Trip,
sometimes you make me just go ....HUH? Let me break it down to 3rd grade level and see if you can get it a third time.
She said in its entirety """I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us 'having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,' and the people -- we the people -- are going to have to fight back hard if we're not going to lose our country." -Rep. Rep. Michele Bachmann, March 2009""
Michele Bachman made a complex statement using 7 indicators:
1) She employs the people of Minnesota-
2) She demands that those people become ARMED and DANGEROUS
3) She uses the energy tax as the reason for 1 and 2
4) She misquotes Thomas Jefferson to validate 1,2 & 3
5) She repeats the employing of the people
6) She uses the term FIGHT BACK HARD
7) She purports that they are going to lose their country.
Now, she asks the people of minnesota to take up arms ( GUNS ) and then become Dangerous. This kind of rhetoric is dangerous and supports violence versus democracy which is what the founding fathers intended. This is an OPPOSITE position to the founding fathers. The founders were against the british empire and took up arms to break free of the king. The founders did not want to take up arms against each other for disagreements in politics.
She was addressing the "energy tax" or cap and trade as its referred to. She uses violent rhetoric to motivate her listeners as that seems to be the single largest hot button for right wing supporters.
To sustain her positions, she MIS QUOTES ( as i demonstrated ) Thomas Jefferson by replacing the word REBELLION with the word REVOLUTION.
Rebellion: Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state. On the one hand the forms of behaviour can include non-violent methods such as the (overlapping but not quite identical) phenomena of civil disobedience, civil resistance and nonviolent resistance.
Revolution:
A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turn around") is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. Its use to refer to political change dates from the scientific revolution occasioned by Copernicus' famous De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.[SUP][1][/SUP][SUP][a][/SUP] Aristotle described two types of political revolution:
- Complete change from one constitution to another
- Modification of an existing constitution.
TRIP, I dont believe Thomas Jefferson was talking about replacing the constitution or modifying the constitution they just created. In his letter, Jefferson was talking about farmers and their disatisfaction with policies, but through negotiations a solution would be found. At no time, did Jefferson suggest that those farmers become ARMED and DANGEROUS in order to effect change.
It may only sound like a word to you, but they have meanings. Each meaning is different and carries different weight.
An example ( and its only an example for demonstration ) could be if I called you a maroon versus calling you uninformed. One carries more weight than the other.
The problem with the Tea Party is that they are all preaching this violent rhetoric using metaphors for guns and the founding fathers in the same sentences.
Guns, Gods and Gimmicks or the 3 G's are the battlecry for Tea Party followers.
If you mention any one of these things, the tea party faithful will hang on every word.
Peace.
