Day by day the protests of the 60's and 70's seem much more relevant and germane. I know that my conservative friends have been brainwashed into thinking that all of the uproar in that era was orchestrated by the likes of the Chicago Seven, who later turned out to be Marxists. But in reality what happened was that the Marxists and Communists usurped the rebellions of that time.
Most of the young people who were tuned in to Crosby, Stills and Nash and listening to protest songs heard a call for freedom, less government restrictions and more of the idyllic life they had known in the 50's than hearing a call for socializing America.
True, some who tripped on LSD and went crazy over the total "tune in, turn on, drop out" mentality found a way to jump ship and ran off to communes and became more isolated, but to many of the now 50 and 60 year old Americans who lived in that day, the real thrust of the uproar was a patriotic sense that the federal government needed to leave people alone.
That sense of things has a long history. And an important point one will learn from that history is embodied in the "Posse Comitatus Act" of 1878.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. ยง 1385) passed on June 18, 1878, after the end of Reconstruction, with the intention (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807) of substantially limiting the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (today the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) within the United States.
The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Act during peacetime. [Wikipedia]
Now, however, the Pentagon is seeking Congressional approval for increased control over the National Guard in times of declared emergency. That control now belongs to governors.
In response a bi-partisan group of governors are objecting to this federal take-over.
Now I'm sure their objections are more in line with the "sovereignty" issue being raised by many states, but play this out a bit.
I have suggested on more than one occasion that the folks who put Obama in office want civil unrest. Out of that "crisis" they see "opportunity" for increasing government control. Don't forget, Obama sees himself as Lincoln, who used the federal military against his own citizens for the high purpose of saving the Union.
In a period of substantial unrest, if the President declares an emergency, he may also declare Martial Law. But the "Posse Comitatus Act" provides a bit of a problem. This move by the Pentagon could be the first step in removing that problem, usurping the powers now belonging to the states and moving the ball a little further down the field for the power grabbers behind Barry O.
This may be the last hurrah for the aging group of 60's and 70's kids who knew what life was like in the 50's, who were nurtured by the heroes of World War II and who lived to see the National Guard turn its guns on college students at Kent State.
And for the conservatives in that group, don't fear the stigma. Standing up for liberty has not yet gone out of vogue in this nation. You are getting older, it may be time to teach our children well.
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