freedom – Pat Answers Archives

Pillars of the Republic

DISCLAIMER: The purpose of this blog post is to inform not to convince. Take what is said here and apply reason, logic and research of your own… or don’t.Take what you need and leave the rest.

It has been said that these United States of America have as their foundation pillars, two documents, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.The precepts and principles illustrated therein form the basis and justification for the republic that was formed by the breakaway British colonies in 1776…or so we are told.

Although it has never been used as an example of United States law, the Declaration of Independence is cited as the bedrock foundation of all United States jurisprudence that has followed. The operational clause of that Declaration is as follows:”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

Two points stand out. Item first; The Founders’ position was that all men were endued with certain rights “by their Creator”, (common usage understood by the Founders was a description of God), that were unalienable, that is to say that those rights were: “unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor.” The Declaration states that among these many rights are; “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. (Thomas Jefferson, on of the chief architects of the Declaration originally had “Property” in the place of Happiness).

The second major point was that governments derived their just powers from the consent of the governed, which is to say that in order to exercise power legitimately, those governed must so consent.
It therefore strains reason that in a republic that maintains it is composed of free and sovereign people who have been granted equal and that are unable to be taken or given away that “we the people” are ruled by the whim of tyrants and are constrained through force and the threat of force in a manner no different that that exercised by the dictators at the heads of nation-states we identify as evil and destructive to both “civilized” people and their own subjects.

A weakness of humans is that we often obey force from fear of retribution, physical pain or death, yet we as an assumedly “free” people make concessions to those we absurdly characterize as our “public servants” when, in truth, it is “we the people” who do the bidding of the “elected” officials and their unelected and appointed bureaucrats.

Why would a “free people” do this? There are more of us than there are of them. Is it cowardice? Have we become so accustomed to kowtowing to power while pulling our own forelock to please our political masters that we no longer understand the requirements of freedom let along have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for ourselves? Have we become so blinded by the propaganda that we prefer comfortable voluntary servitude to dangerous and uncertain freedom?

I will examine these and other questions in the following series of posts. Among other things, I will be questioning the truth of the lyric of a Lee Greenwood song that says; “I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died to give that right to me…”

To quote Founding Father John Adams; “But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. “

Brainwashing machine, (and it’s not from Maytag)

Populations are being psychologically manipulated, primed to take vaccines in order to regain their freedom

As mortality rates appeared grim, with controversial testing kits, false positives and misleading diagnoses, people around the world were told to “stay home, stay safe.” As small businesses closed their doors and corporate profits soared, uninfected people distanced themselves from other uninfected people. The stage was set. The terms were written. Getting cell mediated immunity to a new infection was forbidden. Every surface, touch and breath was to be avoided and feared into perpetuity. There was a blackout on information that could help the human immune response. Antiviral treatments were blocked and ridiculed. Fear had become a virtue, and germaphobia became an unstoppable doctrine, weaving its decrepit philosophies and fearful controls into every aspect of society.

As time went on, governments and corporations imposed “mask mandates” to “keep you healthy.” The facial covering is now a form of obedience training and compliance conditioning that has become a placeholder for future vaccine mandates.

Mask mandates are not laws, by the way. When private businesses refuse services to individuals based on the individual’s private medical decisions and personal beliefs, the business and their employees are the ones violating established civil rights laws, which are established in every state. But the law no longer matters as long as Americans go along with their compliance conditioning until a new set of vaccines are available for injection. Presidential candidate Joe Biden has flouted the idea of locking down the country in 2021 and imposing an indefinite federal mask mandate – a prelude to mandatory injections for all.

Dr. Anthony Fauci promises these vaccines will be ready in 18 months, approved by an FDA that already admitted that these experimental injections will be unleashed even though they lack safety and only generate 50 percent efficacy for a short amount of time.

