When a person thinks about something unceasingly to the point it dominates their every thought they are obsessed and maybe even haunted. For the past 5 years a surprisingly large segment of the population are obsessed with finding a reason to correct what they consider an affront to their existence, and have sought any reason to remove the twice elected African American man living in the White House. This week an obsessed Islamophobe and birther came up with what he thinks is master plan to subvert the will of the people in the last two Presidential elections, and is asking Christians, Jews, people of faith and all true patriots to join him in staging a coup to remove the legally elected President of the United States.
The anomaly of nature summoning millions of like-minded Islamophobes ironically is taking a cue from Muslims in Egypt who demanded the ouster of President Morsi. He believes that if millions of Christians and Jews occupy Washington, they will be able “to cleanse the nation of the half-Muslim, anti-white, socialist fraud in the White House.” The man, Larry Klayman, penned an inflammatory article titled “Obama, Come Out With Your Hands Up,” and cited a laundry list of imagined offenses that in his mind warrant the people’s support to overthrow the government because according to him, Republicans, the judicial system, and government officials lack “the will or courage to remove the mullah-in-chief from office.” Klayman is not new to obsessing over removing Democratic Presidents from office. He filed no less than 18 lawsuits to remove former President Bill Clinton from office, but his preoccupation with President Obama is freakishly dangerous with an angry religious and racially-motivated citizens’ army determined to take down this President.
Klayman’s screed decried a “neutered, impotent elephant (GOP), and federal and state judges who have had the chance to effectively remove Obama over his lack of eligibility to be president, as he is not a natural born citizen.” His assertion is that besides the President’s so-called “phony” birth certificate, there is a bizarre issue that Obama “lacks having two American-born citizen parents as required by our Constitution.” Since Republicans and courts are not indicting, prosecuting, and convicting the President, Klayman hailed “Freedom Watch’s citizens’ grand juries, which are indicting and trying political felons like Obama as we speak. In this regard, a conviction is near in the case of the Obama for eligibility fraud.” They also claim President Obama stole the presidency and has done so much harm that he finally has to “know that his time has come to leave his perverted, Islamic concept of Mecca, and our nation’s hallowed capital.”
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According to Klayman and Freedom Watch, “Once convicted, We the People have the right to enforce this conviction and demand that Obama surrender himself to the people’s system of justice for incarceration.” Klayman is certain the President will not capitulate to the Christian and patriot demands because of “his arrogance and disrespect for American law and his allegiance to Sharia law.” So he is calling “upon all American patriots, once we obtain this conviction to converge on Washington stand in front of the White House and demand that Barack Hussein Obama leave.” Apparently Klayman and Freedom Watch are aiming for a date during the week before Thanksgiving to converge on and occupy Washington in the millions and chant, “Mr. President, put the Quran down, get up off your knees, and come out with your hands up!” Klayman ends his screed with a warning that although “I do not advocate violence, it is time we show Obama that we mean business and he would be well advised to ride off into his Islamic sunset, link up with 72 virgins and party on at his expense – not ours!”
For a so-called patriot, Klayman is about as ignorant of the Constitution as he is obsessed with President Obama. First, there is no requirement in the 14th Amendment that two American-born citizen parents are required to be a natural born citizen, and Freedom Watch’s “citizen’s grand juries” have no standing in the judicial or criminal justice system to enforce their cartoonish idea of removing a sitting President by coup d’état.
Regardless the bizarre notion that citizens can convene a bogus grand jury and remove an entire Administration, there is an inherent danger in whipping up outrage among so-called patriots that have threatened armed revolution to overthrow the government because an African American is President. Last year in Georgia, four U.S. soldiers were arrested for conspiring to overthrow the government, stockpiling assault weapons and bomb components, and plotting to assassinate President Obama. The prosecutor in the case said the soldiers’ ultimate goal was to assassinate the President and overthrow the government, and had purchased $87,000 worth of guns and bomb-making materials for the plot. However, the idea of armed revolution or coup is not consigned to fringe right-wing militant groups and was endorsed by Virginia Republicans last year.
The Virginia Republican Committee called for “armed revolution should we fail with the power of the vote in November” because they claimed President Obama “shuns biblical praise, handicaps economic ability, disrespects the honor of earned military might” and that if they missed an electoral opportunity to defeat President Obama, “we shall not have any coarse (sic) but armed revolution.” What the Republican threats of armed revolution really expose is that anything outside the conservative agenda is a valid reason for “armed revolution” against the government, especially with an African American in the White House. An army of racist Islamophobes armed with “pretend” indictments, substantial arsenals, and religious fervor portend a dangerous time for America that is getting more precarious by the minute with valuable assistance from fringe conspiracy theorists whipping their sycophants into frenzy.
Larry Klayman is an unpatriotic Islamophobe and a freak of nature, but he is dangerous and he knows what he is inciting is a revolution to overthrow the legally elected President and his entire Administration. Klayman gave away his violent intent when he said, “it is time we show Obama that we mean business and he would be well advised to ride off into his Islamic sunset, link up with 72 virgins” that Christian patriots understand is code for death according to Islamic beliefs. With an ever-increasing proliferation of assault weapons and ammunition caches worthy of an infantry field squad, and non-stop calls for revolution dysfunctional racists and religious extremists believe is the only hope for a white Christian America, it is just a matter of time before there is bloodshed on a massive scale.
Obviously Republicans, conservative Christian extremists, and so-called patriots are never going to support anything this President supports regardless it is good for the nation or the people. However, the calls for revolution, and now a coup mirroring events in Egypt founded on Islamophobia and debunked conspiracy theories is unprecedented. Americans should fear that there are more guns, more racially motivated hate, and more religious zeal than Egyptians could have ever hoped for, and with establishment Republicans giving tacit approval with their silence informs that given time, men like Klayman could incite revolution that gun-crazed racially-motivated militant groups covet whether they are libertarians, Republicans, or teabaggers.
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.
