There was a time when “consent of the governed” meant something:
That to secure these [God-given] rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consentofthe governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ..
Even Abraham Lincoln, in a moment of clarity (i.e. when he and his Illinois could BENEFIT from something other than a government about to go to war with Mexico for Texas) said:
Quote from 1846, NOT from 1861.
By 1861, with Lincoln wanting those seven states that had left under Buchanan’s watch BACK in the UNION for REVENUE, he changed his mind.
Now think on that a bit. If you reflect on a marriage where one spouse not only takes most of your money, but also abuses you verbally, you have every right to seek a just divorce. So too did these seven southern states.
Post 2020 election, if President Trump loses, those “deplorables” who have been ripped off by democracy morphing into socialism, which Karl Marx said was only a stage before communism (REIMAGINE THIS), are once again going to think about this “consent”. Most deplorables are ardent nationalists that would still invade states that attempt to leave the union.
Secession is THE answer, whether it be the fly-over country or the east and Left coasts, it be time for a divorce!
To be honest, the deplorables will not only have to look at the evil Democratic political party, but also the stupid GOP political party that did nothing to stop the spread of socialism (Bush’s “No Child Left Behind”, Corporate Welfare State, etc). The GOP is secretly in bed with the Democrats and predictably vote in lockstep on the major shifts in this once federated republic:
The Patriot Act
The Invasion of Iraq
Obamacare (and keeping it even when the GOP had control of Prez / Congress)
Illegal Immoral Wars and Interventions: Ukraine, Syria, Libya
So just to be clear, our US political choices include plan 1.1 and plan 1.2, because they are only a little different (tough to see that these are radically different, as both cause more deaths and keeps removing our God-given freedoms):
It is time to learn the differences, but more importantly, to understand what is not talked about in political circles, that of freedom, individuality, consent of the governed and being left alone!
If Trump is re-elected, you will have a little more time to come up to speed on how politics or voting will never fix this. The “Great Reset” is here, so it will be time to:
Empires and collectives will never want freedom as they promise you various utopias. Get smart, recognize a PsyOp, and blend into the woodwork locally while connecting with like minded-people for the road ahead.
Quick money is the natural inclination of those that are in “it” for themselves. Investing in the future honorably is something “other centered” people do, knowing not only their positive character traits can be an inspiration to next generations, but that any value added was accomplished without using people as if they were just cannon fodder while also holistically enriching those that follow us.
While my typical posts tend to be negative and critical, this post is one of hope. The dream of those that are anti-state, anti-war and pro-market is that peaceful trade will be the antidote to war.
My hope for my kids and grandkids is a future where wars are minimized and that life, liberty and freedom abound.
With this in mind, this particular post called “Trump’s Suprising Alaska-Canada Rail Announcement” from Matthew Ehret demonstrates the things that are in the works that the average MSM watcher misses, the good news.
For all of his limitations, President Trump has displayed a rare and invaluable quality unseen in an American president for decades: Humanity and genuine patriotism. While neocons and technocrats attempt to gain the upper hand amidst the impending blowout of the $1.5 quadrillion derivatives bubble called the western economy, a new epoch of serious nation building has emerged with the Russia-China alliance and Belt and Road Initiative, which has extended development corridors, industrial zones and mass infrastructure led by rail throughout Asia, Africa and increasingly into the Russian Arctic under the Polar Silk Road.
Rare praise for what President Trump is up to that gains little attention in the press that is infatuated with the here and now instead of the future of the people of the US, Canada and yes even Russia and China.
What is also missed by MSM has been Trump’s behind the scenes efforts towards an economic effort, verses BushII/Obama style “bombing for democracy” which is code for war for quick profits to the MIC (Military Industrial Complex). Here is Trump in noble action in SEP2020 towards healing the scars (thanks Clinton administration) in the Kosovo/Serbia region since the 2008 conflict:
Trump’s normalisation agreement provides for increased economic collaboration between Kosovo and Serbia, particularly in the areas of transport and infrastructure. It also requires the two countries to increase the work they have been doing on issues of missing persons, refugees and internally displaced persons from the 1990s Kosovo war.