Developing a vaccine is a process that takes an average of 10.6 years, and only a small amount of vaccine experiments (23 percent) ever make it to market in that time. Even these “FDA-approved” inoculations come with their own set of risks which include lifelong debilitation and death. Vaccine injuries are commonly reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System every day. Because there are not enough funds set aside to cover all the vaccine injuries, the Special Master of the vaccine court only approves select injuries for compensation that meet a strict set of criteria (that excludes most of the adverse events included on the vaccine manufacturer’s insert sheet.)

This hasn’t stopped vaccine financier Bill Gates from promoting an experimental set of injections for every human being on the planet, rolled out in as little as 18 months, from companies that are indemnified from legal repercussions when their vaccines harm people.

This vaccine coercion continues even as convalescent plasma and anti-viral medicines become more readily available, lowering the mortality rate. As the survival rate improves and community spread dissipates, one must ask if the current situation should be declared a pandemic at all, or if populations are dealing with a virus that is now endemic, with rapid host adaptation occurring and questionable false positive test results. The economic, behavioral, and personal liberty controls pose a greater threat to humanity than a select pathogen, and are still being used against people coercing populations to submit to experimental injections.

It’s for your own good

I am nothing if not flexible. Apparently we have been doing it all wrong.

Obviously the geniuses that “rule” over our country, states, counties , cities and villages know better than us peasants what is in our own best interest.

The latest indication of this is the passage last night of a mandatory mask wearing ordinance in the city of Springfield, Missouri. Branson, Missouri is not too far behind as they have called a special meeting on Thursday to consider a masking ordinance.

It has become clear that the Chinese plague has become such a scourge that it is necessary to wear, (even if somewhat questionable in effectiveness), protective masks to avoid a horrible illness that COULD strike down as many as one-quarter of one percent of the population. (There have already been THREE deaths out of a population on 55,525 in Taney County).

SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

It is apparent that this plague is running rampant in Southwest Missouri. It is not safe to breath unmasked air in Springfield, Missouri. You are most likely committing the 2020 version of Sepukku, (what westerners call Hari-Kari), if you do.

There is only one thing that we can do to save ourselves. AVOID ALL THESE VIRUS INFESTED PLACES AT ALL COST! Do not visit places that have mandatory masking requirements, face diapers could be fatal. Do not SHOP in any places that have mandatory masking. Face diapers hold moisture that encourage disease growth. To do so would be sure suicide. Do not go to restaurants or entertainment venues that require you to wear a face diaper. SAVE YOURSELF! As our political “leaders” tell us, “it’s for our own good.”

“For our own good?” I think we have heard that phrase sometime in the past… not in English. I remember now. It was in the late 1930’s in Germany; “es ist zu Ihrem Besten.”

We are poor little lambs who have lost our way…

In consequence of the widespread disinformation campaign, the millions of Americans have been persuaded that their lives, labors, liberties, and freedoms were privileges granted and/or withheld by government, instead of rights secured and protected by government.

America has lost her way.

She no longer knows right from wrong. She has turned away from the way of truth and light found in the Bible and followed in the way of lust, wickedness, immorality and evil. She dances now to a different drummer.

We live in The Land of the Deceived. Man is really great on

self-deception. Self-deception is the conduct of a fool.

America is a ship of fools. And where do you think the ship is

headed? It is time to reclaim our heritage and renew ourselves and our Republic. It is time for a new American Creed;

We, the people of the United States of America, recognize that we are endowed by our Creator [1] with the birthright to absolutely own ourselves, the fruits of our labor, and exercise liberty, upon our private property and upon public ways [2]. And that we have given passive consent to those who instituted or submitted to government, on their solemn purpose to help secure our rights to life, to cure 80, privacy, and freedom [3] and not trespass upon them.

We, the people of the United States of America, have never knowingly, willingly or intentionally surrendered our inalienable rights [4] to life, liberty, and property ownership, except under the impetus of fraud, instructive fraud, misrepresentation, and withholding of material facts.

