Enemies of Liberty are ruthless. To own your Liberty, you'd better come harder than your enemies..

Saturday, January 4, 2014

A call for Freedom...

Map created to show how America would look if all of the
calls for secession and/or separation in our history had been successful.

For my Secessionist and Anarchist allies, our common ground is the goal of achieving Liberty.  I think we can also all agree we want our Liberty to be "legal", in the sense that behaving in an at Liberty manner is not a "crime" and challenged by "The State".

To that end I would ask you to consider how we can address our weakness as a "Liberty Movement". 

When the average NRA/Law & Order/not-yet-Awake/but-generally-decent-guy looks at the "Liberty Movement" he sees a series of labels for groups to which he has a knee-jerk negative reaction, thanks to being low-information, bombarded by Statist propaganda, and general failure to think for himself.  In truth, the number of different labels within the Liberty Movement has the same end result as a third party candidate in a Presidential election - the third party will split the vote and ensure the other team wins.  Our insistence on narrowly defining and labeling ourselves creates a lot of unnecessary political noise.

Joe sees some people calling themselves "Anarchists".  Some call themselves "Secessionists".  Some call themselves "Anarcho-Capitalists".  Some call themselves "Libertarians".  He can marginally relate to "Tea Partiers", but doesn't really want the hassle of being ostracized by identifying as such around all of his Karl Rove-ian friends.  Some refuse to label themselves as anything but "Patriots".  He sees people calling themselves "Three Percenters" which, on its face, is off-putting to the politically un-informed - who would want to be part of a group with only 3 percent of support?  The list goes on, and you know as well as do I that Joe Sixpack does not understand you, people fear what they do not understand, and as a result of those factors and the fact that he is intellectually lazy, he's going to dismiss each of those groups and not even bother to research beyond, perhaps, a shallow Google search.  He will stay where he is comfortable, in the grasp of Establishment Republicans.

The label he can and will accept is "Constitutionalist".  He's been comfortable supporting "the Constitution" his entire life.  He's may have taken an oath when he was younger to protect and defend that Constitution against all enemies, and that makes him part of a tough-guy, patriotic, "good" group of people.  He likes that, and it is easy.  He doesn't have to think much.  Hell, even his political opposites refer to the Constitution as the authority for all the things they do, even though he disagrees with them.

The "Constitution" is the American political touchstone.

Consider what the "Liberty Movement" would look like to Joe Sixpack if all of those disparate groups dropped their labels and came together under the label of "Constitutionalist" with a single demand: Restore the Constitution.  The movement would look larger and unified, chasing 2 concepts with which Joe is familiar and wants for himself: Liberty and Freedom.  Joe could stand with that group.  Joe is all about Freedom, it's American, dammit!

You don't like Joe, nor do I.  But there is seemingly a consensus that we must win Joe's support in the pursuit of our genuine common goal of Liberty.  You don't like the Constitution - I get it.  But in the pursuit of Liberty, could we not unify our message for the public relations benefits that come with a unified front and message?  Within the movement we all understand that you won't settle for the Constitution - but why not use "Restore the Constitution" as a real and sincere waypoint.  For me, Restoration is a destination.  For you, Restoration to an as ratified 1791 state is probably better than what we have now, but you will continue on toward your end game.  To work, your calls to "Restore the Constitution" will have to be genuine and sincere - people innately sense deceptions.  In your true heart you are being honest - Restoration as a waypoint - not an end point.

Liberty and Freedom are two concepts to which Joe will rally.  "The Constitution" will earn Joe's support as a vehicle back to Liberty and Freedom.

If you seek genuine Liberty, I am asking you to seriously consider accepting "Restore the Constitution" as a sincere waypoint toward whatever your endgame may be...

Why?  Because our mutual, existential enemies of Liberty will never leave you alone to realize your end goal.  They will never let me reach my goal peacefully, either.  You and I must be rid of our mutual enemies before anyone has a chance at Liberty.  In your heart you know "The Left" will never permit an "amicable divorce".  All pretense of civility will vanish the moment the two sides begin the discussion of division of assets and who gets "the kids".  "The Left" has made this clear at every turn.  "The Left" in California today is demanding that another sovereign state must change its flag. 

Do you understand?

They.  Will.  Never.  Let.  You.  Leave.  Peacefully.

So, let's work together to dispatch our mutual enemy, then go our separate ways.

If you believe "Hearts & Minds" are essential and you want Joe Sixpack's support, the easiest way to earn that support is to stay well inside his comfort zone. 

His comfort zone: Freedom, Liberty, and the Constitution.

Think about it.

Kerodin
III

9 comments:

  1. Mr. K, you write well. You do so intelligently. But how does one speak "Liberty" to the common Joe or Jane Sixpack when neither can spell their own middle name or neither can give the answer to "12 x 5 = what" ?

    Truly, there are many Americans who haven't the faintest concept of Freedom and Liberty. The .gov schools have done well.

    Wishing you a safe and successful New Year.

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    1. Dan: I'm with you - I'm not trying to win any Hearts & Minds. But people who have run guerrilla operations for a living tell us that it is essential to have the support of Joe Sixpack, or at least not to piss him off to the point that he becomes an active player against you. Personally, I am more in-tune with the latter than the former. But when Trainer, CA, Mosby, Max, Bracken, et al, tell us we need X, I'd be an idiot not to try and help make that happen.

      I don't expect to make any allies (my charm tends to work the other way by default ;) - but if we can help make our odds better by making choices big and easy for the low-information folks, it can't hurt.

      Stay safe.

      K

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  2. I use different labels depending on my audience. I even reference the Constitution (without watering down the message) when I think that's what my audience needs in order to "get it"- I have a column in the works now using that tactic.

    But, the most "common ground" label I have so far found is simply "liberty lover".

    I realize that few people know what liberty is, but those who rally around the Constitution rarely know what it says either- look how many Constitutionalists believe "immigration control" is constitutional if you doubt that. And that's just one example.

    I see the value in the "Big Tent" approach; I'm just not positive that's the right tent. I could very well be wrong.

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    Replies
    1. "I see the value in the 'Big Tent' approach; I'm just not positive that's the right tent. I could very well be wrong."

      I figure the biggest tent is the one that everyone shares...their own life. There's an obvious moral case for that too; humans being the only creatures on Earth that often don't get it.

      So once again, the moral is the practical. But no...for 5,000 years everyone's off on a wild goose chase looking for that "higher cause." Maybe it'll show up tomorrow.

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  3. I agree with you that restoration of the Constitution is a good rallying cry. I think the Constitution contained the seeds of its own destruction, so I don't think that's far enough, but if we could get to the obvious meaning of the First and Second Amendments (Congress shall make NO law... The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed), and to no federal legislation about ANYTHING not explicitly authorized by the Constitution, it would be hugely better than what we've got now.

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  4. Great post...you covered those labels well. I think you forgot only one, the guy with no label! Well, there's always his name; that's a label.

    Hey Dan, just don't ask 'em to spell or add. Hopefully we're too busy to care what they do anyway. It's the ones who know how to design, that are the problem. That's why I'm not a big fan of designing for others.

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  5. This echoes what has been my thinking for a long time.

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  6. Jim and Dan, the guys with no label probably couldn't pick a label for themselves anyway. ;)

    I agree with all the thoughts, Rightful Liberty is the foundation, and it's already in place. Some of the finer details will never have 100% agreement, but if these details have 100% acceptance that will work, maybe even better than 100% agreement.

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  7. That is an excellent post K. That concensus is just about the only thing that will have half a chance of a snowball in Hell of us ever restoring any sembalance of Liberty to this country.

    Miss Violet

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