Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:52 am
There is an epidemic taking hold in America that appears immune to intervention or therapy, and despite the best effort of the nation’s brightest minds to find a cure, it seems likely to remain virulent, but limited to a particular segment of the population for the foreseeable future. The disease’s symptoms are beliefs with the strong conviction despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and unlike beliefs based on confabulation, faulty or incomplete information, there are no known remedies for delusion. Unlike most severe mental disorders, this epidemic has a traceable beginning and a very predictable demise, but that is little comfort as it is just now reaching peak efficacy.
The current outrage and unfathomably ignorant claims from gun-fanatics that President Obama is sending federal forces to confiscate their precious firearms is a microcosm of the past four years of teabagger claims their liberties and freedoms are being trampled asunder. The fallacious claims go hand-in-hand with equally bogus charges the President is rending the Constitution apart in typical Fascist tyranny that leaves white, well-armed patriots little choice but to prepare for armed conflict to “reinstitute the basic tenets of the Constitution.” One might think the gun fanatics’ deluded claims the President is a dictator is the result of four years of tyranny, but the delusion began shortly after Obama’s inauguration and before the earliest stages of the healthcare reform debate. What is telling is that claims of tyranny, unconstitutional power grabs, and loss of liberty are the product of delusional thinking in that not one teabagger, gun fanatic, or real American can cite one instance of tyranny, loss of freedom, or unconstitutionality in any of the President’s actions. The overblown gun-control controversy is a perfect example of sheer delusion without a shred of proof the President is overstepping his Constitutional authority.
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It is bad enough that functionally ignorant citizens are crying tyranny at the President’s gun control measures earlier in the week, but when Republican legislators co-opt the lies, it exposes that they either know what the President’s executive orders entail and are lying to incite gun owners, or are relating what they think the orders are revealing their delusion-based bias. A perfect example occurred in a very conservative area of a Western state, and the purveyor of pure fantasy was a county’s top law enforcement official.
In a letter published in the local newspaper, the sheriff angrily asserted “I refuse to take firearms from law abiding citizens, and I will not turn law abiding citizens into criminals by enforcing useless federal gun control legislation.” First, there is no “useless federal gun control legislation” in the President’s gun safety measures; useless federal legislation is the purview of the United States Congress. Second, there is no order for any law enforcement official, federal or state, to “take firearms from law abiding citizens,” but it is a recurring theme among gun-crazed malcontents. Obviously, either the sheriff is ignorant of the President’s executive orders, or he knows there are no “confiscate gun orders” and is lying to incite gun fanatics. However, his stark-raving mad assertions did serve to enrage ignorant teabaggers into staging a public protest to show their opposition to President Obama’s imaginary gun seizure order, and to celebrate gun appreciation day. The local Tea Party group is organizing the event to protest against impending weapon seizures, destruction of the Constitution, and tyranny.
The definition of tyranny is; arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power, despotic abuse of authority, or government ruled of a tyrant, and unconstitutionality is not in accord with the principles set forth in the constitution of a nation or state. Despite repeated requests for one instance of tyranny, orders to seize guns, or unconstitutional acts by President Obama, so-called patriots, teabaggers, and gun-fanatics cannot cite one example of their loss of freedom, and yet it has been a consistent cry from the right that began exactly four years ago. In fact, religious groups from Catholics to evangelicals and their legislative arm, the Republican Party, have decried their loss of liberty at not being allowed to unconstitutionally impose their personal religious dogmata on the rest of the nation, and it gets to the crux of the tyranny claims.
The conservative movement cannot comport they are disallowed by the Constitution to impose their extremist agenda on the rest of the nation, and when their tyranny is thwarted by the nation’s founding document, they cite Presidential tyranny. The delusional conservatives’ real issue is they still cannot accept the results of the last two general elections, or the will of the people, so they fabricate imaginary sleights against the Constitution, their freedoms, and for the past month, belief the President is coming to seize their guns.
The good news is the malcontents in the population, and cretins in positions of power decrying tyranny and unconstitutional power grabs by the President, are in the minority. It is true that the Revolutionary War (Gadsden) flags claiming “Don’t Tread on Me” are adorning gun-fanatics’ homes and vehicles, but they are not garnering support from the great majority of Americans who support common-sense gun controls, tax increases on the wealthy, and a balanced approach to deficit reduction championed by the President. The timing of the cries of tyranny so early in the President’s first term before he proposed any legislation or agenda inform that the real source of discontent is not gun control, healthcare reform, or economic policy, but the color of the President’s skin, and if it is not a matter of race, then it is purely delusional thinking.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