We, the people of the United States of America, demand specific performance to the compact; the constitutions of these United States. And that said constitutions, in harmony with the Declaration of Independence, delegate limited power to help secure inalienable rights of the people and forbid trespass [5] upon those rights.

And that Americans were deliberately misled to submit to false authority, contract with abominations, surrender their sovereignty, commit acts against the common good, and violate their conscience, spiritual beliefs, and/or their common sense.

We the people of the United States of America, realize that the necessary evil of government is only acceptable when it uses the awesome force of cooperation in the defense of the American people, and their common law, based upon justice, reason and common sense. And that cooperation in the attack upon the person and property of innocent people is nothing less than a version of the institution of government, and a trespass upon the people, and a treason to the United States of America.

– – – –

References:

1. Declaration of Independence, paragraph 2, “that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government…”

2. Genesis 1:26-28, wherein man (individually) is given dominion (sovereignty) over the earth, and all that is upon it.

3. NATURAL LIBERTY-the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature. The right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after the manner in which they judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the law of nature, so as not to interfere in the equal exercise the same rights by other men. 1 Blackstone’s commentaries, 123

NATURAL RIGHTS-… Are the rights of life, liberty, privacy, and good reputation.-Blacks Law dictionary, 6th edition, page 1324

4. United States Constitution, article 4, section 4.

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a Republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion.

GOVERNMENT (Republican form of government)-one in which the powers of sovereignty are vested in the people and are exercised by the people… directly…

-Black’s Law dictionary, 6th edition, page 695

“… At the revolution, the sovereignty devolved on the [American] people, and they are truly the sovereigns of the country, but they are sovereigns without subjects, and have none to government but themselves…”

-Justice John Jay, Chisholm versus Georgia, to U. S. 2 DAL L. 419 419 (1793)

“the people of the state, as the successors of its former sovereign, are entitled to all the rights formally belong to the king by his own prerogative.”

Lansing V. Smith, (1829) 4 Wendell 9, (NY)

“it will be admitted on all hands that with the exception of the powers granted to the states and the federal government through the constitutions, the people of the several states are unconditionally sovereign within their respective states.”

Ohio life insurance and trust company V. DeBolt 16 HO W. 416, 14 LEd. 997

5. TRESPASS-an unlawful interference with one’s person, property, or rights… Any unauthorized intrusion or invasion of private premises or land of another.

-Antkiewicz v. Motorists mutual insurance Company, 91 Michigan appellate 389, 283 N. W. 2-d 749, 753

-Black’s Law dictionary, 6th edition page 1 502

Those who consent to be governed, have surrendered their endowment, and should sit down, shut up, pay and obey

We have been warned-Freedom to chains

In 1965, American radio host Paul Harvey gave an immense warning to the American people about the fate of the nation. “We Were Warned: Freedom to Chains” is a short film about the the parallels between the warning Harvey gave over fifty-five years ago, and today with the Socialist influences in government and society.

Running time: 9 minutes 28 seconds

FEAR ITSELF

At what point will you start QUESTIONING what’s going on? How far does the government have to push before you’re jolted awake from your slumber? How far are you willing to go with this?

We are seeing the most draconian measures enforced at all levels of government that we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes, and yet rather than being alarmed by the things going on, so many of you applaud.

People are being arrested for spending too much time outside, and you applaud.

A child’s birthday party is raided by police, and you applaud.

A young woman is ticketed for going on a leisurely drive alone because it’s deemed “non-essential travel”, and you applaud.

A parade of school teachers and administrators who wanted to drive through neighborhoods and wave at children is busted up by cops because they were “nonessential,” and you applaud.

A lone paddleboarder in the ocean on a beach without any other people around is arrested because he’s violating quarantine orders, and you applaud.

People are being denied life saving medical treatments because they’re not a priority right now (not “essential” as deemed by the government) as the entirety of our medical system is focused on one thing, and you applaud.

