Taking Our Toys and Going Home

Perhaps you have heard that Rep. Michele Bachmann has been calling for armed revolution to overthrow the Marxist Obama regime.

To me, and I am sure most Americans, this seems completely ridiculous. Yet the trope of revolution, whether armed or in the form of not paying taxes or not accepting stimulus money, has been growing more and more in the conservative right camp. There is even a growing movement of protests imitating the Boston Tea Party.

I am here today to call "Nanny-nanny Boo-Boo" on these cry babies. Their party is in shambles, along with the economy thanks to their former leader. Now that their corporate cronies can't run free without oversight, aren't completely free of scrutiny and regulation, the Republicans want to go home and take their toys with them. Listen to Bachmann:

Bachmann: Do we get into an inner tube and float 90 miles to some free country? There is no free country for us to repair to. That's why it's up to us now. The founders gave everything they had to give us this freedom. Now it's up to us to give everything we can to make sure that our kids are free, too. It's that serious. I hate to be dramatic, but--

So, the silly argument that "If you don't love this country go live somewhere else" has been reversed. Now, Republicans no longer love the direction this country is headed and are looking for boats to begin fleeing.

This is such a childish and ignorant response, just like the kid who goes home and cries to mommy when things don't go their way in the neighborhood basketball game. Have the Republicans really become Eric Cartmann? I certainly think Cartmann's penchant for fascism is a closer and more likely result from the conservative right control of the country than Marxism is from Obama.

Think about it: The Supreme Court stole an election for Bush in 2000. No one on the left seriously called for armed revolution.
Ohio voter fraud stole another election in 2004. Again, no calls for revolution.
Bush enters a war on false pretenses. Not only is there no revolution, no impeachment, but we can't even bring him to trial now that he isn't President.
Bush fumbles Hurricane Katrina. No calls for revolution.
We have the worst economy since the Great Depression because of an unbridled and arrogant Republican administration. So, what happens? The Democrats offer a solution and the GOP complains about socialism. They start calling for a revolution.

In what world does this make sense? And, why is this not treason? Why haven't Hannity and Bachmann been arrested? I guarantee if either you or I made similar threats, we would be arrested. So, why are we allowing this trope to continue?

There are socialist democracies (see most of Europe). What there are not are fascist democracies, democracies where one side engages in armed revolution when they do not get their way. Democracy requires accepting defeat, working through the tough times even when your ideas are not the most popular. It is respectable for any party to be the voice of opposition. This voice is crucial to democracy. Crying foul and running away, however, is childish and dangerous. It is one thing to criticize proposals for being too socialist. It is another to call for armed revolution. I wish Bachmann and Hannity would put their money where their mouth is and pick up a gun. Then, we could see them all for what they really are: hate-mongering, fear-inducing blowhards acting like children when the country desperately needs mature, responsible collaboration.