What the headline says. Now is the time for “liberals,” “progressives,” “lefties,” whatever you want to call us, to take up arms. Literally.
The sad truth is, Republicans and their mouth-breathing tea-bagging base don’t respect us… because they don’t fear us. That’s why, no matter how large our numbers, they continue to laugh off our concerns. See, the only thing these bullies understand is force, and as long as they believe that we don’t have “the guts” to use it, they’ll continue to not only ignore our demands, but to threaten us with violence if we don’t quietly acquiesce.
But imagine if instead of merely carrying banners and signs and legitimate grievances, 70,000 protesters were to converge on the Wisconsin State Capitol proudly and openly carrying rifles and shotguns and pistols and other patriotic symbols of American manhood? Now that might finally earn our side a little respect… and what respect we didn’t earn, we’d at least be in a position to take.
Honestly… think Gov. Walker would be so insulting and intransigent if he knew his office was surrounded by 70,000 angry, well-armed, Second-Amendment-remedying patriots? I don’t think so.
Now don’t get me wrong: This is not a call to violence. As the righties frequently point out, gun ownership is not only a fundamental constitutional right but our patriotic duty, as is its very public display. Indeed, nothing could be more democratic, nay, more American, than to strap on your bandoliers, fling a rifle over your shoulder, and head down to the seat of government to let your elected officials know what you really think of their policies. “Extremism in the defense of liberty,” and all that.
And, if the pro-gun commenters in the threads on my anti-gun posts are to be believed, nothing makes you safer than carrying a firearm. So by extension, wouldn’t everybody on both sides of the conflict in Madison be safer if the protesters were as armed as the Capitol Police?
So come on my fellow liberals, let’s all go out and buy ourselves some good ol’ American, union made firearms, if only to send a message to those on the right that we take this fight seriously. And even if we don’t ultimately prevail in Wisconsin, no doubt the mere prospect of a heavily armed American left might finally win us some of that enhanced gun control legislation for which we’ve long been fighting.
You’re an idiot. 70,000 people waving guns would be a bloodbath.
I’m hoping this is intended to be tongue-in-cheek.
Yeah, this is a terrible idea.
Irresponsible post, Goldy, you’re better than that.
What kind of might-makes-right bullshit is this?
I like to keep the accidental discharges restricted to my swimsuit area, thanks.
Get over it. You will never take America’s guns. There are too many of them, and too many willing to die to defend their constitutional right to them.
Can we outlaw cars though? They kill way more people than guns, and it’s fucking simple to get a licence to drive.
Someone cut off America’s balls.
Wimps. I’m a bleeding heart liberal and I own guns. Lots of them. And the first teabagger that comes to my house looking for a handout after the collapse of this country is getting a bullet to the head. j/k
But sarcasm aside, in a way Goldy is right. Although I doubt any potential confrontation that would come of it would be very productive so…
He’s right. The government has lost sight of the fact that it is supposed to be a government BY THE PEOPLE and FOR THE PEOPLE. But now, MONEY is king. It’s time we restart revisiting history, especially the American Revolution.
@5 Worried about accidental discharge injuries? Carry an unloaded gun. No-one knows until you pull the trigger, but you weren’t intending on doing that, were you?
You all need to step out of your Liberally Insulated Seattle Bubble for awhile and gain some real world perspective. Seriously, I’m starting to understand why “liberal” is a dirty word these days. Some of you really are incredibly naive or delusional.
When all this crap started to go down in Wisconsin, I called my mother and said “This is why we have the 2nd amendment.”
But I know you’re not serious.
The best gun is one wrested from the cold dead hands of an anti-capitalist anti-American Tea Bagger.
Ditto the above.
Or, in the immortal words of Pogo:
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
I understand your sentiment here Goldy, but it smacks of emotional knee-jerking: adopting the tactics and attitudes of our ideological adversaries just makes us more like them, which I think they would prefer, if given a choice.
If we want to offer an alternative to right-wing jingoism to the large mass of “independent/undecideds” out there, then it has to be truly distinguishable, and I don’t think this sort of thing does that.