Businesses are beings forcibly closed and padlocked and owners arrested for refusing to shut down, and you applaud.

Dairy farmers (and soon, other farmers) are being incentivized to stop dairy farming and to sell their herds, and you don’t seem to understand the implications.

You’re being told to use hotlines and online forms provided by your local governments to report your neighbors who don’t obey, and you comply.

You scold people day after day for not obeying government edicts, and if any of us dare to question what’s happening, you lecture about how we’re a danger to society and and we just don’t care about people dying.

You’ve somehow managed to convince yourselves that the people whose lives are affected by a virus are MUCH more important than the people whose lives are being destroyed (and in many cases, leading to death) by the effects of a worldwide economic shutdown and impending worldwide depression the likes of which no one has ever seen before.

At what point will you start QUESTIONING what’s going on? How far does the government have to push before you’re jolted awake from your slumber? How far are you willing to go with this?

If they told you to load your families onto train cars so that you could be taken to Virus Protection Facilities for your own safety, would you do it?

YES. Yes, you would.That much has become painfully obvious to me. And the whole time, you’d be shaking your finger and yelling at those of us who refused, accusing us of being “a danger to society” and “not caring if people die.”

But they don’t have to load you onto train cars and take you to Virus Protection Facilities, or force you to comply, because you do that voluntarily. They control your mind. They control you through fear. They control you by convincing you that the world is a scary dangerous place, but they’re here to protect you, care for you, and keep you safe, just as long as you OBEY.

They know that as long as you’re locked inside your comfortable home with Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a cell phone, while dangling a $1200 check in front of you like a carrot on a stick, you’ll comply. No force is necessary for the majority of the herd.

YOU ARE IMPRISONED, willingly, and you’re too blind to see it.

Years ago a popular president is quoted as saying; “The only thing we have to fear is, fear itself.” He was wrong. We need to be terrified of the stupidity of sheep.

Education or Propaganda?

It’s worth briefly noting that the National Education Association is the largest union in the country and wields an enormous amount of power when it comes to education policy in the United States.

The state’s mechanism for school takeovers is already in place – the Department of Education (DoE), created in a fairly transparent quid pro quo between then Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Walter Mondale and the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States. This was the first endorsement it had ever given for a presidential candidate, support that they renewed in 1980, when Carter ran for re-election against anti-DoE candidate and future President Ronald Reagan.

One of Ronald Reagan’s most public and high-profile failures was his inability to destroy the DoE. There was very little enthusiasm for the creation of the Department of Education. However, there was virtually none – other than Reagan and his Secretary of Education appointee Terrel H. Bell – whose sole mission was to dismantle the Department and replace it with something more like the National Science Foundation.

Roughly 35 years later, the budget for the entire Department of Education stood at $70.7 billion in 2016. This did not include an additional $75 billion in pre-K education over the course of 10 years.

This is mostly spent on pushing a far-left agenda. The Mises Institute has thoroughly documented the 35 years of leftist bias at the DoE. Much of the civics curriculum is dedicated to a denunciation of America’s Founding Fathers, and a focus on slavery, racism and colonialism. The United States Constitution is not a core part of the curriculum. Great works of American literature are routinely barred in the public schools, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, and The Great Gatsby.

It’s worth briefly noting that the National Education Association is the largest union in the country and wields an enormous amount of power when it comes to education policy in the United States. After all, they got a cabinet-level department created. They have been effectively able to prevent merit pay for teachers – credentials count more than performance when calculating pay. In many states, union membership is effectively mandatory, in as much as teachers are bound by collective bargaining agreements.

Between 2004 and 2016, political donations by teachers unions grew from $4.3 million to $32 million. 94 percent of all contributions, going back to 1990, went to Democrats.

