him and have held the same opinion for some time. But your response to him, I felt, was dismissive, and unfortunately, somewhat typical towards those who express an opinion which many would consider outside of the mainstream. And I think your reaction also displayed a naivete and shortsightedness about the history of this nation.
I recall your saying, after he hung up, that “this is why I don’t take more calls,” and “I can’t believe there’s this kind of talk in the United States of America”; I’m not sure if those were your exact words, so I may be paraphrasing. You also asserted that the ballot box was the way to solve the problems facing this nation, and there weren’t enough concerned people in the country to effect your caller’s prediction.
At any rate, while you never explicitly called him a “kook” or any other pejorative term, it was clear from the tone of your voice that you thought he was at least a little paranoid or off the wall.
To begin with, let me be a little more specific than your caller. I’m going to guess this event will occur anywhere between ten or twenty years from now -- definitely within my lifetime at the most (I’ll be thirty-two years old at the end of December). And I’ll guess it will begin out West -- Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, if for no other reason than the citizens out there, because of their locale and the kind of life they lead, are still very independent-minded and don’t like environmentalists like Bruce Babbitt and federal land management officials running roughshod over their rights and property. The Northeast and the Old South are gone. However, as these are just general guesses they are open to revision.
Make no mistake though, Rush: if things do not change -- and notice I leave the possibility that it can get better, but if things keep going the way they are right now, there will, not may, but will -- be another rebellion. And I use the word “another” on purpose.
How do you think the United States got its start, Rush? It wasn’t called the American Revolution for nothing. What do you think the colonies did from 1775 to 1781-- talk the British into surrendering? Are you that naïve or willfully ignorant? Like it or not, we shot at them and they shot at us -- that is a fact; you can’t change it and you can’t deny it. If it happened once, it can happen again. You may not like it or want it, I may not like it or want it, but what we like or want are not always under our control. The force of events often has a life of its own. Your appeal to the ballot box is well and good and the way it should be done, but it only works when the political climate is sound or stable enough to solve power struggles without having to resort to the gun. It assumes that elected officials have a basic respect for moral and just laws -- including the Constitution, not to mention a respect for the people who put them into office. I think you caller was saying, as am I, that the very real possibility that respect is withering away must be considered -- and that the ballot box may not work much longer.
You can call me crazy if you want to, Rush. You can express incredulity and shock at my words, but to do so only betrays, I think, self-deception.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence tried to solve their disputes with the British crown through peaceful, political means -- only to be met with “repeated injury.” They realized that if they wanted what was theirs by right, confrontation was necessary. Are you willing to deride the founders as you derided your caller? Do you think that the concerns of your caller and those who agree with him are “light and transient causes?” Because the founders of this nation -- Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton et. al. -- people you and I call conservatives, the men whose achievements and characters your father extolled in his Fourth of July speech, as well as the ordinary citizens who followed them, citizens just like your caller -- did what your caller, myself and many others throughout the country are right now only speculating about. And if I remember correctly, the “men who risked everything” did it with about three percent of the population, at least a number nowhere near a majority.
It is at least somewhat naïve to assume that the United States is protected by some invisible force that makes it impervious to tyranny and subversion from within. I would expect people on the left to respond to my statements with incredulity. But I will say this to you and anyone else on the right who express concern about the detrimental effects of liberalism on government and cultural institutions: I have to wonder, based on the response to this caller and other responses like it in the past, if you are willing to take those effects to their logical possibilities or conclusions. I think these conclusions must be seriously considered, Rush. And in doing so, we just might be able to avoid it -- for the benefit of us all.
Sincerely,
Christopher Laurenzano
------------------
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Barry Goldwater--1964
http://www.freecongress.org/
Free Congress Commentary
By Christopher Laurenzano
October 6, 2000
An Open Letter to Rush Limbaugh
October 1, 2000
Dear Rush:
I’m writing to you in response to a caller who phoned in, I think, on Monday, September 12. I was travelling that day and heard your program on my car radio.
The caller, whose name I have forgotten, voiced his concern that, as he saw it, in ten years or so there would be an armed insurrection against the government, given the current situation in American politics, particularly at the federal level. The threats to freedom and liberty which would cause this revolt -- political correctness, ever increasing taxes, expanding government programs and the necessary oppressiveness which it engenders, etc. are well known to you and your listeners and I don’t think need to be reiterated here in detail.
