THE TWO REVOLUTIONS

“What’s wrong with a revolution?” ~ CNN Journalist, Anderson Cooper, questioning Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the February 3rd Town Hall debate with fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders

Clinton’s response: “That’s for Senator Sanders to explain.”

My response: It depends on the kind of revolution you’re talking about. Figurative revolutions that bring about a significant improvement in the lives of an entire population are good things; literal revolutions that result in the senseless spilling of massive amounts of blood are not!

The current presidential campaign season has highlighted the fact that in America, two very distinct groups are seeking revolution, but the revolutions they promote involve diametrically opposing goals and the tools they employ could not be deemed more different. The idealistic youth at Wednesday’s Democratic Town Hall debate seek change in the way government responds to the needs of the people it represents and the instrument of their revolution is the ballot box. The other group promoting revolution is the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. Their goal is a crippled government that cannot respond to the needs of its people and the instrument of their revolution is the barrel of a gun.

I support the student’s call for a figurative revolution in the way government supports the right of its people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I find value in the notion that a government by the people, of the people and for the people is a government worth having. I cheer the enthusiasm of America’s idealistic youth, and I recognize that this Nation’s future success will depend in large measure on the progress those youth are able to obtain, but a word of caution is in order.

The revolutionaries of the far-right have an insatiable appetite for bloodshed and they are heavily armed, and itching for a fight.

We saw it in 2010 when the Tea Party’s loudest mouthpiece, Sarah Palin posted on her website the name of Arizona Representative Gabby Giffords in the crosshairs of a rifle scope and then several months later a Tea Party sympathizer attempted to assassinate Giffords near Tucson, killing six and wounding thirteen others in the process. We saw it in 2014 when agents showed up to confiscate the cattle of Tea Party activist Cliven Bundy for non-payment of grazing fees owed to the citizens of the United States – that’s you and me. Hundreds of militiamen showed up with assault rifles, ready to gun-down the federal agents who were just doing their job. We just saw it again last month in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by Tea Party militia men who threatened to gun-down anyone who attempted to dislodge them. The fugitive LaVoy Finicum, a member of the group, tried to draw his gun on federal agents as were arresting him and he was killed in the process. That’s the kind of revolution Tea Party Republicans are seeking, the one brought about by the long barrel of a gun.

The next time somebody starts calling for a revolution, it’s wise to ask what kind they’re suggestion. It’s not wise to show up at a gunfight armed only with a ballot box.