When to Start Killing

Unlike most respondents to this Substack post, which you've probably all read before now, I don't have a problem with it in principle. America was founded by revolutionary violence, and the logic of the Declaration of Independence is eternal. It is not madness to ask when it might be time to do what Washington himself did. The current administration is in fact destroying a lot of the government, which is what I like about it but is definitely offensive to those for whom that bureaucracy represents a set of desired goods. 

Given the intense feelings on the left against the Trump administration it is probably healthy for them to have a conversation about what their terms are. I don't think it's unreasonable at all for them to discuss where they draw the line. 

And when is that time? Your threshold may differ from mine, but you must have one. If the present administration should cancel elections; if it should engage in fraud in the electoral process; if it should suppress the speech of its opponents, and jail its political adversaries; if it ignores the will of Congress; if it should directly spurn the orders of the court; all these are reasons for revolution. It may be best to stave off, and wait for elections to throw out this scourge; but if it should threaten the ability to remove it, we shall have no choice. 

That's actually pretty close to what Jefferson wrote.

...that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends [of securing the natural rights of the people], 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. 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. 

Some of the terms show a lack of understanding of the present moment: censorship of political opponents justifies a revolution, like what the Biden administration did so emphatically using cut-outs with NGOs, academia, and foreign governments? Fraud in the electoral process, like in 2020? Jailing political adversaries, like the current President who was hit with 34 'felonies' based on paperwork errors or his supporters who protested excessively on that infamous January 6th? Ignores the will of Congress, like the Biden ATF that decided it could just issue 'final rules' that rewrote gun control laws without Congressional input? 

This is typical, however: it is similar to how college-educated conservatives understand the liberal position quite well, since all their educators explained it to them at length, but the liberals often don't have any visibility on right-wing arguments at all. It reminds me especially of the Gay Marriage debate before SCOTUS, in which the position of Justice Kennedy was that it just wasn't possible to have a rational argument opposing gay marriage -- even though Immanuel Kant, that most reason-oriented of philosophers, had constructed one in his Metaphysics of Morals. You don't have to agree with it; I don't agree with it. To say it wasn't possible to construct one is just ignorance. I imagine here too this young man doesn't know what he doesn't know. 

Some of his terms are reasonable, though. I would expect a reaction perhaps to include revolutionary violence if the President were to cancel the elections and attempt to stay in office past his term. I trust that won't happen, but if it did happen I could definitely understand taking up arms.