On the back of this success President Trump made this ‘Polar Silk Road’ announcement (do note that I am not convinced that the “Lincoln Principles of Government” has much merit, since his “Might” was made “Right” in his own eyes after the seven southern states seceded in late 1860 and early 1861, but I digress), Matthew Ehret shares HIS thoughts:
In its essential character, this Multipolar alliance represents a form of thinking and action which are much more in alignment with discoverable principles of natural law (premised not on “Might Makes Right but rather “Right makes Might” as enunciated famously by the great Chinese President and revolutionary in his Three Principles of the People (modelled on his studies of Lincoln’s principles of government) where he said: “The rule of Right respects benevolence and virtue, while the rule of Might only respects force and utilitarianism. The rule of Right always influences people with justice and reason, while the rule of Might always oppresses people with brute force and military measures.”
Todays potential re-emergence of the Alaska-Canada Railway which would be driven under a pro-Pacific and pro-Arctic development model represents the first genuine display of this paradigm in North America in decades.
This is not innovative or new, as the balance of Matthew Erhet’s article demonstrates, but is instead a visionary look ahead that could help to make America great again.
Ever since the days of the sale of Alaska from Russia to the USA in 1867, it was understood by leading statesmen of both nations that an inevitable next phase in human society’s evolution would involve extending the U.S. Trans Continental Railway through Canada, into Alaska and thence into Russia and Asia via the Bering Strait rail tunnel. This project had received fervent support from such figures as Russian Prime Minister Sergei Witte, Colorado’s Governor William Gilpin and even Czar Nicholas II who commissioned American engineers to conduct a feasibility study in 1906. These stories were told in full in my recent reports The Missed Chance of 1867, and The Real Story Behind the Alaska Purchase.
It is indeed heartening to see glimpses of peace and commerce offset that of war and refugees. Thomas Jefferson would be proud:
Simple thinkers see water coming into a ship, and they start bailing and KEEP bailing saying the water is the problem. But some may be aware that the root issue is actually the hole in the hull in the ship, the water in the ship is actually the symptom of the problem.
The United States of America has a huge hole in it. Now some may claim that it is (one or more of the below):
Today in 2020 we have a whole generation of truth-avoiders and no one, especially a business or a corporation wants to tell them the truth. The media and even churches take part in spreading some of the latest propaganda and manipulations that the evil elites have given light to .. to distract the masses like Marxist Democrats, Anti-Constitutionalists (anti-Electoral College, etc) and the belief that global wars and interventions are essential for the USA’s safety. Feelings are the rule of the day.
Back in 1775 there was a spark from what was the compass of this country, an entity that would help to set this country’s course from Declaration of Independence in 1776 to the Articles of Confederation adopted in 1781 during a pandemic while fighting the most powerful empire on the earth.
The spark of independence came from men like Jonas Clark, a pastor in Lexington, Massachusetts colony of the British Empire. He and almost 100 of the men from his congregation did an amazing thing that day, 19APR in 1775 as told by Chuck Baldwin in a Renew America article in 2015:
.. Being warned of approaching British troops by Dr. Joseph Warren (who dispatched Paul Revere to Lexington and Concord with the news), Pastor Jonas Clark alerted his male congregants at the Church of Lexington that the British army was on its way to seize the colonists’ weapons and to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock. Both men had taken refuge in Pastor Clark’s home with about a dozen of the pastor’s men guarding the house. Other men from the congregation (around 75-80 in number) stood with their muskets on Lexington Green when over 800 British troops appeared before them at barely the break of day.
According to eyewitnesses, British soldiers opened fire on the militiamen without warning (the British command to disperse and the British opening salvo of gunfire were simultaneous), immediately killing eight of Pastor Clark’s parishioners. In self defense, the Minutemen took cover and returned fire. These were the first shots of the Revolutionary War. Again, this took place on Lexington Green, which was located in the shadow of the church-house where those men worshipped each Sunday. The men that were guarding Adams and Hancock escorted them out of harm’s way shortly before the troops arrived. Without a doubt, the heroic efforts of Pastor Clark and his brave Minutemen at the Church of Lexington saved the lives of Sam Adams and John Hancock. And eight of those brave men gave their lives protecting two men who became two of America’s greatest Founding Fathers. But, mind you, Jonas Clark and his men are as important to the story of America’s independence as any of our Founding Fathers.
Can you see this happening today? Is there any church out there in the US that would go gun-to-gun with Redcoats (local/state police, DHS agents, etc) to physically protect the cause of liberty?
.. two elements of American history are lost to the vast majority of historians today: 1) it was attempted gun confiscation by the British troops that ignited America’s War for Independence, and 2) it was a pastor and his flock that mostly comprised the “Minutemen” who fired the shots that started our great Revolution.
