Asked what sort of government the Continental assembly had given the people, Benjamin Franklin smiled at the woman who had stopped him, and said, "A Republic, Ma'am. If you can keep it."
Now, roughly 230 years later, the tenuous nature of that gift seems as apparent as ever.
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| Congressman Higgins |
Less than 90 years after the United States were formed into a fractious whole, a Civil War was required to keep it together, as the second American revolution established the principle that if you wanted to be a member of the club, you had to abide by certain rules which applied to all members, and that once you'd joined, you could not leave.
That second part may seem almost Mafia like, but it was a simple acknowledgement of the problem of knowing the will of the people. Less than 5% of people in the South owned any significant number of slaves, but the power of a small minority was able to whip up secession fever, and Lincoln was probably correct in asserting that the Southern aristocracy had established a mind control over the population to act against its own best interest.
If ever there was a fantasist's delusion, the delusion of fighting for Tara and the wonderful cause of plantation life, of defending those 19th century concentration camps, was it.
Today, from the Neverneverland of fantasy and conspiracy, located mainly in the old Confederacy and its diaspora in the Mountain West, we have that emergence of the "stab in the back" theory, alive and well in the form of the revisionist history patriots, among them Clay Higgins from Louisiana. Mr. Higgins is trying to tell us that January 6th, like the attacks on 9/11, were an inside job, carried out by the Democrats and their federal government provocateurs. (And if you want to see it, you can review the documents held at Area 54, along with those space aliens the government doesn't want you to know about.)
Representative Higgins has "mounds of evidence" those brave patriots did not storm the Capitol, but merely marched to it to peacefully protest a stolen election, and were the victims, not the malefactors.
Relishing the spotlight, the Louisiana Republican, presents "indisputable, convincing" evidence (having done "my own research") that it was actually FBI agents in "ghost buses" who drove the attack on the Capitol, which was actually a crowd of everyday tourists, until the FBI agents started their "nefarious" actions. (Mr. Clay was clearly very proud of using such a 50 cent word as "nefarious" as it established his intellectual credentials.)
And everyone in law enforcement obviously knows all about "ghost buses" which are directed like drones using Soros space lasers from a basement in a secret pizza pallor in Washington, DC. Or maybe San Francisco. Or Portland, Oregon.
But, whatever you think of the volumes of rock solid "evidence" assembled by Mr. Clay and his staff, his merry band of freedom warriors, you can plainly see he represents his constituents, just as clearly as Marjorie Taylor Green, Jim Jordan and Lauren Boebert represent their voters.
Nobody doubts those representatives represent their constituents, as the result of free and fair elections.
And that is the problem Benjamin Franklin foresaw.
Our Republic can only last as long as there are enough aroused voters to vote down those molded out of the same Clay as Higgins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OvB9kvLR7c
Wouldn't you have just loved it if the FBI man, Christopher Wray, had the presence of mind to lean forward and whisper into the microphone, "Well, actually, Mr. Higgins, we might just have to look into space laser driven Ghost Buses filled with space aliens from Area 54."
"Ghost Buses In The Sky," is already playing on radio stations in Louisiana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LtmZM0OWO8
