The Next American Revolution

If there is ever a revolution in this country, it will not originate in the “inner cities” or involve the “helter skelter” of Charles Manson's dreams; the urban lower classes have long since been sedated by the regime's triple play of sex (i.e. abortion), drugs, and rock 'n' roll. And it will certainly not come from the college and university students, who have been similarly anesthetized, not to mention permanently demoralized and mortified by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the bourgeois-ization of China. And as far as the middle class is concerned, aside from a few pathetic "taxpayers' revolts" which are instantly nullified by the courts, you can count on them to cling to their own idols, like "network news" and Time magazine. No, it will come from what remains the most widely despised (by the mainstream culture and its media spokesmen), but also feared, culture in America – yeah, you got it – the rednecks, the Billy Bobs, the Bubbas, the gun-rack beer-swilling car-racing and all-white working denizens of “flyover country”, with those of the Southern persuasion in the lead. And what, if anything, will set it off? Why, the attempts of an Obama administration to put the final touches on the People's Republic of America. And what is the evidence for this wild speculation? Simply the fact that gun sales have reached a crescendo in the waning days of the election campaigns, when it really does appear that a black elitist radical leftist is about to occupy the White House. And it's interesting to note that in an article that describes this run on guns, it was mentioned that Pennsylvania was one of the few places where this trend hadn't yet been detected. But that's an easy one – rural Pennsylvanians already _have_ guns; that's how a lot of them put meat on the table. The rest are just trying to catch up, and overall the notion is to get a gun while the gettin's good, i.e. before Obama and his henchmen come along and take them all away. But why on earth would he do that? Because there is a growing feeling among the disenfranchised in America that the biggest enemy of their freedoms is not some tribe of ragheads in the Hindu Kush, but the United States government... and that it will only get worse, and that we'd better be ready. Of course the rural population of Appalachia taking on the combined might of the U.S. armed services, state police, FBI, BATF, and social services agents might seem a bit absurd... sort of like the Libyan tribesmen on camelback fighting Mussolini's air force... until we remember that it was just such a rag-tag bunch that managed to expel the Russians from Afghanistan, the Americans from Vietnam, and... yes, the redcoats from the American colonies. There is a sort of divine power that seems to accrue to people fighting on their home turf, in familiar topography, and for the things they believe in. It is a sort of power that can often defeat, or at least fight to a draw, The Power, i.e. the all-encompassing but soulless state. Call it "karma"... call it "the meek inheriting the earth"... in many places and at many times, it has worked.

But let's back up for a moment. I described this as a “revolution”, but it would be, in fact, a counter-revolution, because as Pat Buchanan points out in today's paper, the revolution has already washed over this country like a tsunami wave, beginning with the New Deal and reaching a peak of sorts in the 1960s and 1970s. The fact that it was a "revolution within the form" -- i.e. did not involve a full-scale civil war, although the Sixties came close -- does not lessen the fact. An Obama administration would just be a mop-up operation, after which we would all be expected to be compliant citizens of the brave new world... “except” for the millions of gun owners and those about to be, who sport the “cold dead hands” bumper stickers and are starting – finally! -- to wake up to the fact that our political system is one gigantic con game. And because they appear clueless and impotent, they are fair game for the mainstream media and the “coastal”, university- and think tank-based, organs and organizations that never tire of depicting them as ignorant, inbred, uncouth, and child-like losers. And let's admit, there is a grain of truth to this! But at the same time, gun- and Bible-clinging rural white America is a sleeping giant, and the day may come when they rise as one man and say “enough!” And when and if this occurs, the fear and panic (and document-shredding) that will overtake Washington and New York will be a sight to behold. Plus, how many foot soldiers recruited from down in the hills will want to take up arms against their own people? Can we also expect to see a bit of desertion from the ranks and siding with the mountaineers? Hey, it could happen.

Among other things, sooner or later it will dawn on the “working classes” -- both rural and urban -- that all the “redistribution of income” in the world hasn't made their lives appreciably better. Trickle-down economics might have some validity when we're talking about cutting taxes on the private sector, but there has never been anything “trickle-down” about government programs. Agricultural subsidies stay in the hands of Big Agriculture, and business tax breaks, contracts, and subsidies stay in the hands of Big Business. Small farmers and small businesses always have an uphill fight. And it spreads to other areas as well. You can forget about granny's herbal-based home remedies when Big Pharma comes to town. And as for “social policy”, I don't think very many social workers want to get caught outside after dark in the average hill town; they have just made too many enemies. And yes, I'm talking to some extent about the Scots-Irish cultural core that James Webb has written so eloquently about. These people may be atavistic primitives in some respects, but they have also played a vital role in what was the fighting heart of America – that America that has basically deserted and betrayed them in nearly every possible way. Their “family values” may be clouded at times by maladaptive personal habits... their lives may be characterized by impulse, poor self-control, and faulty logic. They may dote on country-western music and tacky "country music awards shows", and consider Dollywood and Branson vacation valhallas. But they are, arguably, the only group left that has not signed over all their authority, and all control of their lives, to the Regime. And as such, they constitute a clear and present danger to the Obamas of this world, whose explicit mission is to “level the playing field” and make the rough places plain. These are folks would would rather be king of a small hill – or a narrow gulch – than happy idiots whose lives are bound up with government “programs”. They have never had any use for middle-class compromises or the inner-city victim culture. And last but not by far least, they are the only remaining group that remains guilt-free and unapologetic -- surely the biggest affront of all to the powers that be. They are, in short, the last of our free men... and the fact that they are going out and buying guns ought to be an early warning to those with totalitarian ambitions... and a hint of things to come for the rest of us. The peaceful suburbs may some day find themselves being defended by the guys who used to only come around to deliver firewood, fix the pipes, install hot tubs, and connect cable. And I don't suppose they'll get any more thanks than did the “embattled farmers” when they scruffed up the loyalists' kitchen gardens while waging guerrilla war against the British.

Then again, maybe they'll just retreat to their hills and “hollers” and wait it out. But... what if they decide to fight back?