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Marc Ambinder

Could Alex Jones’s “revolution” actually happen?

Because there will be no revolt over gun control, because there will not be and cannot be a mass confiscation of guns, playing with these ideas is fanciful and fodder for a sequel to Seven Days in May. Heck, we haven’t even addressed the FEMA concentration camps (which don’t exist). But that isn’t to say that nothing discussed above will ever be relevant. It is much easier to imagine a small-scale revolt, a series of pre-planned violent protests against the powers that be, perhaps because the political system seems so non-responsive to the worries of people who listen to Alex Jones. It would not take much to make Americans nervous about the government’s ability to restore law and order. And that frission itself is probably the most unknowable of all these factors.

Patriotic citizens aren’t supposed to speculate about these extremely unlikely events, but the government certainly thinks about them. So maybe we should too.

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Considering there are millions of Armed Americans, and millions of former military members that are also armed….

…not to mention I’m sure most in the military are on our side of this issue..

blatantblue on January 10, 2013 at 5:43 PM

Alex Jones is insane. Please stop giving him anything resembling credibility.

Thank you.

Punch Rockgroin on January 10, 2013 at 5:45 PM

yay lets tranform the US into a mega syria

nathor on January 10, 2013 at 5:45 PM

Unpatriotic people (commonly known as democrats) don’t want to think about it, but real Americans have ALWAYS thought about it.

Flange on January 10, 2013 at 5:46 PM

We shall see.
I, for one, am not sanguine. Until I need to be.

LincolntheHun on January 10, 2013 at 5:47 PM

“1776 WILL RISE AGAIN!”

One might almost appreciate the man’s fervor, if his words weren’t so damn moronic.

Jeddite on January 10, 2013 at 5:47 PM

Can we please stop paying attention to Alex Jones? Its demeaningto everyone involved.

Valkyriepundit on January 10, 2013 at 5:49 PM

Maybe. The alternative is full blown socialism.

Charlemagne on January 10, 2013 at 5:49 PM

Alex Jones will now be presented by the MSM as the face of everyone who is worried aobut gun confiscation and tyranny.

Well played, Piers.

Kataklysmic on January 10, 2013 at 5:53 PM

This is a job for the THREE PERCENTERS!

During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists. They were in turn actively supported by perhaps 10% of the population. In addition to these revolutionaries were perhaps another 20% who favored their cause but did little or nothing to support it. Another one-third of the population sided with the King (by the end of the war there were actually more Americans fighting FOR the King than there were in the field against him) and the final third took no side, blew with the wind and took what came.

http://www.gadsdenandculpeper.com/three-percenter-tshirts.html

Pork-Chop on January 10, 2013 at 5:55 PM

If there ever is another Revolution, one can only hope that nutters like Alex Jones will be among the first to make the ultimate sacrifice. Possibly in a “friendly fire” incident.

Russ on January 10, 2013 at 5:55 PM

Seems to me the only real calls for any kind of ‘Revolution’ always come from the Left, like the Occutards.

Folks on the Right who might talks about what is referred to in the article as revolution are really only interested in a reinstatement of Constitutional principles and equal and just treat,net under the law.

Not inserting one ideology over another or forcibly taking the product of one and giving it to another.

catmman on January 10, 2013 at 5:56 PM

Modern day America has become the Tyranny we escaped from.

So Yes, it’s possible. Especially if the Federal Government starts to get real Grabby.

portlandon on January 10, 2013 at 5:57 PM

If there ever is another Revolution, one can only hope that nutters like Alex Jones will be among the first to make the ultimate sacrifice. Possibly in a “friendly fire” incident.

Russ on January 10, 2013 at 5:55 PM

If he’s fighting for freedom and against the government I’m on his side. I can only assume you’re one of the government teat suckers that fears your teat being taken away.

Flange on January 10, 2013 at 5:59 PM

Patriotic citizens aren’t supposed to speculate about these extremely unlikely events, but the government certainly thinks about them.

A Patriotic citizen should always keep it mind as a possibility. We did have this little dust-up called the Civil War, ya know. That doesn’t mean you have to be a tin-foil hat douchebag opportunist like Alex Jones. Just be aware and vigilant.

RadClown on January 10, 2013 at 6:00 PM

It would not take much to make Americans nervous about the government’s ability to restore law and order.

