Is Martial Law a possibility?

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by Penn

I am not advocating insurrection, yet.
Though it does appear that letter writing is not going to be enough; in fact, it’s pointless as a means of protest. You have to remember that the BHO campaign can secure the internet and popular view, that’s how they won the election. They raised 200ml, in nickels and dimes; I think? They possess the ability not only to make news, but they control the news. They have taken political psyops to a whole new level. You’re a racist and un-American if you disagree with them.

IMHO, I think we here in America have fallen into the bad habit of looking at the most extreme forces in politics, society, and culture and extrapolating those viewpoints to be the whole. Just as Bush the Younger received cogent criticism from his supporters, the current president will find that his most trenchant critics will come from the ranks of Democrats. If we're attentive and if we can avoid attacking the opposition, I see opportunities for great conversations. (Which means--I guess--I shouldn't be taunting friends by asking "Got buyer's remorse, yet?" or "Still got your receipt?" or "Are you enjoying amateur hour?")

I also think we who sit on the right side of the issues are falling into the same traps that enmeshed the political left. Namely, a crisis in confidence is pushing us into a reactionary role at the expense of offering viable alternatives that will resonate with some members of the political opposition who are willing to listen.

Aside note: I love the fact that both Sigaba and Peregrino can delve into Greek history/mythology in support of their argument.

Being badly over educated in the liberal arts has some advantages.

One other advantage is an understanding that the cry of "worst president ever" and dire warnings that the end is near are nothing new. We were fed a steady stream of the former during the previous eight administrations. The claims of the latter are older than America itself.

Originally Posted by Blitzzz

Expressing differences of opinion is our privilege here. In the presents of so many who have offered their lives in the defense of this nation's constitution, and have been trained in the business of intel analysis, and area studies, I find it difficult to believe that Sigaba can not see the present POTUS's move to totalitarianism. Sigaba, again I complement your obvious level of formal education, but am disturbed at you displayed denial of the reality at hand.
Your defense of the POTUS is sheepish in his rhetoric is to placate the sheep and deliver devastation to the country while achieving his goal of our defeat.

I apologize if I'm wrong, and don't say these thing to Insult but to state my incredulity. Blitzz

Blitzz--

Sir, I do not take offense or insult at your expression of incredulity.

My point of view is, as you point out, the product of my education. That education includes graduate level study of modern German social history and nineteenth and twentieth century American social history At the time of my study, historians of modern Germany were obsessed with retracing the special path (Sonderweg) that led to the Nazi dictatorship. (Historians of the American west think they have angst over "the legacy of conquest." They know nothing of angst--imagine trying to explain why your country was responsible for two world wars.) A bit later, I spent some time studying under a historian who, along with his like minded colleagues, was addressing the question "Why is there no class consciousness in the United States?" The fact that the implicit assumption was never formally articulated or challenged by these scholars speaks for itself.

These two trajectories of inquiry are heavily populated by scholars who are informed by Marxist theory (in particular, the "British Marxist" school of history [e.g. E.P. Thompson], the Frankfurt School, and, to a greater degree in America, the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci ). In short, these historians had a keen interest in understanding the conditions that inhibited the spread of social democracy and socialism. (I'd not say they are communists in a political sense. Rather, as the quip goes, they are Neiman Marxists <<link>>. As one of my mentors would tease, "These guys own fucking houses. They are 'them.'")

My conclusion from this study is that inasmuch as America is contested terrain and that although these contests have been the cause and consequence of great turmoil, even civil war, our present day trials do not activate fears of totalitarian rule or the rise of socialism through creeping incrementalism.