As you might expect, the entire process for allocating funds to schools is Byzantine and difficult to understand. All told, states and local schools aren’t really relying on federal funds to get kids educated – most of the money for public schools comes from pernicious property taxes, whereby the government effectively requires you to pay rent on property that you already own. Approximately 10 percent of state education budgets come from the federal government.

Funds aren’t allocated in any systematic way. They’re allocated on the basis of State Education Agencies (SEAs) filing what are basically grant requests from the federal government, based on anticipated “needs.” Some income formulas are used in this process, but they do not represent the whole of how funds are allocated. The SEAs allocate their funds largely on the basis of income, to what are called Local Education Agencies (LEAs). These agencies then allocate funds using no less than four different formulas based on income and census reports.

The final result is that money is allocated for schools in a manner that favors the least well performing. This is very much in keeping with the radical, left-wing, redistributionist agenda of the teachers unions. In the American public education system, there is simply no mechanism in place that encourages excellence. There is only a system which rewards mediocrity – the ability to pass a standardized test that, it’s assumed, “everyone,” from the smallest town in rural Mississippi to the ritziest neighborhood in Manhattan, ought to be able to pass at the same rates.

Some states allocate need based on a “per-pupil cost.” Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, the highest figure can be found in our nation’s capital: the District of Columbia gets $19,000 a head for its public school students. Some businesses exist to help school districts navigate this difficult process to get the biggest share of federal funds possible.

This is now the prerequisite to getting into college – passing the standardized test. It’s worth noting that the largest expenditure of federal funds on education is the Pell Grant, which has devalued a college education significantly while driving soaring tuition fees.

It is worth noting that homeschoolers typically exceed their government school counterparts in virtually all respects. In fourth and eighth grade reading and math, Catholic schools significantly outperformed public schools for both proficient and advanced students. A Cato Institute report stated that private schools out-performed public schools with regard to graduation rates, college matriculation, future income and parent satisfaction. This is not surprising, as homeschooled children and privately educated children exist in a bonafide marketplace of ideas. The publicly funded government schools show barely any divergence in terms of what they teach. This is increasingly true thanks to programs like “No Child Left Behind” and Common Core, both of which mandate a very narrow set of ideas and concepts to be taught in public schools.

Whether or not to educate one’s children in the government school monopoly is a choice every family must make. But, as with any important decision, parents should take into account the totality of the facts. The history of public education in the United States is one of coercion, extortion, and indoctrination.

Beyond such ideological objections to the government school monopoly, private schools tend to be safer, less violent, and better performing than their government alternatives. After all, who is going to choose to spend money on a school where their children are subject to violence, poor education standards, and constant grooming for the police state in the form of what are now ubiquitous active shooter drills. As the Cato Institute points out, there are 30 years of consistent evidence that private schools, beyond simply providing a better learning environment through safety and greater alignment with parent values, also provide a higher quality of education.

Even though not every family can afford a private education, private schools and homeschooling should be considered as a serious alternative. Evaluate the cost and benefits of homeschooling from the perspective of a loss of income. Find private grants and scholarships, in addition to the vouchers you might be eligible for. The point is to think flexibly about it and see if this is indeed an option for your family.

Even where the cost is great, the trade-off for removing your child from the government school monopoly might be well worth it.

Overcriminalization = Less Liberty

Laws are, ultimately, a type of force. The more of them we have, the more force we have in society.

One of the fundamental principles underpinning our Constitutional republic is that the citizenry should not accept “trust me” as an answer from the federal government. Yet in one of our most Orwellian of federal departments – the Department of Homeland Security – a surveillance state is growing as our private information “trusted” to the government is used against us.

This surveillance state is made possible by Fusion Centers, police intelligence agencies that allow different police agencies to share intelligence with one another. It is, in effect, the intelligence-gathering method of the burgeoning police state. And the information gathered, received, analyzed and disseminated by local and state police agencies is then shared with the federal government.