Nervous? LOL. Governments at all levels proved themselves to be little help in the way of “restoring law and order” in the wake of Sandy. But they were great at working to steal money from people in order to pay for their incompetence and for the mistakes of individuals who might vote for them in the future.

The Sandy storm demonstrated very clearly why individuals need to have their own arms. Governments (local, state and federal) were pitiful in the Sandy circumstances and left people with no electricity (thanks to their sucking up to unions, killing the grid and power generation for just such circumstances with regulations that have driven electric companies away, and other stupid actions) no police … none of the basic necessities that governments are around to provide or help with. The only people in the wake of Sandy who had any sense of security were those with their own arms – and those law-abiding citizens with AKs and AR-15s with lots of big magazines (though not many are allowed in the areas affected by Sandy) in particular.

I would have thought that the governments’ displays of incompetence and ineptitude in Sandy would have solidified the idea in everyone’s mind that, in the end, our protection always comes down to ourselves. But, no one talks about the Sandy storm and the fiasco following it, anymore … other than the politicos fighting about how many billions to rain down on the areas to preserve their votes.

The SCOTUS already decided that the state has no responsibility to protect the people. There is nothing wrong with this decision, but it presupposes that people have the right to protect themselves. This is all in addition to the right of the People to protect themselves against tyrannical government and foreign invasion, too, which form the true foundations of the 2nd amendment. Of course, we have a feral government that is allied with foreign invaders, now, with Barky acting as a Sukarno copy and declaring that illegals are legal whenever he says so.

ThePrimordialOrderedPair on January 10, 2013 at 6:01 PM

Ambinder is not much of a theoretician, nor much capable of evaluating strategy or tactics.

The federal government is only okay at fighting asymmetrical warfare when using the military under the pressure of limits on ROE in in enemy territory. How good would it be without the military or with having the total confidence in military support, much less with just using domestic law enforcement.

It’s easy for Ambinder to set up hypotheses he can easily overcome. The problem is having the opposition come up with avoiding those hypotheses, tempering them to address the disadvantages therein, or positing totally different ones.

One really bad assumption with Ambinder’s consideration of revolutionry scenarios is that the opposition will engage in fighting the tail of the Medusa rather than cut of its heads.

Dusty on January 10, 2013 at 6:03 PM

Alex Jones is a liar!!! the FEMA camps are fine. The food is excellent, there are indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and we get payed to play video games.

BoxHead1 on January 10, 2013 at 6:05 PM

[Russ on January 10, 2013 at 5:55 PM]

I’ll take Alex Jones in my foxhole any day.

I’ll take Alex Jones in the foxhole that is next to my foxhole any day.

Dusty on January 10, 2013 at 6:05 PM

Police think they can disarm the populace in an emergency as seen in Katrina.

Mormontheman on January 10, 2013 at 6:06 PM

Pork-Chop on January 10, 2013 at 5:55 PM

Nice post. I have mentioned this a couple times.

dogsoldier on January 10, 2013 at 6:08 PM

I bet there were headlines asking pretty much this exact same question back in 1858.

tommyboy on January 10, 2013 at 6:08 PM

It would very likely be the last straw to make Texas leave the union, and most if not all the rest of the red states with it.

Bring. It. On.

Rebar on January 10, 2013 at 6:09 PM

This is a job for the THREE PERCENTERS!

During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists. They were in turn actively supported by perhaps 10% of the population. In addition to these revolutionaries were perhaps another 20% who favored their cause but did little or nothing to support it. Another one-third of the population sided with the King (by the end of the war there were actually more Americans fighting FOR the King than there were in the field against him) and the final third took no side, blew with the wind and took what came.

http://www.gadsdenandculpeper.com/three-percenter-tshirts.html

Pork-Chop on January 10, 2013 at 5:55 PM

Those numbers are totally wrong, but other than that, points well taken.

AngusMc on January 10, 2013 at 6:15 PM

I’m not into conspiracies and am not an Alex Jones fan but if they come for our guns I’m with Alex Jones.

Alex Jones will now be presented by the MSM as the face of everyone who is worried aobut gun confiscation and tyranny.

Well played, Piers.

Kataklysmic on January 10, 2013 at 5:53 PM

No he’s not, nobody watches Piers Moragan and I doubt many people are even paying attention to this tempest in a teapot. All the attention is being driven by the crony media and they are failing.