Let’s hear some more about the caliber of pastors we had in the 1770s:
James Caldwell:
James Caldwell was called “The Rebel High Priest” or “The Fighting Chaplain.” Caldwell is most famous for the “Give ’em Watts!” story.
During the Springfield (New Jersey) engagement, the colonial militia ran out of wadding for their muskets. Quickly, Caldwell galloped to the Presbyterian church, and returning with an armload of hymnals, threw them to the ground, and hollered, “Now, boys, give ’em Watts!” He was referring to the famous hymn writer, Isaac Watts, of course.
The British hated Caldwell so much, they murdered his wife, Hannah, in her own home, as she sat with her children on her bed. Later, a fellow American was bribed by the British to assassinate Pastor Caldwell – which is exactly what he did. Americans loyal to the Crown burned both his house and church. No less than three cities and two public schools in the State of New Jersey bear his name today.
John Peter Muhlenberg:
John Peter Muhlenberg was pastor of a Lutheran church in Woodstock, Virginia, when hostilities erupted between Great Britain and the American colonies. When news of Bunker Hill reached Virginia, Muhlenberg preached a sermon from Ecclesiastes chapter three to his congregation. He reminded his parishioners that there was a time to preach and a time to fight. He said that, for him, the time to preach was past and it was time to fight. He then threw off his vestments and stood before his congregants in the uniform of a Virginia colonel.
Muhlenberg was later promoted to brigadier-general in the Continental Army, and later, major general. He participated in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Yorktown. He went on to serve in both the US House of Representatives and US Senate.
Joab Houghton:
Joab Houghton was in the Hopewell (New Jersey) Baptist Meeting House at worship when he received the first information regarding the battles at Lexington and Concord. His great-grandson gives the following eloquent description of the way he treated the tidings:
“[M]ounting the great stone block in front of the meeting-house, he beckoned the people to stop. Men and women paused to hear, curious to know what so unusual a sequel to the service of the day could mean. At the first, words a silence, stern as death, fell over all. The Sabbath quiet of the hour and of the place was deepened into a terrible solemnity. He told them all the story of the cowardly murder at Lexington by the royal troops; the heroic vengeance following hard upon it; the retreat of Percy; the gathering of the children of the Pilgrims round the beleaguered hills of Boston; then pausing, and looking over the silent throng, he said slowly, ‘Men of New Jersey, the red coats are murdering our brethren of New England! Who follows me to Boston?’ And every man in that audience stepped out of line, and answered, ‘I!’ There was not a coward or a traitor in old Hopewell Baptist Meeting-House that day.” (Cathcart, William. Baptists and the American Revolution. Philadelphia: S.A. George, 1876, rev. 1976. Print.)
Back to Jonas Clark:
On the one-year anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Clark preached a sermon based upon his eyewitness testimony of the event. He called his sermon, “The Fate of Blood-Thirsty Oppressors and God’s Tender Care of His Distressed People.” His sermon has been republished by Nordskog Publishing under the title, “The Battle of Lexington, A Sermon and Eyewitness Narrative, Jonas Clark, Pastor, Church of Lexington.”
In summary, although not every pastor was able to actively participate in our fight for independence, so many pastors throughout Colonial America preached the principles of liberty and independence from their pulpits that the Crown created a moniker for them: The “Black Regiment” (referring to the long, black robes that so many colonial clergymen wore in the pulpit). Without question, the courageous preaching and example of Colonial America’s patriot-pastors provided the colonists with the inspiration and resolve to resist the tyranny of the Crown and win America’s freedom and independence.
When I look around today, I don’t even see 1% of US churches prepared to withstand tyranny like the churches in colonial America had back in the 1700s. Yet, truth be told, the churches today have the capability to influence the American citizens more than the mainstream media, more than the US Congress and even more than the US President! However, what we have today in churches is a leadership vacuum, no resolve, but mainly an attention to the feelings of the people while avoiding truth, the truth of the Bible, the truth of liberty (and the freedom it beings in Christ) and the truth of natural law.
The hole, the root issue in the USS United States, is the church and pastors!
The truth that needs to be told but is withheld, because of feelings is, you can’t elect us out of our current problems in the USA. No country has ever been made more free using politics! Vote all you want, get petitions out there signed as such, and you are really just bailing water.
