On January 7, the day after rioters entered the US Capitol and put hundreds of politicians to flight in support of Donald Trump’s wild-eyed election fraud claims, Wisconsins’s State Assembly passed a resolution. The money line: “[P]olitical violence in any form has no place in the American system of government and should never be tolerated.”

If the Assembly (and other government bodies passing such resolutions) had followed up by dissolving themselves and sending their members home for good, I might believe they mean what they’re saying. Otherwise, no dice.

Political violence, and credible threats of political violence, are the very basis of “the American system of government.”

When the Assembly (or Congress, or your city council) passes a law or an ordinance, they’re not asking, they’re telling.  If you’re discovered not doing what they order you to do, or doing what they order you not to do, armed government employees will abduct you and put you in a cage. If you resist, those armed government employees will assault you, maybe even kill you.

Absent political violence and the credible threat thereof, government agencies would just be benevolent clubs making recommendations — recommendations we’d be free to accept or reject without threats of force either way.

Is all political violence bad? Well, no. Laws against the INITIATION of force — assault, murder, robbery, etc. — are defensive in nature, and if their enforcement was financed voluntarily rather than through taxation (under penalty of force for not coughing up), those laws would be entirely justifiable.

Needless to say, the Wisconsin State Assembly doesn’t limit itself to passing such laws. When it passes something like  2019 Assembly Bill 132 (“Persons under the age of 16 years may not operate a class 3 electric bicycle,” etc.), it’s threatening the use of violence against people who have not themselves engaged in violence.

The Capitol riot was unjustified because the claims used to incite it were nonsense. Congress does a lot of things that SHOULD get its members chased out of town by angry mobs. Counting votes that the rioters didn’t want counted was not a worthy casus belli.

Our rulers aren’t really opposed to political violence on grounds of justifiability, though. They’re only opposed to political violence when it’s used against them rather than by or for them. They’re the lords. We’re the peasants. While they won’t say that openly and proudly, they don’t want us to forget it even for a moment.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “Political Violence: The Politicians Doth Protest Too Much,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 01/10/21
• “Political Violence: The Politicians Doth Protest Too Much,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 01/11/21
• “Political violence: The politicians doth protest too much,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Hopkinsville, Kentucky New Era, 01/12/21
• “On political violence, the politicians doth protest too much,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Richmond, North Carolina Observer, 01/13/21
• “Political violence: The politicians doth protest too much,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Batesville, Mississippi Panolian, 01/13/21
• “Political Violence: The Politicians Doth Protest Too Much (erroneously headlined ” Yes, Fauci, you do need some humility”), by Thomas L. Knapp, Madill, Oklahoma Record, 01/13/21

In a sign that 2021 may get even more darkly weird than 2020, a mob of Trump supporters pushed their way into the US Capitol on January 6, putting politicians to flight and delaying, for a few hours, Congress’s quadrennial ritual of counting electoral votes and blessing the enthronement of the next President of the United States.

Their goal was to, in words emblazoned on some of the signs they carried, “Stop The Steal.” They seemed to genuinely believe (in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary) that Donald Trump, rather than Joe Biden, was the rightful winner of the election.

If there’s anything more dangerous than believing something that isn’t true, it’s getting together with thousands of other people who believe the same thing to act on that belief. The IQ of a large group is inversely proportional to the number of people in that group.

The attempted putsch was never going to succeed. Not just because its shock troops seemed to be mostly even fatter and more out of shape than me, nor because they were obviously going to be out-gunned once the surprise wore off and the government’s law enforcement and military machinery responded. Even if those things hadn’t been true, grievance just isn’t a sound substitute for strategy. The putsch was doomed because it was stupid.

“Imagine,” talk radio host Aria DiMezzo tweeted as the news began to break,  “being so upset about not getting the tyrant you wanted that you storm the tyrants’ building and demand the tyrants break the tyrants’ own laws to change who the next tyrant is. Hope they brought tar and feathers, though.”

Can I get an amen?

Once the Capitol was cleared, the politicians returned to posture.

This disgraceful incident, some said, is something one expects to see in a banana republic, not in America, hoping the rest of us haven’t  noticed that they themselves spent the last three quarters of a century turning America into exactly such a banana republic.

We must carry out our sacred duties under the Constitution by completing this ritual, some said, hoping the rest of us haven’t noticed that they themselves squat over, and defecate upon, the Constitution, on a daily basis.