FloatingRock on January 10, 2013 at 6:16 PM

nobody watches Piers Moragan

FloatingRock on January 10, 2013 at 6:16 PM

Indeed. And fortunately for us other news outlets are forbidden from using the interview footage or even mentioning it.

Kataklysmic on January 10, 2013 at 6:19 PM

nobody watches Piers Moragan

FloatingRock on January 10, 2013 at 6:16 PM

Indeed. And fortunately for us other news outlets are forbidden from using the interview footage or even mentioning it.

Kataklysmic on January 10, 2013 at 6:19 PM

Good point! I had not thought of it that way.

But ,still, too many people own and love guns in America for anything to happen yet, based on some screaming footage of AJ. It will be a slow process like GM has been.

They won’t be going door to door collecting firearms. THe next generations will gently hand them over or be ostracised by polite society. That is , provided we survive as a nation for a few more generations.

BTW I didn’t have a thing against AJ(except for the trufer biz) until someone here posted the video of him going after MM. What a ….

BoxHead1 on January 10, 2013 at 6:48 PM

…not to mention I’m sure most in the military are on our side of this issue..

blatantblue on January 10, 2013 at 5:43 PM

Yeah, like general mcchrystal, hero of the afghan war… oh wait.

Timin203 on January 10, 2013 at 6:54 PM

That is , provided we survive as a nation for a few more generations.

BTW I didn’t have a thing against AJ(except for the trufer biz) until someone here posted the video of him going after MM. What a ….

BoxHead1 on January 10, 2013 at 6:48 PM

I’m a young guy and I pretty much everyone I work with (in a deep blue state) is male and in their mid / late 20s. I’m shocked at how much of a gun culture there is, and how many guys are panic buying ammo and guns right now. I don’t think we have anything to hear from the “next generation.”

There’s a huge almost counter-culture like push back from a lot of guys against the attempted feminization of our generation , and shooting is a big hobby among those types.

Timin203 on January 10, 2013 at 7:01 PM

Those numbers are totally wrong, but other than that, points well taken.

AngusMc on January 10, 2013 at 6:15 PM

.
It would be a better comment if you sourced your idea of correct numbers rather than just being contradictory, without support. You do want to be taken seriously, correct?

ExpressoBold on January 10, 2013 at 7:02 PM

My God, you people are just aching for the opportunity to start shooting cops and National Guardsmen. Question: In your feverish fantasies of yours, what’s the endgame? Do you keep shooting until all law enforcement officers are dead? If your children survive these shootouts you dream of, what kind of country would they grow up in? Will it still be a free country, or will America be a land of armed camps?

Drew Lowell

“I was born in Colton, California, which is sixty miles east of Los Angeles, in San Bernardino, Riverside, Redlands area. And we had a grocery store in Colton, my parents were barbers, and we ran a pool hall and a bathhouse, for the railroads that ran through the opposite city of Colton, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads.

I finished my high school in Redlands, and in December we just had opened the store and I listened, heard on the radio that Franklin Roosevelt says that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor and I couldn’t believe that happened. This affected us through the fact that, we had a curtailment that we could not travel within three miles of our area. We had to just stay home and do what we could, and then we had orders that we had to either, prepare to go to relocation centers, or, actually it’s just a barbed wire fence all around the camp. It had guard towers on each corner, and machine guns were pointing in to camps.

I volunteered for the Air Force in 1943. But my draft card says 4C. 4C was listed as enemy alien. Cause they wouldn’t take me, so then when all of the campaign finally started, and the hundredth battalion was in such a good job, therefore President Roosevelt, crossed off the decree of 4C and classified it as first draftees, and so I was able to join the Army again, so I volunteered for the Air Force again. 1943, end of 44. I was called for duty, and I was on a train going east and came to this camp landing Florida. And I looked out, and I was looking for the airplane, and there was no airplanes in sight. No, this is the infantry. You are now in the infantry.

And President Roosevelt came to visit the camps, and the, all the Japanese soldiers, American soldiers, put them in a barracks, had machine guns around them, ’til the President left. Now, they’re already in the Army, why should they do this? I figured this is my country, I’m an American, I should be allowed to join the Army. So therefore that’s why I volunteered, to show my loyalty to the United States, this is, when my, kids, when I do have kids that grow up, at least they can be, looked up to, rather than downgraded as being a Jap. And I figured well, this will help to build our country up. Not only this for, Italians, Germans, they were, they didn’t go to camps, but some of them did I hear.

