CNN again misses the point

In an article written by Carl T. Bogus, a professor of law at Roger William University School of Law and author of a forthcoming book, the claim is made that:

“There's no right of revolution in a democracy”

Professor Bogus first recites the Second Amendment then goes on to say that the militia was for the purpose of securing the nation and protecting its government.  He makes the claim that in the Constitution there is no right of the people to overthrow the government and that several revolts were put down in the early history of our Nation.

What he is choosing to ignore is that while the Constitution is the owners’ manual of our nation and the foundation upon which our system of laws is built, the Title Deed to our Nation is the Declaration of Independence.  In the Declaration we read:

“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. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” – emphasis added

Professor Bogus, you are wrong.  “It IS the right of the people” to revolt, even in a democracy. 

Another point where you are flat wrong, Professor Bogus, is that The United States of America IS NOT A DEMOCRACY.  It is a Constitutional Republic!

Revolution is not a thing to be bandied about lightly.  Those who signed the Declaration knew that.  Continuing from the Declaration itself we read:

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” – emphasis added

It is not only our right, it is in fact our DUTY.

You talk with disdain of those who espouse the revolutionary ideals of our Founding Fathers as if the idea was to throw off the Constitution.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  It is the firm desire and indeed the intent of people who, like me, fly a Gadsden flag or a Betsy Ross or any of the other flags of the Revolutionary War in front of our homes, to remind the government that it must honor our Constitution and operate within the constraints put upon it by the Constitution!  It is the government that has chosen to ignore the Constitution and to behave as if there were no constraints put upon it at all.  THAT is something worthy of the ire of We the People!  And that is the grievance for which we seek redress.

It is through the ballot box and through the pages of these blogs and letters to the editors of our Nations news papers and by our presence at our local town meetings and by other peaceful means that we seek to remind our government of these facts.

However, the government, and We the People must remember that it is both the right of the people and indeed it is their – no! – Our duty to remove any government, regardless of what political theory may be basis of its organization, if it should become “destructive of these ends.”

Indeed, were not for ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms’ as enshrined within our Constitution as the operative clause of the Second Amendment (see the Supreme Court ruling in the case District of Columbia v. Heller for further explanation of what the Second Amendment really means) we would not today have any of the other rights that we, as Citizens, continue to enjoy.

And, yes, should our government choose to behave in a manor that can only be described as tyranny towards our fellow citizens and should there be no peaceful manor with which to remedy so great a grievance, then We the People will have no choice but to remove it – by force of arms if necessary.

It is my fervent prayer that it never should come to that!