Fusion Centers aren’t the only way police surveil citizens. Cell-site simulator devices – known as Stingrays – mimic wireless carrier cell towers to connect to nearby mobile phones and cell data devices. These controversial devices can extract data, intercept communications, conduct denial-of-serice attacks, find encryption keys, and more. It’s a serious threat to Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, first conceived during the War on Terror and now trickled down to local police departments and their militarized approach to enforcing the law.

Of course, while we’re assured that protections are being made for privacy and civil liberties, there is very little reason to trust the federal government – including the growing number of vague laws.

It’s easy to blame the War on Some Drugs as the reason for the explosion in the prison population, however this is simply not an adequate explanation. The real reason is a broad expansion in the total number of laws on the book and the vague manner in which they are written. What’s more, the concept of intent has largely disappeared from our national legal lexicon, meaning that simple mistakes are often enough to land a person in prison.

66-year-old George Norris provides a case study. He was greeted by three pickup trucks filled with six officers outfitted in flak jackets. He was held for four hours while the police searched his house, eventually seizing 37 boxes of his things with neither warrant nor explanation. He was indicted for orchid smuggling under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and for (what else) making false statements to an officer for a simple paperwork error. While being held for trial, he shared a cell with an accused murderer. He was facing five years for the original charge and five years for conspiracy. Because he couldn’t afford his legal bills, he plead guilty and was sentenced to 17 months in prison.

Another broad example is civil-contempt imprisonment. This is where people are put in jail or prison for failure to, for example, respond to a bench warrant for an unpaid parking ticket. This is what Anthony W. Florence was arrested for while riding as a passenger in his family’s car with proof that he had paid the tickets. He spent seven days in jail where he was strip searched twice. Guards also watched him shower and subjected him to a delousing. People have also been imprisoned for failing to pay debts in accordance with court-ordered settlements, which carries the specter of the return of debtors’ prisons with it.

Minimum necessary force is a concept dating back to Plato, but has recently found expression in Dr. Jordan Peterson’s book 12 Rules for Life. Basically, the idea is that when someone wrongs another person, the correct course of action is always the one requiring the least force. This is why, for example, we can say that the Islamic practice of removing a thief’s hand is somehow objectively unethical – it is a punishment grossly out of proportion to the crime committed.

The secondary aspect to the principle of minimum necessary force is the notion that the best way to go about laws is to have as few as are necessary. While not strictly speaking “libertarian,” it’s sort of “libertarian adjacent.” Laws are, ultimately, a type of force. The more of them we have, the more force we have in society.

The present state of criminal justice in the United States violates both principles. Not only do we have far more laws than we need (criminal asset forfeiture, for example), but the punishments are frequently far out of sync with the crime committed. Is prison time really an appropriate response to someone smuggling orchids into the United States?

Modern Militia Movement

The militia movement really started kicking off after the Ruby Ridge massacre where Randy Weaver’s son, wife and (of course) dog, were all shot down by federal agents on Weaver’s property.

The Constitutional Militia Movement

The Constitutional Militia Movement is often derided as a “far-right extremist group” by the usual suspects. Whether this is true or not is largely a matter of perception. However, what is undeniable is that the militia movement is profoundly American, as has been seen throughout our history of the militia.

While we discussed in detail how the militia in the United States has been used to suppress rebellion, it’s worth noting the degree to which the militia – the armed bodies of men who have made up the bulk of the American population until recent history – have also been a force of resistance against the state power which ultimately suppressed them. There are several examples of this, including the Revolution of 1800, the Dorr Rebellion and, more recently, the American Liberty League, to say nothing of the aforementioned black Civil Rights Movement gun clubs. In this sense, a Constitutional Militia Movement is no less American than a Free Speech Movement, and certainly more American than a movement championing the separation of church and state.

The origins of the modern militia movement in the United States are shady. Some date it back to 1958, but this is unfair and imprecise – the date is picked because of a militia formed by the Christian Identity movement. Indeed, much of the information about the history of the Constitutional Militia Movement in the United States is difficult to tease out, because it’s primarily documented by the movement’s enemies at self-styled “hate group” watches like the SPLC and the ADL or left-wing media like Vox and Mother Jones.

