Association of Free Citizens

Over at American Thinker I found a great article on talking to Liberals. It really opened my eyes because I am one who likes facts and likes to parade facts as the foundation of my opinions (not that I am as totally objective as I’d like to pretend.). I confess that this has made me more polemical* than not, which is not helpful. The article certainly helped me see the error of my ways (by giving me facts!) and outlined an alternative way of talking to people who inhabit a political space further to the Left than my own.

* A polemic is an argument that sheds more heat than light.

We are at war. As was the case before 9/11, we didn’t know we were at war. War had been declared against us and we didn’t notice. Real hard to fight a war effectively if you don’t know you’re in it. Here we see one of the main lines of attack. It is a long video, 1:21 and change, but it lays it out pretty clearly. The interview was filmed nearly 25 years ago, but it remains extremely relevant today, not because the Soviet Union is still at it, but because the programs set in motion continued under the weight of their own internal logic. In this series of video the principles outlined above are further elaborated. And finally, here we see the development of the theoretical underpinnings of the system, posted at Big Hollywood.

Military maxim: know your enemy.

Last month I attended a Tea Party in Glendale. I was really impressed by the enthusiasm of the participants. The occasion provided many citizens the opportunity to voice their unhappiness with a whole range of issues from the wildly profligate budget to the displacement of spiritual values from public life. I’d be willing to be that most of the people there had never voluntarily attended a protest in their lives. I know I never had. We all had a good time and felt great about having exercised our right to voice our discontent.

All across America irate citizens protested. And nothing changed. What’s more, nothing is likely to change – based soley on the Tea Party protests.

Yes, they are cathartic, those Tea Parties, but ineffectual. Though they did get local media attention they were effectively ignored by the national media. Without national media attention our elected representatives will continue to ignore us, the citizens. Not to be a wet blanket, but the fact is that the Tax Day Tea Parties were full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

It doesn’t have to be that way. It should not be that way.

A citizenry aroused should shake the foundations of the status quo. It is not enough to exercise the right to free speech, it is necessary to exercise the duty to hold those in positions of authority accountable, and to force change one way or another.

Seems to me that there are several phases to resolving problems. I propose the following schema;

1. Identify the problem.
2. Identify the cause of the problem.
3. Identify at least one possible solution.
4. Identify who has the authority over implementing a solution.
5. Devise an effective strategy to influence the authority.
6. Implement the plan to influence that person or organization.
7. Evaluate the results of the attempt to influence.
8. Evaluate the results of the proposed solution.

Over the course of the last nearly 50 years we have seen massive changes in our society brought on by citizens who saw a problem, and took effective steps to remedy it. This kind of massive change has mostly been brought about by those on the Left who developed and implemented very effective tactics to advance their agenda.

We now see the bitter fruit of that agenda all around us, a society in collapse and accelerating down the path to ruin. The principles of the Founders, the principles that forged a rag-tag band of Colonists into a great nation, have been cast aside and are honored only in the breach. In today’s topsy turvy world it is even considered dangerously radical to espouse those principles, and those who do so find themselves publicly vilified and even threatened. Soon, perhaps much sooner than anyone would think, such free speech will be criminalized, at which point free speech, once guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, will be a thing of the past, and this Republic will be a thing of the past.

Now is the time for those who value their citizenship in this great republic to take action and divert this nation from the path to ruin. The call of duty militates against passive and silent acquiescence to the current of events, but demands of citizens swift, constant, concerted action.

This is a place where citizens can come to discuss their concerns and aspirations as well as ways and meas of improving their communities. This author believes that all improvement in our communities begins at the local level by the actions of individual citizens organizing themselves to working for the common good.

The individual citizen is the basic unit of which all polities are constituted, the citizens, when exercising their constitutional rights and duties, are the source of all legitimate power, it is the citizens from whom all legitimate authority derives and it is the citizen upon whom all responsibility rests.

At the moment everyone can comment following registration. I require registration because this an association of neighbors and we should know one another. This is not a marketing scheme nor a government sting. Keep it civil, focussed and clean.

My proposal is modest. The Left demonstrates an effective model of how to proceed. Learn it, apply it, master it. Two systems in particular have been the keystone of the triumph of the Left: 1. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and 2. the Clower Piven Strtegy. They are brutal, uncivil, reprehensible, but they work. We need to work on other strategies as well, but these two are a good start.

Begin by working locally. Small victories can be built into larger victories. Without the experience of gaining small local victories we cannot hope to create decisive change at the State and Federal levels. Start with the PTA, the local school board, the City Council, any entity charged with implementing any kind of policy. Force them to implement policies consistent with the Founders’ principles.

If you are interested in participating in this endeavor, and are willing to meet to discuss how to proceed on these issues, contact me.