Yeah, I see where you’re going with this, but just like you don’t punch your kid in the face to show him hitting is wrong, we couldn’t say we would do this even to make a point. Setting an example, and all that. These irretrievable fuckwits are only in office because they got voted in on a better message than we had, and if lefties are as smart as all their advanced degrees say they are, they have to be able to find a way to use simplistic talking points as well as the repubs do…seriously, you’re telling me the people who write for the Daily Show couldn’t manage to do the ads for our candidates?
(gus, are talking speedos or trunks?)
Well, the teabaggers have been holding second amendment rallies at national parks, thanks to Obama decriminalizing carrying firearms in national parks. So why not give the right a taste of their own intimidating medicine?
Christ. Can’t wait ’til this gets picked up by some right-wing blog as evidence of “jack-booted liberal thugs.” Way to be.
Well, at least the “they don’t fear us” part is interesting, because force is the language we haven’t used against them, and they haven’t responded well to anything we’ve tried so far. 70,000 peaceful protestors doesn’t register with them the same way a few hundred teabaggers marching by the capitol with loaded weapons registers with us.
I am a fairly liberal guy, and I own several guns. Maybe it is time I got more ammo. I usually only keep about 50 rounds for the .357, and that doesn’t sound like enough. Time to buy some union made bullets.
Ridiculous, stupid. Sarcasm?
Sure, it’s not a call to violence, it’s a call to appear to threaten violence, which easily spirals into violence. One of the appeals of liberalism is that it doesn’t have to resort to the same kind of ridiculous tactics that the right does.
Of course we’re not going to threaten them with force, because quite frankly we are better than that. Let me repeat: we are better than that. But in addition to beating them with a better message and better communication, we have to try and get past our fear of them. Because that fear legitimizes and empowers those who like to wave their guns around and yell about revolution and “taking the country back”.
I’ve never much bought into the idea that I should have weapons to protect myself against criminals, but I’m starting to wonder if I should have them to protect myself against Republicans. Honestly, I think sometimes they’re trying to get the civil war going again. Maybe we need to bring back the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground. Good times.
@5: The important (and correct) point here is that “might makes right” pretty much sums up the right-wing authoritarian mindset. These people don’t respect ideas, reason, logic, or compassion. In their world, politics are won by shouting louder than the opponent, or simply by assassinating them.
If the authoritarian mindset continues to catch on in this country, there will be a yet another violent civil war, fought over essentially the same lines as the last one.
@20 – I don’t want to be better than them; I want to win. The 2nd Amendment protects liberals, too, and I think it’s time to remind the other side of that fact.
A moral victory is not the same as a victory victory.
“Maybe we need to bring back the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground. Good times.”
Oh Jeezis that’s rich! Written like a true naive sheltered white Seattle libtard who doesn’t know jack shot about reality!
Newsflash! Blacks make up only about 12% of the USA and only about 8% of Seattle. GUESS WHAT! There are EVEN LESS white hippies in the USA than there are blacks. Also, revolutionary black panther types hate your white ass.
In short, your preposterous black/hippie revolution would be crushed to death in about 2 seconds.
@ 22: i agree 2-million percent. THE SOUTH HAS RISEN AGAIN!
No, you can’t have a gun, Goldy. You’ll shoot your eye out.
Canuck, your question @14 has inspired me to realize the perfect outfit to wear to Goldy’s all-weaponized rally is actually a very special swimsuit. Thank you!
@13 & @20:
You are both right – we do need to be better than they are. And we are.
However, when you look at human history, it is clear that free ideas, democratic government, and civil rights are luxuries that need to be defended, sometimes with force. The very freedoms that allow us to be liberal were paid for by brave men and women willing to kill and to die for them. Inevitably there will come a time (hopefully not in my lifetime) when another payment is due.
I’m all for responsible gun ownership, but not the sort of gun worship that has people prancing about in public with their big metal dicks in the air.
Change those big metal dicks to big rubber dildos, however, and it’s a party.
@29 – Perhaps big rubber dildos are what we should all bring to the capital. Now that would scare the repressed living shit out of the teabaggers!