There are six things that Chuck Baldwin attributes to the impotence of the church in the United States of America:
The church in general willingly cowers behind the 501C3 (1954 law) tax-exempt status (the corporate church). The IRS employs lawyers to approach most churches on a regular basis with brochures and visits to ensure they are aware of their “license” requirements, what they can say and what they can’t say, what they can do and what they can’t do. Jesus must be so ashamed of the church that the Gates of Hell could not prevail from.
The church in general is teaching an enslaving version of Romans 13 that has turned men into sniveling subjects instead of having no king but Jesus. What most preachers do not understand that in a republic, the PEOPLE are king .. so render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s is not about giving resources and allegiance to a president, congress or federal government.
The church in general has abandoned “blessed are the peacemakers” and have cheered and encouraged the warfare state in everything it says and does to the detriment of many oppressed people groups around the globe. The number of Christians in two countries the US brought “democracy” to in the last 20 years have very few Christians left as they have either been killed or became refugees.
The church in general has glorified the GOP and GOP presidents allowing them to violate the US Constitution the same way the previous Democratic president did (when they were “constitutionalists”). Principles DON’T CHANGE!
The church in general has traded unpopular truth that might hurt feelings for success, whether that be more members, bigger staff, bigger buildings and more programs.
The church in general, especially in evangelical circles, allow believers to be blinded by the Zionist Israeli program that has been used to prop up a secular state enabled by the US Empire to be exempt from following international laws while funding them with foreign aid while the US’s deficit spending causes us to go broke and our kids to become tax slaves or worse in the next 20+ years.
In summary, at a minimum, especially after it was shown how impotent the churches were when the lock-down orders were given this spring and summer, there should be a movement to uncouple the churches from the government, sacrifice the 501C3 tax-exempt status and become the compass of each state in this federal republic. After this the following five items need to be addressed by each gathering/spiritual family. Maybe it is time again for the church to go underground like they did in the 1st century when persecution came to Jerusalem and Jesus-followers were scattered all over Asia, Africa and Europe!
Get back to basics!!! This republic needs a spiritual reset to plug that hole!
GOP leadership in Michigan has said for months “our hands are tied” regarding the governor’s executive orders that drove the Michigan economy into the ground, placed people in house arrest and placed Covid-19 positive patients in nursing homes causing economic, emotional and physical death to reign in all directions since March 2020.
Well, all it takes is for the Democratic governor to have a slight 4-3 Michigan Supreme Court setback for the GOP to reward and encourage the people with the hope of freedom they have so missed in the days and weeks to come … BUT NO!
The GOP in Michigan is not about to “grant” the people freedoms, they were only upset that the Democratic governor was getting all the credit for the epic tyranny to descend on the physically beautiful state of Michigan which is now being turned into an economic dumpster fire that will require tons of assistance from a bankrupt federal government, further enslaving the people of Michigan not only to the local tyranny from state and local leaders (not to mention big businesses that have joined in this action, looking right at you Menards), but also federal tyranny for years and decades to come.
Becky Akers, a Michigan resident and frequent writer provides this from Lew Rockwell’s LRC Blog:
In a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications, the Michigan Supreme Court decided Friday that [Democratic] Gov. Gretchen Whitmer violated her constitutional authority by continuing to issue orders to combat COVID-19 without the approval of state lawmakers.
Sounds promising, right?
Ah, but listen to those “state lawmakers,” particularly the Rethuglican ones. They prattle like power-hungry despots grasping after the authority ol’ Gretch stole from them:
That’s not as objectionable, except for slandering a republic as a democracy.
But words matter, and the GOP, the chief killer of the republic is at it again. In throwing blacks off southern plantations in 1866, they inadvertently placed all Americans on the government plantation, and Americans today are finally waking up to that fact. As with slavery, not only are we to provide for the common good (plantation economics) with government taking a portion of our earnings.
Our bodies are no longer our own as governments can dictate we wear masks (that do NOTHING against a 120nm coruna-virus), but that we also submit to house arrest (loss of freedom to travel) and to forced vaccinations (what happened to “my body, my choice?).
Government is NOT our friend, neither is the GOP, and obviously neither are the extremely evil Democrats.
In just the past twenty years, under BI-PARTISAN laws, this happened to our Bill of Rights:
Becky then showcases how stupid the GOP in Michigan is:
.. then Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey [R-Clarklake] opened his big mouth. He opined that
“This ruling does not alter our collective responsibility to protect ourselves and others by wearing masks, social distancing, and washing our hands,” Shirkey said. “The virus still presents a threat to our health and we must be vigilant in our actions.”
