Democratic societies have been inspired by the actions and sacrifice of the people of the Middle East as they throw off their autocratic rulers. Perhaps it is time we had an American Spring. by Bill Gee
(centrist)
Monday, May 9, 2011
The revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria have been an inspiration to all of us who have a deep love of democracy and freedom. For far too long the people of those nations have had their rights and their property taken from them by ruthless, autocratic rulers. What many of us fail to recognize is that we face the same conditions here in America as the Federal Government had long-ago abandoned the principles of our Constitution and have ignored its people’s demands for reform.
In short, it’s time we took back our government.
The question of “why”, is no longer an issue. The crimes and outrages committed by the corporate ruling elite in this country are too numerous to count. The only question that remains is “how”. For this, we can look to our friends in the Middle East for lessons on what to do, or more importantly, what NOT to do.
Lesson #1: Keep it peaceful
The one thing an oppressive, autocratic police state knows how to do best is to repress a violent rebellion. Once a movement has been labeled an “enemy of the peace”, the government is well within its right to repress the rebellion by any means necessary. For all of you 2nd Amendment supporters out there, understand this – the government has bigger guns and more highly trained police and soldiers who know how to use them. The minute a protest movement turns violent on both sides, what you have is a Civil War, and the rebels in any civil war tend to be outgunned, outnumbered, and out-resourced. We have seen this in Libya and Syria, whereas in Tunisia and Egypt the protesters achieved much more success by keeping their guns at home.
Lesson #2: Keep your demands simple and clear
The protestors in Egypt and Tunisia had only one demand – the complete and unconditional resignation of the President, all Cabinet ministers and Parliament. Nothing short of that one demand would permit the protestors to go home. Calling for an Article V Convention is a good place to start, so is allowing all state governments to remain in place during the transition. After all, we don’t want anarchy and lawlessness, what we want is for our central government to be more in keeping with the original intent of the Constitution, and if it cannot, we need to exercise our rights as outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Therefore, all discussion of Social Issues must be tabled until the primary demand is met.
Lesson #3: The Law of Large Numbers
A few hundred protestors on the corner of K-Street is not going to do anything. For any peaceful revolution to be successful, there must be a movement involving tens of millions in multiple cities throughout the country. More on that in a moment…
Lesson #4: Defuse Leadership
A successful revolution cannot have a single leader or group of leaders; it must be a truly “grassroots” movement. The reasons for this again can be gleaned from our friends in the Middle East.
In Egypt, the protest movement remained intentionally leaderless in order to remove the temptation for the government to find someone with whom to negotiate a settlement. For all the hope and faith we place in a single individual, they are still human. They can be bribed, threatened, or their families can be bribed and/or threatened. If the movement places too much stock into that person, then once they give in or sell out (and they always do eventually) the movement itself loses momentum and nothing has changed.
This has happened in Libya. Once the rebellion formed its “Transitional Council”, they gave the Gaddafi government someone with whom to focus their attention and eventually negotiate with, which leads us to the next lesson…
Lesson #5: Do Not Negotiate
Once the door has been opened for negotiation, the revolution is over. The reason for this is Political Science 101. The very act of negotiation assumes that you have recognized the Legitimacy of the government with whom you are negotiating. If your revolution is all about the fact that the government has lost all legitimacy to lead your nation, then negotiation is not an option. Again, when the leadership of the movement is unclear, the government will not know with whom to exact pressure, and if the protestors number in the tens of millions, then the government will have a much harder time using the “divide and conquer” technique.
Lesson #6: Technology is your friend and your enemy
Texting, webcams, instant messaging and blogging have done wonderful things to inform the public about things that have been going on outside of the mainstream media. Those who have been dedicated to doing proper research have done a lot in exposing the lies and the crimes that have been committed by our government and their corporate puppet masters both here and abroad. In other words, it has been the work of people to have stopped being afraid of our government who have been working to expose what is really going on. That’s a good thing.
Where technology can backfire is in two big ways.
1. Misinformation – Just as there are thousands of independent bloggers out there working hard to give you the truth of what’s going on, the corporate elite has their own army of bloggers, masquerading as ordinary people, who are feeding lies into the blogosphere. Worse, ordinary bloggers are repeating their lies in the hope that if enough people repeat it, it will be accepted as “truth” in the mainstream.
2. Tracking – Wherever you blog, wherever you surf the Internet, you are being tracked. Most of the tracking that takes place is used for “targeted advertising”, but it can also be used by law-enforcement under the authority of the Patriot Act to record every word you have ever written and every electronic conversation you have ever had. To make matters more troubling, your Smartphone contains a GPS chip that can pinpoint your location to within 100 feet.
Therefore, when gathering information on the movement, 1) crosscheck your information with trusted people who have firsthand knowledge, and 2) when you go, bring cash and leave your technology at home.
Lesson #7: Don’t Give Up
The people in the Middle East did not win their struggles by staying comfortably in their homes. When the police and the army arrived with their tanks, their teargas, and their riot gear, most of them refused to disburse. Many of them paid for that with their lives. The only way to make real change is to stand your ground and to not give in to the violence. In many places in the Middle East, there were those among the police and the army that refused to fire upon unarmed protestors who were merely expressing their right to make demands of their government. Eventually, many of them joined the protestors in taking a stand. In the face of such overwhelming opposition, the government will fall and a new one will take its place.
I realize that in many ways I may be crossing a line by writing this column. But when I look at my son who will be turning three years-old in July, I’ve been asking myself whether I want to leave to him this world we created, or whether I should be doing everything within my power to change it. If we can learn the lessons from the “Arab Spring”, we can actually do something to make this a better country for our kids.
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I called and let him now about the convention clause of Article V. I think a good strategy is to seek out and find sheriffs which are uncorrupt and law-abiding. Sell them on the idea of the Article V Convention. Also, find chapters of the group OathKeepers, and let them know about the convention clause. I met one this past weekend, they were against a "con-con" but I was able to persaude them to take another look at it.
