29%

It was recently reported that a poll had been conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s “Public Mind Poll”, seeking to determine the number of people within the United States who felt that one, an armed revolution would be “necessary” in the next few years,  two, that some people,  i.e. the government is hiding the truth about the Sandy Hook School shooting, and three,  is there a need for government to pass more gun laws to protect the public from gun violence.

The reported intention of the poll was to determine the cause for the growing political divide between Democrats and Republicans. The poll seems to suggest that the division on these three questions is demonstrative of the larger divide of the nation’s two major parties.

On the need for more gun laws to protect the public from gun violence,  73% of Democrats polled feel the need for more gun laws, while 65% of Republicans polled do not feel that more laws are needed. Over-all registered voters are split on the need for more legislation.

On the question of whether the public is being lied to about the facts of the Sandy Hook School shooting, it again is suggested, by the poll,  that there is a partisan  divide on who believes  the government is lying to the public.

Over-all, 25% of Americans believe that the public is being lied to about the shooting with another 11% unsure.  The poll shows that 32% of Republicans surveyed feel  the truth is being suppressed. While only 20% of Democrats feel the facts are being suppressed.

There is no real surprise in these numbers in my opinion. We know that historically the GOP and its voters have been resistant to more laws in general, and vehemently opposed to new gun laws in particular. While Democrats have historically been in favor of such growth of government’s role in managing the personal rights of the citizens. So I am not shocked by these numbers. Neither am I shocked that more Republicans distrust government in general.

The numbers that do shock me however, and quite frankly, cause me great concern, are the numbers concerning the need for an armed revolt in the next few years.

The poll finds according to its methodology, that 29% of Americans believe that an armed revolt will be necessary in the next few years to protect our liberties, with another 5% unsure.

Once again the poll breaks down the results along party lines. The poll finds that only 18% of Democrats feel the need will arise for an armed revolt, while 44% of Republicans feel that armed revolt will be necessary in the next few years, and 27% of independents believe the need will arise. The poll also finds that education may play a role in how one answers these questions, finding that those with only a high school education are more likely to believe that the government is lying about Sandy Hook and that there is no need for more gun laws, and that there will be a need for armed revolt.

Granted this is a small polling of Americans, only 863 registered voters, and as with any poll one has to wonder at the intention behind it, why was this poll put into the field? let’s face it, anytime there is a poll put into the field, there is an intended result sought. One has to wonder what that intention was here?

Putting that aside however, my concern is that 29% of the people polled answered that they feel that armed revolt will not only be possible, but that they feel it will be necessary!

The fact that they answered in the affirmative to the use of the word necessary, means that they feel that armed force is the only way left to us to solve our problems and to protect our Liberties. In my view, this means 29% has either given up on our representative republic form of government, or  they never understood it to begin with.

We can assume that of this 29% who answered yes to the need for armed revolt, that there are a number who may simply feel that the current mood of the nation will lead to armed revolt, I might acknowledge this myself. However, the real concern here should be the question of, within the 29%, how many of those people are actively seeking armed revolt? How many feel not only will it ultimately be necessary, but that armed revolt is preferable to working within our system of government, the system that our Founders laid forth for this great nation so long ago?

Is it 20%? 15%? Even if it is only 5% of those polled who would actually welcome such an armed revolution, might they not be the spark that ignites our nation into an all out confrontation? Might they, in seeking to start that which they see as inevitable, not commit acts to create the situation that would lead to even larger confrontations?

Imagine if the Oklahoma City bombing took place today, in the current anti-government mood that we see now.  Instead of pulling a nation together, might it not have splintered the nation into warring factions? Which was its intentions, lest we forget.

Who are these 29%? What has led them to abandon faith in this great experiment of freedom? To believe that only armed force can solve our problems, is to admit, that we as a nation have failed.

We know that there are groups and organizations that have co-opted the GOP message, but who are actively working to destroy the party from within. Might they be the people who would also answer yes to armed revolt?

We know that there are radical factions within both parties that see this nation as a failure, with different views of what success and failure look like of course. But these radical factions of both parties may make up the 29% for different reasons. This of course only means that there is actually more likelihood that armed confrontation may break out between the two and thus draw the nation as a whole into their battle.

We also know that there are a number of groups within the TEA movement that believe that another American revolution is inevitable. These are the people who are the most vocal and strident supporters of the 2nd Amendment. They speak of the need to protect themselves from their government, they speak of the need to be prepared to defend hearth and home from tyranny. They use words such as traitor and treason. They speak endlessly of their love of the Constitution and the need to protect it at all cost?

While I share their love of the greatest governing document ever created, might they also be those who make up the 29%?

There are groups who have a romanticized vision of what a revolution is about. They have visions of George Washington crossing the Delaware, of lofty speeches by our Founding Fathers. Of bells cracking as they ring out the news of our Liberty! They see themselves practicing close order drills in “Cooper’s Field”, and some of these groups actually do practice close order drills.  They hold meetings to prepare for the coming confrontations, they talk of it as if the outcome is foretold.

These same people who profess to love this nation and its system of government, would cast it aside and turn it asunder, simply because they have lost an election. Simply because 100% of this nation’s people do not agree with them, simply because 51% of the nation’s citizens do not agree with them. Because they cannot communicate their views well enough to convince enough Americans to vote for their candidates, they would take up arms against their fellow Americans.

These people have no idea of what a revolution would do to this nation. Do they really think that after the cannon fire has subsided, after brother has shot brother, that we will survive in the same form as before? This nation beat the odds once and survived a civil war, though we were changed forever, some for the better and some for the worse. I do not think we could survive another.

There is a hatred growing in this nation. It is not a hatred of any one thing, it is a hatred that grows and feeds itself. It is a hatred of the government, a hatred of people who do not think like ourselves, a hatred of people who do not look like us, a hatred of people who do not speak our language, a hatred of people who do not pray as we do, though we are all the children of Abraham. I have to wonder, is this 29% who feel that armed revolt will be necessary in the next few years, the same people who call local talk radio and say things like, “the body of the dead Boston bomber should be covered in pig’s blood and fed to the sharks?”

I have read much about the Founding of this nation, I hold the highest respect for our Founders and the principles that this nation was founded upon. I believe the two greatest documents ever created are the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. I believe that our representative republic form of government, was and is, the freest form of government. I still believe that if the voters are engaged and informed, that we can right the ship. Our greatest weapon against tyranny is our right to vote, to be represented by those who we elect. The danger is that those who fail in their attempts to win through the process, will resort to the weapons of death and destruction, and then we have failed our Founding Fathers, because we will be saying that we could not sustain that which they created.

Many will say that our Founders resorted to armed revolution to throw off tyranny and that they stated in the Declaration of Independence that it was right to do so. The difference being, our Founders were fighting a King, in which they had no say over. Our Founders gave us, through their blood, that say in our governance. It is up to us to voice our views at the ballot box, and if we fail in an election, then we should work harder. But to resign ourselves to the inevitability of armed revolt is to disgrace the blood of our Founding Fathers.

Click to read the poll.