How does that differ from Gretch the Witch? Compare Shirkey’s quote with this drivel from Her Wickedness:
Seems like many things in life appear to be black and while, high road or the low road, religion or hell. So in this election year where plenty of evil has been uncorked, there is a thought that the only recourse is to elect a certain leader, because “never before” has there been such an important election.
If it were only that easy. You see, those American colonists threw off the British Empire to be free, however, even before the American Revolution was over there were agendas afoot toward establishing a political power that would in fact bring less freedom and more taxes. Tax slaves once again.
Our rights, given to us by our Creator, were to be protected by this thing called government. The last two decades have seen our Bill of Rights evaporate “for safety from terrorists” (thanks GOP) ..
2012 version2018 version
.. and now our ability to elect representatives is about to be removed (thanks Democrats)!
I think it is that bait-n-switch that can get under the skin of those that do more than talk about freedom. Those that have either willingly chosen to serve in the military, or being drafted, gave it their all and then some that return to the USA quite disillusioned.
This happened with the Revolutionary War militia member of South Carolina that were indispensable in getting the British forces out of their region who NEVER were paid for their efforts. This is also what happened when Daniel Shay and his veteran groups found that being paid in worthless Continental dollars yet expected to pay back property taxes in gold in Massachusetts would sow the seeds of a rebellion whose core were those veterans who already gave more than lip service to liberty and freedom efforts.
More recently, we have many vets who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 who today wonder how they could have been so willing to go and fight to “spread democracy” and yet realize that democracy was never the objective. PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] is a real thing caused by an internal fight of morals for good or for evil. No one wants to wake up to the fact that they were used .. or to hear their leaders say things like this:
So as you see, this is nothing new. Every generation has to come to terms with this when they see their country and society being raped and pillaged by the evil in their midst. When politicians restrain law enforcement from protecting private property OR the citizens (that the US Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement had no obligation to attempt), it is up to “we the people” to take back what we had delegated to those who represent and serve us.
In 2020 we are seeing this vividly in the power struggle between the “establishment” (that has a swamp of their own) and the “Woke-Left” who desires to put their politicians and employer (Soros) into the US’s driver’s seat. Here is a chart that shows the span of principles (from tyrants to woke-left to real conservative) from Vasko Kohlmayer from his post at Lew Rockwell’s site today:
It should be no surprise what direction this nation is heading, and why there are those that say only Trump can save America.
Well, in truth, America has not had a healthy society or culture for many generations, and the more the federal government thinks it can fix things both in LA and in Podunk, Louisiana with the same tools, the more ineffective and out of touch it becomes. The more money it then needs to FORCE the fix. No wonder the bloated budget, the staggering bureaucracy and the perpetual of kicking the domestic issues down the road while we go and invade some nation, any nation somewhere elect on this globe.
But I digress. Maybe it is time, past time, to go full on local!
An example of think locally / act locally is what the last part of today’s blog post is set to communicate. I would like to now go back in time and unpack an era just after WWII in Tennessee where that corrupt local government combined with a corrupt law enforcement was finally “right-sized” by people of principle, veterans that knew something had to be done.
You see, in my mind, fixing this country where life, liberty and property are valued starts with me ..not relying on the state whose only tool is force:
Once we each have researched how people can live in proximity in this world filled with scarcity, it is THEN we can go about sharing ideas of freedom, liberty and prosperity with our neighbors, our co-workers and if possible, even with family!
With that, please either read the full post at the link below OR follow with me the Reader’s Digest version in the clips below from a post from Abbeville Institute’s Neil Kumar called ‘The Battle of Athens, Tennessee‘ :
Bill White, a vet, has seen the injustice and issues this declaration –
Well! Here you are! After three or four years of fighting for your country. You survived it all. You came back. And what did you come back to? A free country? You came back to Athens, Tennessee, in McMinn County, that’s run by a bunch of outlaws. They’ve got hired gunmen all over this county right now at this minute. What for? One purpose. To scare you so bad you won’t dare stand up for the rights you’ve been bleeding and dying for. Some of your mothers and some of your sisters are afraid to walk down the streets to the polling places. Lots of men, too!