@23/28 Well hey, look, I’m not saying don’t be prepared to defend yourself. I’m not anti-gun, and I know more than a few liberal gun owners. And yes, at this point the trend could go either way. The militant teabagger faction could fizzle out or grow to dominate. My broader point @20 is that they are threatening us, and the more fear we show, the more they feel encouraged to keep threatening. They think that what they’re doing is effective, that they have all us liberals running scared. We can prove them otherwise without waving guns and making threats right back at them, at least for now.
My philosophy comes down to this: countering their weapons with more weapons of our own is a primitive fear-response (the “fight” half of “fight or flight”) that simply perpetuates a quite literal death-spiral of ever increasing violence; countering their weapons with no weapons at all, while certainly risky, is nevertheless the morally superior course of action.
Sure, they can shoot you, but that’s just further proof of which side is more afraid…
“This is not a call to violence”.
But you would certainly classify it as such if the exact same idiot statement was written by a teabagger.
By now I should be used to the double standards of the Stranger.
Fuck guns. We need rocket launchers.
Ha ha ha you wimpy white Seattle liberals arent even gonna do jack shit. Wimps. Bok bok bagock!
Look at me I’m Goldstein the stereotype of a “progressive” media-Jew! I am such a wimp that I call for threatening displays of potential violence, and then turn right around and claim that I’m not really calling for threatening displays of potential violence, because I am such a stereotypical “progressive” wimpy hypocrite.
I’ve been saying this for years. (Except that I’m pretty sure I’m serious; not so sure about Goldy.) An armed conflict in which one side has abjured arms is more commonly known as “unconditional surrender,” which is a pretty good summation of the political state of this country when push comes to shove. And if you don’t believe this is an armed conflict, just ask Gabrielle Giffords.
@33
If it were not for double standards, “progressives” wouldn’t have any standards at all!
Alright goldy, come back.
Because right wingnuts are so well known for reacting rationally and in a principaled manner, there’s no way they’d shriek commie army “they’re coming right for us.”
Double standards, or just a modest proposal?
If it ever gets to fighting in this country, I will be offering military training at the slog happy. I worked in a drill sergeant school for a year, I have the materials and voice ready to scream. Now drop and give me 25.
I would love to live in a world where guns are not ever needed, but until that time I will take heed of the words of Cyprus Hill:
“When the shit goes down, you better be ready.”
actually if there is any state where a significant proportion of 70,000 liberal protesters would be likely carry guns and it also WOULDN’T be a bloodbath, its Wisconsin.
but i think a significant proportion of Goldy might be tongue and cheek, so no need to stoop to Teabagger level, right?
Oh god gus, that is TOO funny! He’s got kind of a Sean Connery meets Borat vibe going on…you wouldn’t have any accidental emissions in *that* get up…
@27: Oh my god! ZARDOZ!! That movie put me right off Sean Connery for quite some time, and I will never forgive the film makers for that!
@35,
You wouldn’t dare say that to me if I were armed. So thanks for proving my thesis.
Modest proposal or not, I think what_now @16 is right that this is guaranteed to get picked up by the right-wing blogosphere and used to help demonize liberal protestors.
Goldy, I am starting to agree with you. I’m willing to stand up during a Huckabee rally with my gun screaming “Give me universal health care or give me death!!” And then shoot some rounds into the air.
The freaks on the right only respond to fear of violent retaliation. Scare the fucking shit out them !!!
@44 try me wimp.
Meet me at the bus stop at 3rd and Pine @ 10:30 pm tonight. Bring whatever weapons you can get your wimpy Jew claws on.
If you want to instill a little fear, instead of walking around waving guns, get 70,000 people on horseback dressed in Polish Winged Hussar attire.
That’d soil some drawers.
Walk softly and carry a big stick! Those may be good words to live by.
Just because we have the guns does not mean we have to fire them. Let the teabaggers take the first shot if they really feel that way. It is worth the sacrifice of one liberal life to not take the first shot!
41 years after Kent State, Libs are still trying to stick daisies in the barrels of rifles…hoping for a different result.