It is a reflection of these volatile times that the Supreme Court's First Amendment ruling in Brandenburg v. Ohio echoes in the back of my mind whenever I sit down to write.  In that case, the Court defended inflammatory speech from government punishment unless it is "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."  How the government defines "lawless action," though, is quickly changing.  Just being a concerned parent opposed to a school board's sexualized curriculum can make an otherwise law-abiding American a potential "domestic terrorist" in the eyes of the FBI. 

Today, the federal Leviathan is neck-deep in the ugly business of propaganda and censorship.  It persecutes J6 election protesters for their political beliefs.  It seeks to imprison President Trump for the "crime" of having delivered a political speech.  Congress engages in Soviet show trials devoid of due process or exculpatory defense but rife with unsupported accusation and criminal innuendo.  The Department of (in)Justice and the Fascist Bureau of Intimidation maliciously prosecute Americans for merely opposing government policies.  As part of the expanding system of two-tiered "justice," leftist violence is regularly defended as "free speech," while speech articulated against leftism is illogically denounced as "violence."  Unapproved dissent is labeled "disinformation."  Unapproved religious faiths or family values are condemned for promoting "hate."  Unapproved ideas, debates, and political movements are expunged from the internet. 

The "War on Free Speech" is raging, and I would not be surprised to find the "thought police" one day knocking on my door simply because I have offended the delicate sensibilities of the all-powerful State.  So, to the extent that anything I write might be construed as encouraging "lawless action," for the sake of my future defense, at least don't act "imminently" after reading this!  Let's not make it too easy for the Black Robes to hang me, okay?  

That said, I really don't see how the federal government, as currently constituted, can continue much longer.

Its authority is now sustained through no-knock raids, mass surveillance, financial coercion, ideological targeting, the designation of law-abiding citizens as "domestic terrorists," and thinly veiled threats to use military hardware to quell potential public unrest.  The federal government is a lawless thug that has dispensed with the pretense of abiding by the U.S. Constitution's constraints.  Spying on Americans without warrants or probable cause?  Check.  Infringing on Americans' First Amendment rights to say what they want, pray as they wish, assemble as they see fit, and petition their government for redress of grievances whenever they deem doing so necessary?  Check.  Infringing on Americans' Second Amendment right to defend themselves from government tyranny?  Check. 

The Bill of Rights is not an à la carte menu from which the government may pick and choose whether a right will be respected or ignored.  Our constitutional rights are a small subset of a greater body of natural rights that belong to each individual and can never be forsaken or diluted by any entity falsely claiming the authority to do so.  With provocative deliberateness that will surely sabotage long-term civic peace, the federal government has entirely repudiated both America's founding principles and its founding document.  It is in breach of the only contract that binds the American people to their constitutional system.  Consequently, the federal government now governs through fear and force alone.

As Ayn Rand incisively wrote, "[t]here are two potential violators of man's rights: the criminals and the government.  The great achievement of the United States was to draw a distinction between these two — by forbidding to the second the legalized version of the activities of the first."  That truth no longer holds precisely because the governing class and the criminal class are now one and the same.  Narco-terrorists and sex slave–traffickers wouldn't have a profitable business model, after all, if the federal government were not complicit in protecting their evil trade across our borders.

At this stage in our society's collapse, no rational person should have any illusion that we can simply vote our way out of such entrenched bureaucratic tyranny.  Americans tried to do so in 2016 with the election of President Trump, and the whole apparatus of the Deep State machine has been undermining that vote ever since.  The Intelligence Community helped frame Trump as a Russian spy.  The Department of (in)Justice has dedicated itself to his harassment and constant investigation.  The rabidly leftist government workforce countermanded his lawful executive orders while unlawfully leaking slanted information intended to embarrass him personally and weaken his presidency.  State election laws were thrown out the window in 2020, so that the Uniparty could flood battleground states with fraudulent mail-in-ballots that made the habitually unpopular Joe Biden the most popularly "elected" president in American history.  

What little remains of the criminal justice system's reputation for fairness and impartiality has been jettisoned, so that political partisans posing as prosecutors can railroad Trump with ludicrous criminal charges that would be laughable if they were not so serious — all to ensure that the American voters never get their say and to imprison President Trump for the rest of his life.  He's been indicted for possessing documents (most likely implicating the FBI and others in the Russia Hoax) that he was constitutionally empowered to possess, while Joe Biden has gotten a pass for illegally retaining classified documents for decades.  Trump's been indicted for trying to investigate election fraud in Georgia.  He's been indicted for delivering a political speech and encouraging Americans to peacefully assemble to petition their government for free and fair elections.  And he's been indicted because the State of New York insists that payments intended to settle private legal matters should be reimbursed as campaign expenses — if those expenses can be used to embarrass Donald Trump!  

With no consideration for the Constitution's prohibition against bills of attainder and ex post facto laws, New York rewrote its statute of limitations governing a subset of defamation actions specifically so that a claimant could sue Trump.  Then, just to put the cherry on top of New York's totalitarian ice cream sundae, another partisan judge ruled — without a trial or jury — that the Trumps must cease all business operations in the state.  To be sure, this Soviet-style persecution says one thing to Americans: do what we say or suffer the consequences.

Well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.  The "New Rules for Radicals" require that Uniparty-aligned politicians, bureaucrats, and businesses receive reciprocal treatment.  If state officials refuse to balance the scales, then Americans will have to up the ante on their own.

As Hokkoda concludes over at The Conservative Treehouse, "[y]ou battle a corrupt system by withdrawing your consent. ... Imagine 100,000,000 people refusing to participate in elections or show up for jury duty, or pulling all their money out of banks and 401Ks. ... The worst thing that can happen to the status quo is for people to switch off. ... This whole charade depends on people — us — to participate in it."

Americans must be brave and reclaim their lost liberties.  What does this mean precisely?  Well, with Brandenburg as my guide, I will quote a smart commenter, IYAS9YAS, from the Free Republic: "There are two kinds of people: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data."

Lastly, allow me to highlight some sage advice from American Thinker's Fred Kremer, who wrote recently: "What we may have forgotten is that there is joy and meaning, not in safety, nor security, but in facing what is not safe.  In entering, deliberately, the danger zone.  And never letting the danger zone shrink.  Drive fast and take chances.  That is where life is."

I could not agree more.

Furthermore, I consider that Marxist globalism must be destroyed.

Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).