The local government had secured a monopoly that terrorized the local taxpayers. No one even wanted to walk past the jail in case a lazy deputy accused you of doing something wrong and locking you up. This environment had gone on for years, and neither the state OR the federal government helped:
There were no “elections” in McMinn County through the war years. The ballot boxes were in Democratic offices, and Cantrell’s deputies served as the election officers, some of whom were brutal killers with the blood of innocent civilians on their hands. .. Word was put out among elderly voters that their pensions would be held up unless they voted “the right way.”
When the Republican election judge, a disabled veteran of the First World War, attempted to view the ballot count, he was dragged into the corridor and beaten, leaving him paralyzed. Another man who attempted to observe the ballot count was pistol-whipped, and one gunman fired at a poll worker who tried to leave the courthouse … Several Athenians petitioned the Department of Justice for relief, knowing that local and State officials would not take any action against the machine. A hardware store owner wrote Attorney General Francis Biddle, imploring, “The good people of this county are sacrificing for the cause of America’s freedom but have lost their freedom at home. Both parties have lost the freedom of the ballot box, a dictatorship has been set up, the county treasury is being raided at the expense of the taxpayers, and the good people of this county would like to sell their property and move away. Your department is our last line of defense. Please, for God’s sake come to the rescue of a helpless people.”
The (typical) response from the federal government:
The Department of Justice compiled a report, observing that “the alleged violations in McMinn County were the worst ever brought to the attention of the Department of Justice.” Despite overwhelming evidence and continuing petitions, the Feds took no action. A separate ouster lawsuit against McMinn election commissioners was finally tried by the Assistant Attorney General, largely due to the fact that the U.S. Attorney and the two U.S. Senators who had recommended him were believed to be associated with the machine, but this case was held before a judge who was also rumored to be a part of the organization. The judge dismissed most of the charges and fined the men one penny for the charges that stuck.
At the end of the day, when corruption comes local, y’all will have to be ready yourself, because:
In this case, the returning vets had skin in the game, they had been fighting for freedom and was horrified at what they came home to and decided that the first recourse was political:
.. another veteran said, “It wasn’t really a town anymore. It was a jail.” Another GI deplored the deputies, who “were nothing but a lot of swaggering, strutting, storm-troopers, drunk most of the time, beating up our citizens for the slightest reason.” Yet another observed that “if you were on the right team, why, you could get away with almost anything. If you were on the wrong team, you couldn’t get away with anything.” This should all sound all too familiar for us today.
When Cantrell announced that he was returning to Athens to “run” for Sheriff, Mansfield his handpicked successor to the State Senate seat, the GIs knew that now was the time to take action. Despite having been warned to stay away from the polls and to not even consider running for office, the veterans began organizing. As one of the soldiers put it, “We just got plain tired of being pushed around by a bunch of thugs.”
Politics however was in the back pocket of the county’s thugs, but the process brought about public relations that allowed the people to know someone was trying to save them. The Republican party was actually honorable enough to give the GIs a shot at the offices up for election:
The local Republican Party resolved to officially endorse the veterans’ ticket instead of running its own candidates; after seconding the motion in favor of the resolution, one party official delivered an excellent summation: “We are involved in a conflict with desperate enemies who have sought to subject us to tyranny and oppression…We feel a deep sense of obligation and now seek in measure to repay…Young men who have fought against oppression abroad will continue that fight for honesty and decency at home.”
However, those in power do not concede it easily, if at all:
Election Day had finally arrived. A local minister exhorted his congregation thus: “If you do not vote as your conscience dictates, then you have sold your citizenship and do not deserve to be citizens. It is the responsibility of each and every person to preserve our most cherished possession, liberty, or forever lose it.” Armed deputies “guarded” each polling place, and reports of election fraud poured in to GI headquarters almost immediately. One veteran lamented, “They already started knocking our boys in the head and putting them in jail. They’re taking this thing… At one polling place, a deputy beat and shot a sixty-year-old whose only crime had been his surplus of gumption in exercising his right to vote. Meanwhile, another deputy delivered a brutal beating to a GI election judge after he protested the brazen voter fraud happening before his eyes; the deputy tried to draw his gun, and likely would have killed the veteran, but it snagged in his holster. When he had exhausted himself, he had the man dragged to the jail bloody and insensate.
By this time, DeRose notes, “there were twelve ballot boxes: one in the jail, another inside a heavily defended courthouse, a third barricaded in the Dixie Café, a fourth in the vault in the Cantrell Bank Building, and poll watchers had been ejected at two other locations.” Inside the courthouse, deputies held a handful of GI poll watchers hostage, two of them wounded.