One thing is certain: The militia movement really started kicking off after the Ruby Ridge massacre where Randy Weaver’s son, wife and (of course) dog, were all shot down by federal agents on Weaver’s property. While the Weaver case has some nuance, it’s worth noting that the only thing Weaver was ever convicted of was failing to appear in court at a time when he didn’t know he was supposed to appear. Gun-owning patriots were, naturally, put aback by this. Combined with the Waco siege, where 76 men, women and children were burned alive, a new militancy in the nascent militia movement was inspired.

This is when groups such as the Michigan Militia, who allegedly had ties with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, began to crop up. Indeed, there is a veritable rogue’s gallery of militias and militia members who were arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned for a litany of crimes. The degree to which these are legitimate charges and to what degree they are entrapment is anyone’s guess.

But there’s a whole other side to the militia movement. Militias such as the Missouri Citizens Militia, the Missouri Militia, the Ohio Defense Force and the Pennsylvania Military Reserve primarily see their mission as supporting the common defense in the event of an emergency. While it’s likely that individual members might be skeptical of, or even hostile toward, federal power, they’re not planning armed insurrections or even waiting for the right moment to do so. They see themselves as the successor of the organized militias of old. And while they might not realize it, this makes them more than a little like the militias raised to put down the Dorr Rebellion and other civil disturbances attacking federal power.

The two largest militia groups active today (though, of course, actual member numbers can be difficult to ascertain for obvious reasons) are probably the Oath Keepers and the 3 Percenters. The former’s membership is restricted to current and former military, peace officers and first responders. The Oath Keepers were involved in patrolling Ferguson, Missouri, during the rioting there in 2014 and 2015. They were positioned on rooftops around the city and ignored a police order to cease and desist. When Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples, the Oath Keepers stated that they would prevent local police from arresting her a second time. Her legal team reached out to politely but firmly decline the offer.

The Bundy Ranch Standoff

Both groups were present at the Bundy Ranch standoff as well as the Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The Bundy Ranch standoff was one episode in a 25-year legal odyssey the Bundys waged against the Bureau of Land Management. The background of this is complicated, but the gist is that the BLM claimed Cliven Bundy owed them over $1 million in grazing fees, while Bundy claimed that he did not. On March 27, 2014, nearly 150,000 acres of land were closed for the collection of trespassing cattle. On April 12, 2014, protesters, some of whom were armed, confronted a BLM official. Sheriff Doug Gillespie negotiated a settlement with Bundy and then-BLM director Neil Kornze.

The standoff is interesting from the perspective of militia history because it features not only the unorganized militia (Bundy and his men), but also several organized militias, albeit not those explicitly under the command of the federal government, the Constitutional status of which would be a grey area anyhow. The Oath Keepers, 3 Percenters, the White Mountain Militia and the Praetorian Guard were all on the scene of the standoff.

The Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Several of these figures showed up not much later in the Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a 40-day standoff (again) over the proper role of the federal government with regard to large tracts of land. The central character this time was Ammon Bundy, son of Cliven. The 3 Percenters also made an appearance, but did not stay for the duration of the standoff.

In each case, while the particulars of what was and was not legal about the Bundy’s relationship to the land and the BLM is, to some degree, in the eye of the beholder, what is not is that the Bundy and militia resistance worked, at least temporarily, in favor of the Bundys as a check on federal power.

This harks back to the original, revolutionary origins of the militia. The militia has existed for a number of purposes and has exercised a number of roles over the years. But at its core, it’s a bulwark of the power of the country against the power of the state.