So, in order to prove our loyalty, I volunteered into the service. And my parents said, just don’t bring disgrace to the family. If you’re gonna fight for your country, you fight for your country. But don’t do anything, like, doing extra bombing things – or things that you shouldn’t be doing. And, so respect your country, and everything will be all right. So, this is why we tried to do, to show our loyalty. This is America. I’m an American and I want to be respected as an American, even though I look like the enemy. But, this is what we tried to do.”

- George Sakato

Remember: It’s Already Happened Here!

Resist We Much on January 10, 2013 at 7:14 PM

If he’s fighting for freedom and against the government I’m on his side. I can only assume you’re one of the government teat suckers that fears your teat being taken away.

Flange on January 10, 2013 at 5:59 PM

Don’t go assuming – it rarely ends well. In this case you couldn’t be more wrong.

I just think Jones is the kind of loon that ultimately endangers the cause of freedom. He’s not smart, and he’s not sane. What he is, is loud, and has the ability to attract similarly tinfoil-helmeted followers.

He can be on my side if he wants, but I wouldn’t put him or anyone like him in charge of a latrine detail, much less an entire movement.

Russ on January 10, 2013 at 7:16 PM

And this is because the democratic process can correct for corruption provided that corporations do not have too much control over the process. In the U.S. corporate interests have total control over the vast majority of our legislators, so of course, the state is corrupt and inefficient. And I fully support the very same corrupt state’s efforts to remove a Constitutional check on their corruption.
 
_______________ on January 10, 2013 at 7:18 PM

 
Roughly half is a real quote, half is a real position from one of our interchangeable liberal posters.
 
Square that circle.

rogerb on January 10, 2013 at 7:18 PM

Russ on January 10, 2013 at 7:16 PM

I apologize then for the teat sucking remark, but the last thing anyone who opposes governmental overreach should be doing at this point is forming a circular firing squad. I’ve never been a Jones fan and have avoided his site, he is nutty as hell but he and his followers all loath the government and would fight on the side of freedom. I fear it is quickly getting to the point of picking sides and let the fighting begin. I’d rather side with the nutty tinfoil hat crowd than than the progressive statists.

Flange on January 10, 2013 at 7:24 PM

yay lets tranform the US into a mega syria

nathor on January 10, 2013 at 5:45 PM

As long as the Government respects the constitution, no problems.

Hows that Gun Control thing going?

Bulletchaser on January 10, 2013 at 7:31 PM

With all due respect to Marc, he should stop playing with himself.

This president wants conflict, he literally dreams of sending the National Guard to kill conservatives.

Speakup on January 10, 2013 at 7:32 PM

I’ve never been a Jones fan and have avoided his site, he is nutty as hell but he and his followers all loath the government and would fight on the side of freedom. I fear it is quickly getting to the point of picking sides and let the fighting begin. I’d rather side with the nutty tinfoil hat crowd than than the progressive statists.

Flange on January 10, 2013 at 7:24 PM

Liberals say “No Enemies to the Left of me.” so when the man boy love association or the dog eaters or the horse lovers come out with a statement or study showing that sex with horses or dogs or little boys is healthful and natural, Liberals are silent.

Alex Jones may be mad as a hatter, but he loves freedom so I stand with him, cover his back and wish him well.

Bulletchaser on January 10, 2013 at 7:43 PM

Remember: It’s Already Happened Here!

Resist We Much on January 10, 2013 at 7:14 PM

And also by executive order. One that was upheld by the same Supreme Court that also kept upholding segregation and in the past slavery, in the tradition of the Dred Scott Decision, thus disproving the liberal notion that the Court is “infallible”. They aren’t. Nor is any man. Or woman.

wildcat72 on January 10, 2013 at 7:44 PM

If things do go pear shaped, I can all but guarantee you where Jonesy-boy and his tinfoil-hat nutcake followers will be: cowering in their bunkers with soiled underwear praying for all the shooting to stop.

Alex doesn’t love freedom, mom, God, apple pie, or anything of the sort. All he loves is to abuse the holy heck out of the 1st Amendment to spew his nuttery far and wide so that paranoid fools will pay attention to him.

MelonCollie on January 10, 2013 at 8:16 PM