The powerful WILL turn to violence to keep power. Keep that in mind people of California, New York State, Michigan and other states in between! Just know, at the right time when that line is crossed, one may have to fight fire with fire:
Do you know what your rights are supposed to be? How many rights have you got left? None! Not even the right to vote in a free election. When you lose that, you’ve lost everything. And you are damned well going to lose it unless you fight and fight the only way they understand. Fire with fire! We’ve got to make this an honest election because we promised the people that if they voted it would be an honest election. And it’s going to be. But only if we see that it is. We are going to have to run these organized criminals out of town, and we can do it if we stick together. Are you afraid of them? Why, I could take a banana stalk and run every one of these potbellied draft dodgers across Depot Hill. Get the hell out of here and get something to shoot with. And come back as fast as you can. – Bill White
Inspired by White, the veterans fanned out to procure all of the weapons and ammunition that they could. They returned with an arsenal of pistols, rifles, shotguns, squirrel guns, and European souvenirs like a German Mauser. White still wasn’t satisfied: “We need some more firepower.” A group got together to raid the nearby National Guard armory, where they found revolvers, a Thompson sub-machine gun, an array of .30-caliber M1917 rifles, and plenty of ammunition. For good measure, one man drove to his hunting lodge in Asheville to collect his stash of ammunition. DeRose describes the scene well: “They draped themselves with bandoliers of bullets, took everything they could carry, and drove back to town.”
Things were about to get real, but a noble cause does sometimes require violence, sometimes more than turning tables over in a temple!
He had sworn to defend America against all of her enemies, and he meant to satisfy his vow. Later, White would explain that “if it was worth going over there and risking your life, laying it down, it was worth it here, too. So, we decided to fight.” The GIs set out, ready for action. They formed a line on a hillside across from the jail and demanded that the machine men bring out the ballot boxes. From the jail, someone called, “You’re going to have to come get them.” The GIs answered that that’s exactly what they would do. Someone else inside the jail shouted, “Why don’t you call the law?” A GI delivered the rejoinder: “There ain’t no damn law in McMinn County!” According to Byrum, the first fire was a shotgun blast from inside the jail; in any case, gunfire erupted.
Flashes pierced the night, both sides keeping up a sustained assault on one another. Athens, DeRose writes, “rattled to the roar of Tommy-guns, rifles, and pistols” and the “blunt blast of shotguns mingled with the sharper crack of rifles and the whine of ricochets.” The GIs, under the ceaseless torrent of bullets, climbed rooftops to take positions atop a ring of buildings encircling the jail. In the streets, the veterans further hemmed in the crossfire, firing from behind walls and parked cars. The soldiers shot out the transformer that supplied the jail, Byrum notes, “leaving the deputies not only low on ammunition but with the difficult task of groping around trying to load guns in the dark.”
With the National Guard on the way, White and his men stepped it up:
After receiving news that the National Guard had been mobilized, the GIs asked White what they should do. He replied immediately, vowing, “We’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to keep shooting here until we get those ballot boxes and get those people out of there.” Running out of time, they realized that they needed to pick things up. One of the veterans reminded Bill that there was an enormous stockpile of dynamite in the old county barn that the county used to clear roads and blast stumps and stones. The dynamite procured, the GIs commenced tossing dynamite in increasing amounts at the jail, aiming closer and closer with each throw, finally promising that the next would be through the window. This last threat was followed by the veterans’ ultimate volley. The machine men, outgunned and out of ammunition, surrendered, and the deputies marched out one after another, their hands held high in supplication to their victorious conquerors. A swollen crowd of townspeople cheered.
Unlike most insurrections and revolutions, this one was not followed by another team in power that sought to intimidate to maintain their position:
“They realize [that] they have taken a serious step, but do not interpret their action as [having taken] the law into their own hands. Rather, they say [that] they just put the law back in the hands of the people.”
Now that is honorable and principle-based.
On August 1, 1946, a group of Southern World War Two veterans in Athens, Tennessee, fought and won the only successful armed insurrection in the United States since the War of Independence.
May a grassroots growth of liberty and freedom-minded men and women set about to repair this land from the local and up in the weeks and months to come. Regardless if the USA remains a union is not important. The most important aspect is what these GIs fought for in Athens, TN in 1946.
