Signs of the times

[be-bop]

Can someone tell me what's going on in the States when you have groups like this wandering about, and how are they allowed to?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by be-bop

Can someone tell me what's going on in the States when you have groups like this wandering about, and how are they allowed to?

We are out of our damn minds over here.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They're just rehearsing for Halloween.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by be-bop

Can someone tell me what's going on in the States when you have groups like this wandering about, and how are they allowed to?

Because we are a genuinely democratic republic. The sole source of political capital in a democracy -- and hence power -- is the electorate.

People who misunderstand civilized thought protest, "But that is just power to kill!" And so it is. What they miss completely is that the crude power to kill translates very efficiently to the refined power of the ballot.

Which is at least more polite, and an exercise of faith in the society's tenets.

The guns are for when and if that faith is lost. An unarmed electorate is an electorate *without* a power anyone's "obliged to respect." You can google that phrase and see where it came from and why it's in quotes.

In a fit of theorizing, founding father Thomas Jefferson wrote that the tree of Liberty should be watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants and of patriots. He never had to live with that more than the once, 1775-1783.