The Posse Comitatus Act-1878

one of the issues driving the adoption of the Militia Act of 1903 was further disarmament of black Americans, particularly in the South during what is considered to be the nadir of race relations in the United States.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and Striking Workers

Curiously hidden within an otherwise banal defense appropriations bill, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 radically changed the role of the militia in the United States. It prevented the Army from enforcing federal law in the United States. This was later amended to include the Air Force, however, both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy are lacking from the law. The Navy has regulations which effectively provide the same prohibitions.

Also missing from the Act is anything preventing the state militias or the National Guard from enforcing relevant laws, provided that they are acting under the command of the governor and the state government. This meant that the state governments, acting largely under the control of the Democratic Party, could still use organized military – while the federal government, still dominated by Republicans, could not. While state militias were rarely, if ever, used in the same manner as the Klan and other white paramilitary organizations, the writing was on the wall – black citizens would no longer receive protection from the federal government against either the Democratic Party state governments or their more militant and rambunctious voters.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

American Militias after the Civil War: From Black Codes to the Black Panthers and Beyond Militias under the control of the state largely acted not along racial lines, but economic ones. State militias were increasingly deployed against striking workers in labor disputes. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, known contemporaneously as “the Great Upheaval,” is one such example. The first nationwide strike in American history, railroad workers went out on strike against a third wage cut in the span of a year. Over 100,000 workers walked off the job. Local and state militias played an instrumental role in breaking the strike, which lasted 45 days and left over 100 dead. Militia forces killed striking workers across the nation, including in Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Chicago.

The Great Railroad Strike was not the last time that militias were used against striking workers. In Lemont, Illinois, two striking Polish quarry workers were killed by the militia. There was also a racial component to some strikebreaking. For example, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, the Louisiana Militia shot at least 35 unarmed striking black sugar workers.

The Ludlow Massacre of 1914

However, the most violent incident by far was the Ludlow Massacre of 1914. When the dust settled, 20 were dead – including 12 children and one bystander. As with many of the most pitched battles in American labor history, this involved the United Mine Workers. Mine work is dangerous everywhere, but this was particularly true out west. Workers were frequently paid in tonnage, and work that did not involve the digging of resources was unpaid. This meant workers often took chances with their lives, letting important repairs go undone and engaging in risky activities to get valuable minerals out of the ground.

Most of the striking workers in Ludlow, Colorado, had demands most Americans would sympathize with: Increased wages, payment for maintenance work, measures to keep weightmen honest, the right to live, shop and see a doctor at a place of their choosing, and the enforcement of existing state and federal laws.

The Massacre took place on Orthodox Easter, with the militia firing on striking worker camps with a machine gun. Women and children were attacked in an underground shelter with a fire set by the militia. While the United Mine Workers failed to obtain official recognition, the Massacre led to sweeping labor law reforms both in the United States and Canada. A monument erected by the United Mine Workers sits on the land once occupied by the striking workers’ tent camp.

The Militia Act of 1903 and the Modernization of the Militia

The Militia Act of 1903 was the most sweeping reorganization of the militia before the formation of the modern National Guard. Prior to the enactment of the Militia Act of 1903, the militias were governed both by the Constitution and the Militia Acts of 1792. The latter simply enabled the president to call out and command militias when appropriate and set the parameters for what constituted the militia. It left the question of state versus federal control of militias unresolved.

While the militia as a national defense had been problematic since the days of the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War demonstrated that the militia system in the United States was badly in need of reform from the standpoint of Federal control. The Militia Act of 1903 repealed the Militia Acts of 1792. It was this new Act which separated the militia, (unconstitutionally), into the organized and unorganized components. It also created the National Guard, an organization separate from both the organized militia and the National Guard of the United States, but with significant overlap with each. It has been argued that one of the issues driving the adoption of the Militia Act of 1903 was further disarmament of black Americans, particularly in the South during what is considered to be the nadir of race relations in the United States.

Left without much recourse in the way of self defense, the more militant members of the Civil Rights Movement began organizing what were effectively militias under the auspices of the National Rifle Association.