Alan Keyes
At the Bundy Ranch: a 'Rosa Parks moment'?
By Alan Keyes
The dispute over their grazing rights on land administered by the federal government brought the Bundy family into tense confrontation with the Obama faction. Obama and his cohorts intended to make an example of the Bundy family, one that would discourage all Americans tempted to stand on their rights from doing so. But what was supposed to be a spectacular execution, striking fear into the heart of Americans who still think they live in the land of the free, has instead demonstrated the fact that at least some Americans have gone beyond thinking. They have taken action.
Following the example of previous generations of Americans, they formed a 21st-century instance of one of the committees of correspondence, which were the backbone of America's resistance to the intended tyranny of the British government in the run up to America's war for independence. Instead of the prospect of an intimidating victory over one isolated, vulnerable family, the Obama faction faced the common resolve of an organized community of citizens asserting their right to self-government.
It was supposed to be a chilling exercise of factional dominance. Instead it was shaping up to be a Rosa Parks episode, likely to serve as the byword for inspiring citizens throughout the nation to act on what it means to be American. Worse still from the would-be tyrants' viewpoint, the Obama faction would come off looking like the bullies they most certainly are, arrogantly drawing first blood in their bid to crush the spirit of American liberty.
Now there are reports indicating that corrupt motives are at work in the U.S. government's adamant effort to assert its "ownership" of the grazing land used by the Bundy ranch. A case can be made that the U.S. government's management of the land was a form of permanent arbitration, intended to reduce the likelihood that local disputes would lead to violent confrontation. But arbitration makes sense only if the arbitrator is an "honest broker" – i.e., someone who has no prejudicial interest in the outcome. The U.S. government's role is to help manage the land, not to help itself to the land. It is to be managed in the interest of the locals, who are thus acknowledged to own the usufruct – i.e., the right to derive profit or benefit from the property.
Of course, the actual intention of the U.S. government's delegated land-management role is of no importance to Obama and his minions. Their aim is to "nationalize" the land, using whatever legal pretext is available. As an excuse, they look for some legalistic pretext for asserting ownership the U.S. government was never intended to possess, along with the power to determine how land is used without any regard for what is fair to local interests and good stewardship of the land. What is happening in Nevada is just a foretaste of things to come, as proposals move forward that will have the effect of allowing the Obama faction to assert pharaoh-like national ownership of much of the economically valuable land in America.
This is proof of the Obama faction's totalitarian socialist agenda. But it also signals that a form of government is being imposed on the nation in which the government's power is not constrained by respect for the rights of the people, as individuals or as a whole. Instead, it is being deployed with the collusion of elected officials who serve as the focal points of factional dictatorship – lords, as it were, in an oligarchic regime that is no longer supposed to represent the people who "elected" them.
When government consists in rule by the wealthy, powerful few, the deployment of power on their selfish behalf is not a corruption of government. It is the purpose for which it exists. The oligarchs own the country, exercising the full prerogatives of ownership, with the usufruct of all its goods, including the labor of its people.
In the course of the 20th century, we Americans allowed the institution of a national tax and banking system that handed the usufruct of our labor over to the control of a powerful few (those I refer to as the elitist faction). We allowed the power of the judiciary to be abused so that this elitist faction could overturn the moral ideas and institutions (like the God-endowed family) without which the heart and spirit of self-government cannot be maintained.
Now, in the first two decades of the 21st century, we are acquiescing in a sham electoral process wherein outcomes, transparently dictated by that same elitist faction, are producing an overall administration of government intended to entrench the elitist faction's power by completing the destruction of the material strength and rights of the people, including of course the right of self-government at all levels, which is true liberty.
Supported by like-minded patriots in their community, the Bundy family is taking a stand for that true liberty. Their action points to the fact that there are many Americans with the character and courage to stand against the would-be tyrants' abuse of government power, despite the threat of mayhem. It also confirms the fact that, thanks to the Obama faction's bullying, the specter of the worst kind of war looms over our nation's future. We could surely avoid it if the GOP's leadership was as committed to the defense of liberty as the Bundy family has shown itself to be.
But they are not. The actions and stratagems of the GOP quislings signal their complicity in the elitist faction's bid to overthrow America's Constitution. So Americans who have organized themselves for mutual support have good reason to do so. When elected representation fails, who will stand for them, if they do not stand together for themselves? But isn't this the very question all Americans must ask themselves if, that is, we are determined to preserve liberty for our posterity?
I think it is. But I also think that it is especially relevant to our political activity. As voters, Americans of goodwill still have the chance to demonstrate their resolve, as the Bundy family is doing, but only if they overthrow the partisan tyranny over their minds. It keeps them slavishly obsessed with a sham party system that has no purpose but to preoccupy and squander their political energy until it is too late to stop the consolidation of elitist faction dictatorship.
America will never again have a government that represents its people if we do not use our voting power to demand it. The commanding power of the people is in our votes, but only if we withhold or cast those votes so as to maximize that power. By gathering the forces of liberty in a demonstration that counts, the Pledge To Impeach voter mobilization offers the most effective strategy for doing so. Join us!