While the caller may not have had very specific answers to some of your questions and concerns -- where this event might occur, how many people would be involved, etc. -- he did not sound at all “crazy” or “ranting” in any way. He stated his belief in a tone that I think was calm and rational sounding and he did not ramble or piece together disjointed ideas to make his point.
Let me be up front and say that I am a political conservative like you and the caller, and that I also agreed with him and have held the same opinion for some time. But your response to him, I felt, was dismissive, and unfortunately, somewhat typical towards those who express an opinion which many would consider outside of the mainstream. And I think your reaction also displayed a naivete and shortsightedness about the history of this nation.
I recall your saying, after he hung up, that “this is why I don’t take more calls,” and “I can’t believe there’s this kind of talk in the United States of America”; I’m not sure if those were your exact words, so I may be paraphrasing. You also asserted that the ballot box was the way to solve the problems facing this nation, and there weren’t enough concerned people in the country to effect your caller’s prediction.
At any rate, while you never explicitly called him a “kook” or any other pejorative term, it was clear from the tone of your voice that you thought he was at least a little paranoid or off the wall.
To begin with, let me be a little more specific than your caller. I’m going to guess this event will occur anywhere between ten or twenty years from now -- definitely within my lifetime at the most (I’ll be thirty-two years old at the end of December). And I’ll guess it will begin out West -- Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, if for no other reason than the citizens out there, because of their locale and the kind of life they lead, are still very independent-minded and don’t like environmentalists like Bruce Babbitt and federal land management officials running roughshod over their rights and property. The Northeast and the Old South are gone. However, as these are just general guesses they are open to revision.
Make no mistake though, Rush: if things do not change -- and notice I leave the possibility that it can get better, but if things keep going the way they are right now, there will, not may, but will -- be another rebellion. And I use the word “another” on purpose.
How do you think the United States got its start, Rush? It wasn’t called the American Revolution for nothing. What do you think the colonies did from 1775 to 1781-- talk the British into surrendering? Are you that naïve or willfully ignorant? Like it or not, we shot at them and they shot at us -- that is a fact; you can’t change it and you can’t deny it. If it happened once, it can happen again. You may not like it or want it, I may not like it or want it, but what we like or want are not always under our control. The force of events often has a life of its own. Your appeal to the ballot box is well and good and the way it should be done, but it only works when the political climate is sound or stable enough to solve power struggles without having to resort to the gun. It assumes that elected officials have a basic respect for moral and just laws -- including the Constitution, not to mention a respect for the people who put them into office. I think you caller was saying, as am I, that the very real possibility that respect is withering away must be considered -- and that the ballot box may not work much longer.
You can call me crazy if you want to, Rush. You can express incredulity and shock at my words, but to do so only betrays, I think, self-deception.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence tried to solve their disputes with the British crown through peaceful, political means -- only to be met with “repeated injury.” They realized that if they wanted what was theirs by right, confrontation was necessary. Are you willing to deride the founders as you derided your caller? Do you think that the concerns of your caller and those who agree with him are “light and transient causes?” Because the founders of this nation -- Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton et. al. -- people you and I call conservatives, the men whose achievements and characters your father extolled in his Fourth of July speech, as well as the ordinary citizens who followed them, citizens just like your caller -- did what your caller, myself and many others throughout the country are right now only speculating about. And if I remember correctly, the “men who risked everything” did it with about three percent of the population, at least a number nowhere near a majority.
It is at least somewhat naïve to assume that the United States is protected by some invisible force that makes it impervious to tyranny and subversion from within. I would expect people on the left to respond to my statements with incredulity. But I will say this to you and anyone else on the right who express concern about the detrimental effects of liberalism on government and cultural institutions: I have to wonder, based on the response to this caller and other responses like it in the past, if you are willing to take those effects to their logical possibilities or conclusions. I think these conclusions must be seriously considered, Rush. And in doing so, we just might be able to avoid it -- for the benefit of us all.
Sincerely,
Christopher Laurenzano
------------------
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Barry Goldwater--1964