But we HAVE noticed, each in our own way. The “Stop The Steal” crowd and Black Lives Matter may seem like very different movements, but they’re both driven by growing recognition that America doesn’t work anymore, and probably never did work as well as its public relations department would have us believe.

As Lysander Spooner put it, the Constitution “has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”

Nothing lasts forever. Not even the United States. Eventually, per Yeats, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”

Things are falling apart. The centre is not holding.

So, what comes next? I don’t know. But the Beer Belly Putsch is  evidence that whatever’s next, it’s at the door and knocking.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “The Beer Belly Putsch: A Sign of Things to Come,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 01/07/21
• “The Beer Belly Putsch: A Sign of Things to Come,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Anchorage, Alaska Press, 01/07/21
• “The Beer Belly Putsch: A Sign of Things to Come,” by Thomas L. Knapp, CounterPunch, 01/08/21
• “The Beer Belly Putsch: A Sign of Things to Come,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 01/09/21
• “The beer belly putsch: A sign of things to come,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Lake Havasu City, Arizona News-Herald, 01/09/21

“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent,”  Dr.  Anthony Fauci, director of the US  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and public face of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, told the New York Times in December. “Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”

If you’re startled by Fauci’s admission that he lies to the public depending on what polls say, you shouldn’t be. It’s not the first time.

In March, he told CBS’s 60 Minutes “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.” Months later, as mask mandates became the political establishment’s preferred “we gotta order people to do things” measure, he claimed he’d previously been lying so that people wouldn’t rush out and buy up masks needed by medical personnel.

In that case, he seems to have been lying ABOUT lying — scientific evidence for the efficacy of masks in preventing viral transmission still looks inconclusive at best — but the obvious motive was the same. Anthony Fauci, like most politicians and bureaucrats, is perfectly willing to lie to you if he thinks lying to you will get you to do as he demands.

In the Times interview, though, Fauci  points his finger at a real problem, probably not realizing that that finger points right back in his direction: “We need to have some humility here. We really don’t know what the real number is.”

Nearly a year into the pandemic, there’s still a lot we (including Dr. Fauci) don’t know about it and about how to get through it. But instead of having some humility about that, Fauci alternates between two approaches:

Approach One: Feign certainty, and use that certainty as an excuse to order you around.

Approach Two: Admit uncertainty, and use that uncertainty as an excuse to order you around.

Fauci’s far from alone in those approaches. Demands for authority, whatever the cost to those upon whom it’s inflicted, are the sacraments of the Cult of the Omnipotent State.

The US Food and Drug Administration held up approval of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for seven months after Phase I trials had demonstrated that vaccine’s basic safety. Their uncertainty (and, more importantly, their authority) trumped your health.

Months after killing thousands with his order that nursing homes full of vulnerable seniors accept COVID-19 patients, New York governor Andrew Cuomo is back, threatening million-dollar fines on hospitals that administer vaccines to people not on a government-approved list rather than throw away vaccine which will expire if it isn’t used. What he lacks in competence, he tries to make up for with unshakable certainty of his right to run your life.

COVID-19 is certainly a terrible disease and has killed many Americans.

Fauci et al.’s cravings for authority and demands for obedience are likewise terrible diseases — diseases which have undoubtedly increased the COVID-19 death toll.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “Yes, Dr. Fauci, You DO Need to Have Some Humility Here,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 01/05/21
• “Yes, Dr. Fauci, You DO Need to Have Some Humility Here,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Anchorage, Alaska Press, 01/05/21
• “Yes, Dr. Fauci, you do need to have some humility here,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Exton, Pennsylvania Mainline Media News, 01/05/21
• “Yes, Dr. Fauci, you do need to have some humility here,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Richmond, North Carolina Observer, 01/05/21
• “Yes, Dr. Fauci, you do need to have some humility here,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pottstown, Pennsylvania Mercury, 01/05/21
• “Yes, Dr. Fauci, You DO Need to Have Some Humility Here,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Hopkinsville, Kentucky New Era, 01/06/21
• “Yes, Fauci, you do need some humility,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Madill, Oklahoma Record, 01/06/21
• “Yes, Dr. Fauci, You DO Need to Have Some Humility Here,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 01/06/21
• “How about a little humility?” by Thomas L. Knapp, Orangeburg, South Carolina Times and Democrat, 01/11/21
• “Dr. Fauci should have some humility too,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Kingsport, Tennessee Times News [web and print editions], 01/11/21