April 22, 2014
The dispute over their grazing rights on land administered by the federal government brought the Bundy family into tense confrontation with the Obama faction. Obama and his cohorts intended to make an example of the Bundy family, one that would discourage all Americans tempted to stand on their rights from doing so. But what was supposed to be a spectacular execution, striking fear into the heart of Americans who still think they live in the land of the free, has instead demonstrated the fact that at least some Americans have gone beyond thinking. They have taken action.
Following the example of previous generations of Americans, they formed a 21st-century instance of one of the committees of correspondence, which were the backbone of America's resistance to the intended tyranny of the British government in the run up to America's war for independence. Instead of the prospect of an intimidating victory over one isolated, vulnerable family, the Obama faction faced the common resolve of an organized community of citizens asserting their right to self-government.
It was supposed to be a chilling exercise of factional dominance. Instead it was shaping up to be a Rosa Parks episode, likely to serve as the byword for inspiring citizens throughout the nation to act on what it means to be American. Worse still from the would-be tyrants' viewpoint, the Obama faction would come off looking like the bullies they most certainly are, arrogantly drawing first blood in their bid to crush the spirit of American liberty.
Now there are reports indicating that corrupt motives are at work in the U.S. government's adamant effort to assert its "ownership" of the grazing land used by the Bundy ranch. A case can be made that the U.S. government's management of the land was a form of permanent arbitration, intended to reduce the likelihood that local disputes would lead to violent confrontation. But arbitration makes sense only if the arbitrator is an "honest broker" – i.e., someone who has no prejudicial interest in the outcome. The U.S. government's role is to help manage the land, not to help itself to the land. It is to be managed in the interest of the locals, who are thus acknowledged to own the usufruct – i.e., the right to derive profit or benefit from the property.
Of course, the actual intention of the U.S. government's delegated land-management role is of no importance to Obama and his minions. Their aim is to "nationalize" the land, using whatever legal pretext is available. As an excuse, they look for some legalistic pretext for asserting ownership the U.S. government was never intended to possess, along with the power to determine how land is used without any regard for what is fair to local interests and good stewardship of the land. What is happening in Nevada is just a foretaste of things to come, as proposals move forward that will have the effect of allowing the Obama faction to assert pharaoh-like national ownership of much of the economically valuable land in America.
This is proof of the Obama faction's totalitarian socialist agenda. But it also signals that a form of government is being imposed on the nation in which the government's power is not constrained by respect for the rights of the people, as individuals or as a whole. Instead, it is being deployed with the collusion of elected officials who serve as the focal points of factional dictatorship – lords, as it were, in an oligarchic regime that is no longer supposed to represent the people who "elected" them.
When government consists in rule by the wealthy, powerful few, the deployment of power on their selfish behalf is not a corruption of government. It is the purpose for which it exists. The oligarchs own the country, exercising the full prerogatives of ownership, with the usufruct of all its goods, including the labor of its people.
In the course of the 20th century, we Americans allowed the institution of a national tax and banking system that handed the usufruct of our labor over to the control of a powerful few (those I refer to as the elitist faction). We allowed the power of the judiciary to be abused so that this elitist faction could overturn the moral ideas and institutions (like the God-endowed family) without which the heart and spirit of self-government cannot be maintained.
Now, in the first two decades of the 21st century, we are acquiescing in a sham electoral process wherein outcomes, transparently dictated by that same elitist faction, are producing an overall administration of government intended to entrench the elitist faction's power by completing the destruction of the material strength and rights of the people, including of course the right of self-government at all levels, which is true liberty.
Supported by like-minded patriots in their community, the Bundy family is taking a stand for that true liberty. Their action points to the fact that there are many Americans with the character and courage to stand against the would-be tyrants' abuse of government power, despite the threat of mayhem. It also confirms the fact that, thanks to the Obama faction's bullying, the specter of the worst kind of war looms over our nation's future. We could surely avoid it if the GOP's leadership was as committed to the defense of liberty as the Bundy family has shown itself to be.
But they are not. The actions and stratagems of the GOP quislings signal their complicity in the elitist faction's bid to overthrow America's Constitution. So Americans who have organized themselves for mutual support have good reason to do so. When elected representation fails, who will stand for them, if they do not stand together for themselves? But isn't this the very question all Americans must ask themselves if, that is, we are determined to preserve liberty for our posterity?
I think it is. But I also think that it is especially relevant to our political activity. As voters, Americans of goodwill still have the chance to demonstrate their resolve, as the Bundy family is doing, but only if they overthrow the partisan tyranny over their minds. It keeps them slavishly obsessed with a sham party system that has no purpose but to preoccupy and squander their political energy until it is too late to stop the consolidation of elitist faction dictatorship.
America will never again have a government that represents its people if we do not use our voting power to demand it. The commanding power of the people is in our votes, but only if we withhold or cast those votes so as to maximize that power. By gathering the forces of liberty in a demonstration that counts, the Pledge To Impeach voter mobilization offers the most effective strategy for doing so. Join us!
To see more articles by Dr. Keyes, visit his blog at LoyalToLiberty.com and his commentary at WND.com and BarbWire.com.
© Alan KeyesThe views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
